For as long as Bob Tyndall can remember, an engraved silver bowl sat in the center of the dining room table of his childhood home, commemorating the commissioning of the U.S.S. Frament, a naval destroyer. Later, as an adult, Tyndall displayed it wherever he lived.
Elegant and understated, that bowl held a story, one that ensured Tyndall’s heroic great uncle would live on in his family’s memory. The name engraved on it is “Mrs. Edward A. Frament,” Tyndall’s great grandmother, who on June 28, 1943, broke a bottle of champagne over the bow of the ship, named after her son, ACPHS alum Paul Stanley Frament – or, as Tyndall refers to him, Uncle Stanley.
Posthumous recipient of Silver Star and Purple Heart medals for risking his life to aid others on the battlefield, Paul Stanley Frament ’39 is among the highest decorated pharmacists to serve in the U.S. Navy, according to pharmacy historian Dr. Dennis Worthen. As of this month, that silver bowl and other artifacts documenting his heroism will be housed at ACPHS, a gift of Tyndall and the Frament family. Other items bestowed to the College include the medals themselves and letters or proclamations from President Franklin D. Roosevelt, Secretary of the Navy Frank Knox and Admiral W.F. Halsey.
“His passion was pharmacy, I believe, and I want the items to be somewhere where students and other people can see some of the heroes that came from that profession,” Tyndall said from his home in Ohio.
A hero Frament undoubtedly was.
A native of Cohoes, he lived at home while attending Albany College of Pharmacy and commuted by streetcar. According to the 1939 Alembic Pharmakon yearbook, he played handball and ping pong.
Two and a half years after his graduation, on Dec. 7, 1941, the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor. The next month, Frament reported for training as a pharmacist’s mate in the U.S. Navy. He was posted to the First Marine Division being organized to invade the Solomon Islands.
According to the proclamation by Admiral Halsey, Frament’s battalion was engaged in an offensive action on Nov. 3, 1942. During the fighting, as Japanese snipers shot at him, Frament rushed to a Marine and tended his wounds. Later, he ignored mortar fire to help other wounded men, resulting in his being knocked unconscious by an explosion. He was evacuated to a field hospital but secured his release the next day and voluntarily returned to his unit. He was again exposed to artillery fire while tending to wounded men on Nov. 10, and was eventually removed from the battlefield due to exhaustion. Two days later, he was wounded by naval gunfire. He died from those wounds on Nov. 19, 1942, at 23 years old.
The proclamations from U.S. Navy Secretary Knox and Admiral Halsey noted Frament’s “gallantry and intrepidity” during action against enemy forces.
The family – many of whom are engaged in work as first responders in the Albany area – have been looking for a safe and proper place for his artifacts to be kept, especially, as Tyndall noted, those who remember his great uncle are growing older. Tyndall considered the U.S.S. Slater, a museum ship that is docked in Albany and a destroyer, like the U.S.S. Frament.
But ultimately, he wanted to honor his great uncle’s profession.
“I felt first and foremost that Uncle Stanley was a pharmacist, who felt the need to give of himself because of Pearl Harbor,” Tyndall said.