Frank Martene Madalena was born in Sonoma County, California, on the 28th of September, 1893. At an early age he moved with his parents to Napa County in the same State, where he was raised and where he obtained his education in country schools. He was a husky lad, so when he had reached the sixth grade, he quit school to help his parents on the farm. Farming held him until the year 1914 when he was given a position on the California State Highway, then being constructed in Napa County. In February, 1915, he went to work for the Napa Brewery, continuing in their employ until June of the following year. In the meantime his father had moved to Lyon County, Nevada, and purchased a ranch. Unable to do all his own work, he sent for his son Frank who quit his position in California and moved to his father’s ranch in Nevada.

On the 6th of October, 1917, he entered the service with a contingent from Fernley, Lyon County. He was assigned to the 348th Field Artillery at Camp Lewis, Washington. Until March, 1918, he remained in training at the camp, but during that month he was transferred to Replacement Draft and sent to Camp Merritt, New Jersey. From there he went overseas on the 15th of the month. In July, 1918, he was on the front with Company A, 7th Infantry, of the 3d Division, and from that time on, saw some of the hardest fighting of the war. The 3d Division stopped the rush of Germans on the Marne not far from Chateau Thierry (between Fossoy and Crezancy) on July 15th, in one of the most remarkable defenses of all the campaigns; on July 18th they “crossed the Marne and took the heights of Mont St. Pere and the villages of Charteves and Jaulgonne”; they attacked steadily until the 30th of July when they were relieved by the 32d Division after reaching Roncheres Wood; they entered the Meuse-Argonne offensive on September 30th, relieving the 79th west of Nantillois, and by October 18th they were on the heights above the Meuse in a position northeast of Cunel. It was on that day (October 18th, 1918) that Frank Madalena fell in battle. At first he was reported “Missing in Action,” but it was later discovered that he was killed on the field that day. His father, John Madalena, of Fernley, Nevada, survives him.