Francis X. Egan was born on November 11, 1946 in Forest Hills, Queens County, 
New York City. He was the youngest of four children born to an Irish immigrant father and an American mother.

Frank attended Brooklyn Preparatory High School (Brooklyn, New York) and Marist College (Poughkeepsie, New York). At Marist, he was a four year member of the crew team and was selected captain of the varsity team in his senior year. At graduation in 1968, he received a B.A. degree in biology.

Frank enlisted in the United States Air Force and qualified for Officer Candidate School. After completing OCS, he attended pilot training and, upon earning his wings, was assigned as a forward air controller to the 20th TASS, 6498th Air Base Wing, 7th Air Force.

In January of 1972, Frank received orders to serve a tour of duty in Vietnam. As a forward air controller, he flew low over the battlefield in a slow propeller driven aircraft directing jet fighters in support of infantry units on the ground. On December 19, 1972, he was assigned to fly an FAC mission in the vicinity of Quang Tri City in the Quang Nam Province of South Vietnam. During the mission his plane was hit by a
surface-to-air missile. Frank’s observer successfully ejected from the plane, evaded capture and was rescued. Frank’s ejection system, however, failed. The plane crashed and he was killed upon impact. Frank’s body was later recovered by a US ground team.

Frank was a man of honor and held himself to the highest moral standards. He had deep seated religious convictions and had a great love for his country. 

A framed copy of the following quote by John Stuart Mills, a nineteenth century 
British economist and philosopher, hung on the hallway wall in the house that Frank grew up in. He saw it every day as he went in and out of the house. It came to be an integral component of his philosophy of life.

War is an ugly thing,
but not the ugliest of things;
The decayed and degraded state of moral and patriotic feeling
which thinks that nothing is worth war is much worse.
A man who has nothing for which he is willing to fight;
nothing he cares about more than his personal safety;
is a miserable creature who has no chance of being free,
unless made and kept so by the exertions of better men than himself.