Frank Faudem (right) and Sheldon Harris during their workout with the Yankees in 1940.	Frank Faudem (right) with his father.

The Tigers assigned Faudem to the Muskegon Reds of the Class C Michigan State League for 1941, and the club began spring training in Fulton, Kentucky, on April 6. When Muskegon headed north for the start of the regular season, Faudem remained in Fulton to play with the Fulton Tigers of the Class D Kitty League.

As his hero, Hank Greenberg, left the Detroit Tigers for Army service at Fort Custer, Michigan, Faudem began an outstanding rookie campaign. Despite being one of the shortest players in the league at 5-foot-7, he hit .321 with 68 RBIs, 81 runs scored and 15 stolen bases in 118 games. Fulton is a town on the Kentucky/Tennessee border and had a population of 5,000 in 1941. Known as the “Banana Capital of the World,” because 70 per cent of imported bananas to the United States were shipped there, the Fulton townsfolk loved their Tigers and Faudem quickly became a favorite, regularly stealing headlines for his hitting and dazzling defensive work in centerfield. “Frank Faudem was the outstanding star in Saturday night’s victory over Mayfield, with two catches which fans hardly believed possible,” boasted the Fulton Sentinel in July 1941, “and also came through with a two run single when the tallies were badly needed.” The following day he was in the news again, helping Fulton to a 5–2 win over Mayfield. “Frank Faudem supplied the crowning touch with a 347 foot home run over the right field wall with one aboard.”

Throughout his baseball career, Faudem’s biggest fan was his father, Solomon, who did not miss a single game his son played in high school. But in the spring of 1942, shortly before the baseball season began, Solomon became seriously ill at the family home in Detroit. Frank was due back in Fulton, 600 miles away, and was reluctant to leave his father, but after talking it over, it was agreed he should play. It was what his father wanted.

The summer months of that year were extremely difficult for the 20-year-old. “He has played just as hard and just as brilliantly,” noted the Fulton News, “but there has been lacking that sense of joy that he radiated last year. Last year he was always playing with his mates; always ready and eager for a jest; this year he has been strangely reserved and a little distant in his manner.”

On June 18, 1942, Solomon Faudem died, and the following day the Kitty League — considered one of the strongest Class D circuits—disbanded as Hopkinsville and Union City succumbed to wartime restrictions and poor attendance. Fulton had one of its best teams in many years and finished first in the shortened season with Faudem batting .321 and having clouted eight home runs over 40 games. He immediately returned home to attend his father’s funeral before being assigned to the Winston-Salem Twins of the Class B Piedmont League for the remainder of the year.

The Twins line-up featured former Detroit sandlotters Johnny McHale (who joined the Tigers in 1943), Ted Gray (who made it to the Tigers in 1946), Johnny Radulovich, Dave “Butch” Derrick and Joe Moceri (who was killed in action in France in June 1944). Faudem played 68 games with the Twins and batted .260 with 18 RBIs.

On October 24, 1942, his contract was assigned to the Beaumont Exporters of the Class A1 Texas League. He was following in Hank Greenberg’s footsteps. Greenberg had played with Beaumont in 1932 and hit 39 home runs. But Faudem was unable to report. Again, echoing the path of his hero, Faudem was called to military service on January 18, 1943, and inducted into the Army at Fort Custer, Michigan.

Faudem was assigned to Company B, 305th Infantry Regiment, 77th “Statue of Liberty” Infantry Division, and on March 24, 1944, the division left Camp Stoneman, California, bound for Hawaii, where they trained in amphibious landings and jungle warfare. While there, Faudem played baseball for the Army team near Honolulu, against future baseball Hall of Famers Joe DiMaggio, Johnny Mize and Pee Wee Reese.

The 77th Infantry Division left Hawaii on July 1, 1944, and on July 21 made an assault landing on Guam. After taking over defense of the beachhead, the division drove north on the island, until Japanese resistance ended on August 8. On September 17, 1944, Faudem’s celebration of Rosh Hashanah on Guam began an endearing friendship with fellow Detroiter Benno Levi, who was serving with Company A. Faudem and Levi had lived in the same neighborhood but had never met before. For the rest of their time on Guam they would get together and scour the pages of the Jewish News for articles about their friends, reminisce about the past and daydream about the future. On the second day of Rosh Hashanah, Faudem and Levi attended evening services, but got hungry beforehand and Faudem suggested they eat at the division headquarters kitchen where Major General A. D. Bruce (commander of the 77th Infantry Division) enjoyed his meals. “Frank got into a conversation with the mess sergeant,” Levi recalled. “Then presto, before you knew it, we were having General Bruce’s supper.”

On November 2, 1944, the 77th Infantry Division left Guam as part of a convoy bound for a period of rest and rehabilitation at New Caledonia. They were aboard the destroyer USS Ward (DD-139), the ship that had fired the first shot of World War II when it detected and sank a Japanese midget submarine off Pearl Harbor on the morning of December 7, 1941. Nine days into the journey the entire convoy changed direction. Plans had been changed and the division was proceeding to Leyte, a province of the Philippines.

On December 7, the troops scrambled down cargo nets into assault boats and entered the battle with an amphibious landing behind enemy lines that enabled the capture of the port of Ormoc. Later that day the USS Ward was struck below the water line by a kamikaze attack. An explosion ripped through the troop compartment where, hours earlier, Faudem, Levi and many other men of the division had been. With uncontrollable fires, the Ward was abandoned and sunk by gunfire from another destroyer.

With the port of Ormoc secure, the 77th Infantry Division fought its way up the Ormoc Road to Valencia. Throughout that time, Faudem and Levi had not seen each other, but whenever they met anyone from each other’s respective companies, they would make enquiries. Both men were safe and well. On December 25, 1944, a second landing was made behind enemy lines with Palompon on the west coast as the objective — the last Japanese supply port on Leyte. There was little resistance as the enemy fled into the hills, allowing the Detroiters time to catch up. At the time, Faudem was anxiously awaiting news from his wife Lydia about the birth of their first child.