Former Westlake High grad killed in Afghanistan

JANN HENDRY/Acorn Newspapers FAREWELL—A sign is placed on the freeway overpass at Lakeview Canyon to salute "Touchdown" Frankie Toner, a former Westlake High School football player who was shot in Afghanistan. A Navy lieutenant with a kind heart and a love for the people of Afghanistan was shot and killed on March 27 while protecting his friends from an Afghan insurgent.

Frankie Toner, 26, grew up in Thousand Oaks, graduated from Westlake High School in 2001, where he was the homecoming king, and went to the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy in Long Island, N.Y., on a scholarship.

When he graduated from the academy in 2006, he joined the Navy. He'd been in Afghanistan for five months and was scheduled to come home on leave yesterday, his aunt, Linda Moosekian of Newbury Park, said.

"He would call home all the time, and we'd ask if he needed anything—Chapstick or other things—or we'd ask him if he was hot or cold. He'd say to send children's-size socks or coloring books—never anything for himself. He just thought about other people," she said. "He and his wife were of the Mormon faith. They were well-founded in faith."

Lt. Frank Toner He loved the Afghan people, his aunt said.

"He believed in the people and the process. He was there to help them. They killed the wrong guy," Moosekian said.

After promising she wasn't saying this because she was his godmother or had any other bias, Moosekian said Toner was the kind of young man mothers wish their sons could grow up and be like.

"It doesn't make sense that he would die," she said.

Toner was off duty jogging with some friends on base when an Afghan insurgent disguised as an Afghan soldier began firing on them. Toner was trailing behind because he was wearing body armor that slowed him down, but when the shooting started, the former WHS state championship fullback ran up and tried to tackle the insurgent. That's when Toner was shot, Moosekian said.

Toner will be buried at Arlington National Cemetery. He is survived by his wife, Brooke; his father and stepmother, Frank and Sharon Toner; his mother, Becky Toner; his sister, Amanda, 24; and his brothers, Michael, 26, and John, 9.

A facebook.com page titled "Never Forget Francis L. Toner IV" has been set up to honor him. A week after the memorial at Arlington, another memorial will be held at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints stake center on Erbes Road. A memorial fund is being set up at the Bank of America, Moosekian said.