His awards included the Army Distinguished Service Medal, Legion of Honor (Officer) (France), Croix de Guerre with palm (Belgium), Order of Polonia Restituta (Commander), Order of the Crown of Romania (Grand Officer), and New York State Conspicuous Service Medal.

[4] Ward was sent to Texas in advance of the division's main body, and planned and organized administrative and logistics details including bivouac sites and food and water.

[4] The paper was published in Mission, Texas, and by using professional journalists assigned to the division to produce high-quality stories, the Rattler developed a large subscriber base both in the Lower Rio Grande Valley and in New York state.

[4] When the 27th Division was ordered to federal service for World War I, Ward as assigned as its adjutant and acting chief of staff during organization and training at Camp Wadsworth, South Carolina.

[9] The 27th Division was then withdrawn from the front and assigned to a rear area base for reorganization and re-equipping, and it remained there until the Armistice of November 11, 1918 ended the war.

[9] Ward's decorations included the Army Distinguished Service Medal, Officer of the Legion of Honor (France), Croix de Guerre with palm (Belgium), Commander of the Polish Order of Polonia Restituta, Grand Officer of the Order of the Crown of Romania, and New York State Conspicuous Service Medal.

[8] Ward was co-author (with Frank T. Hines) of 1910's The Service of Coast Artillery, a textbook for the employment of heavy seacoast guns that was adopted by the War Department for army-wide use.

[13] The President of the United States of America, authorized by Act of Congress, July 9, 1918, takes pleasure in presenting the Army Distinguished Service Medal to Colonel (Infantry) Franklin W. Ward, United States Army, for exceptionally meritorious and distinguished services to the Government of the United States, in a duty of great responsibility during World War I, as Division Adjutant and Acting Chief of Staff of the 27th Division and as Commanding Officer of the 106th Infantry.

As Commanding Officer, 106th Infantry, Colonel Ward's personal courage, determination, and thoroughness in the handling of his regiment under heavy fire during the battle of the LeSelle River in the Somme offensive of October 1918, were conspicuous.