The teenage years are busy times, with high school, career and education choices, and the coveted freedom of getting a driver’s licence. Very few teens, however, are worried about the fate of the free world and even fewer would willingly risk their lives to defend it.

Yet that’s exactly the situation Frank Zeller was in when he decided to lie to recruiters and enlist in the Regina Rifle Regiment in 1943. He was 17.

“You look back and you see these guys that went into the Army, and it’s just remarkable,” says Warren Zeller, Frank’s son.

Born in 1926 in Quinton, Sask., Frank served with his regiment in England, Normandy and Holland. Across the pond, other detachments nicknamed the Regina Rifles the “Farmer Johns” due to the number of farmers in the regiment.

Warren says Frank kept most of his experiences private.

“He did talk a lot about the kids in England and Holland quite a bit,” Warren says. “He and the other soldiers would walk past the kids and buy little chocolate bars for them. My father always said he wanted to go back and try to find some of those kids, though he never made it back.”

Honourably discharged at the end of the war in 1945, Frank returned to Saskatchewan, where he married and eventually made his way west to work at the Burmis County sawmill and logging operation. For years, Frank worked at the camp, driving log hauling trucks until eventually shifting gears to driving bus for local coal mines and schools.

Through it all, Frank was proud of his military service.

“Remembrance Day was sort of the No. 1 thing on the list,” Warren relates. “He was involved every year. It was always a day of remembrance and a celebration that we’re free because of the gentlemen and women who served.”

Frank passed away last October, at age 98. He was the last veteran from the Second World War belonging to the Bellevue Legion.

“He’s always placed a wreath at the cenotaph every year. In his memory we’ll continue that,” Warren says.

Remembering his dad, he adds, goes beyond the years he spent overseas.

“The job he had was difficult at times, and Mom had her hands full with six kids. He was always working hard to put food on the table and spoiling us a little bit whenever he could,” Warren recalls.

“As you get older, I think about the importance of the sacrifices he made and all the other people who served our country.”

Read the complete 2025 Shootin’ the Breeze Remembrance Day Feature