A sad day for the Navy

Ventura County Navy Lt. killed in Afghanistan
The Associated Press

VENTURA, Calif.—A 26-year-old Navy lieutenant from Ventura County was shot to death in Afghanistan just days before he was to return home to see his wife and relatives.

Francis L. Toner was killed Friday by an Afghan insurgent dressed as a soldier at a base in northern Afghanistan, the Department of Defense said Saturday. Toner, who was in Afghanistan for five months to train Afghan soldiers, was scheduled to come home Wednesday, his aunt Linda Moosekian said.

Moosekian said Toner, known by his friends as Frankie, enjoyed working with the Afghan soldiers and even tried to teach them how to play baseball. In one of his last e-mail messages to family, Toner appeared optimistic about the situation in Afghanistan.

"There are still hundreds of recruits for both the police and army, almost on a weekly basis," he wrote. "This shows the insurgents are not having as much impact on the local communities."
Toner attended Westlake High School where he played football. He decided to attend the Merchant Marine Academy in New York after being offered the chance to play for the academy's team, his high school football coach Jim Benkert said.

"He wanted to continue to play," Benkert said. "He was really proud to be a Merchant Marine and proud to be a warrior."

Although he attended the academy and served in the Navy as a garrison engineer, Toner was assigned to a blended military unit called Combined Security Transition Command-Afghanistan.

A fellow sailor, Navy nurse Florence B. Choe, 35, of El Cajon, was also killed in Friday's attack.

Toner requested to be buried at Arlington National Cemetery.