A native of Roswell, New Mexico, Frank was born during World War II while his father served in the US Army Air Forces. After his parents divorced, Frank's stepfather was Ollie Mullins, also a member of the Air Force. "Between my mother's marriage to those two gentlemen, I was basically an Air Force brat," he comments. He grew up at air bases in Texas and Las Vegas, and spent two years at a base near Madrid, Spain. Because of his gypsy military life he attended five high schools, finally graduating at Wichita Falls High School in 1960. There he lived with an aunt and worked his way through his last semester of high school and earned a scholarship to attend Texas A&M University. There he served in ROTC until his graduation in 1964. He became a reserve army officer so he could attend Baylor Law School, where he met Rebecca Alice Reed. They married on June 20, 1964, and would have three children: Lisa Lynn, Lee Reed, and Lauren Claire, and eight grandchildren. After completing law school in November of 1966, he entered service on January 1, 1967 and completed officer training at Fort Benning, Georgia, where he was promoted to first lieutenant. Then, at Fort Bliss in El Paso, Texas, he received orders for Vietnam. His first child was due on March 28, 1968, the day he deployed to Vietnam. He was sent to Phuoc Long for duty at a district intelligence operation-coordinating center where he became supply officer. He was then ordered to Gia Rai, a district intelligence operation center. As an intelligence officer he interviewed civilians to discern whether they were Viet Cong and discover other information. He worked closely with a Vietnamese district chief, Nguyen Van Quyet, who predicted that the two countries, North Vietnam and the Republic of South Vietnam, eventually would be one country. Every day he and Rebecca wrote each other. He also went on combat missions, working with local "friendlies" to ambush Viet Cong. "I was very fortunate to be under great commanders and serve under good Vietnamese leadership. And I got out in one piece. When it came time for me to go home I jumped on the first plane they gave me and I came home." Frank touched down at Dallas Love Field on Christmas Day of 1968. "That was the last time I was in uniform," he says. His largest problem in Vietnam was "long-term stress. You'd just get tired of seeing people getting shot," he recalls. Returning to civilian life, Frank worked for a trial firm in Dallas. Later, the family moved to Longview, Texas where his firm represented plaintiffs, mainly corporations and insurance companies.