2e502727-171b-49a9-91b2-16c979d4c11f

West, Fraser_WAPA-246_WAPA 4170_OralHist_Video.mp4

Fraser E. West was born March 1st, 1918, in Washington, DC and was raised in Reno, Nevada from 1926 on. He attended The University of Nevada with a Bachelor of Science in Agriculture, graduating in 1940. He turned down an appointment to go to West Point and enlisted in the Marine Corps in October of 1940. He became the first boy out of Nevada and the first Marine officer’s candidate class in World War II, under Colonel Shepard who later became the combat of the Marine Corps. The first Marine officer’s candidates’ class was an experimental unit for Marine officers and it was conducted at Quantico. There were over 500 in the class and they ended up 215 after a very physical boot camp. They practiced amphibious landings at Quantico, in the old Higgins boats. Fraser was into rodeoing growing up, and had very curled up toes from the small boots they wore in the rodeo. Because of this, the marching for 15 miles or so in boot camp gave him bloody feet and it took weeks to recover. He was also coached by a master gunner, Sergeant Peachy, a coordinates expert. They then went on to the reserves officer course; all made first commission officers in the US Marine Corps reserve. Just before that, he went skiing and broke his back. Because of this, Fraser was delayed so instead of going to the fourth ROC, went to the fifth ROC and came out as a second lieutenant. On December 7th, 1941 Fraser was at his uncle’s house in Washington DC. He heard on the radio about the bombing and immediately left to get back to Quantico. At that time he was still in a reserves officer’s class and then subsequent to that was ordered the FMF and reported to K35, Company K, 3rd Battalion, 5th Marines. And then subsequent to that, the 3rd Battalion, 7th Marines was the first ordered out from the west coast in World War II. They had the defense battalion on Samoa. But they didn’t have enough officers; so they transferred all the company officers from the 5th Marines over to the 7th Marines so they would have a full compliment going out. They landed first at Samoa and hung around there for a month in the harbor, marching all over the island. Then they were ordered to go over and take Wallace Island. That was supposedly the first combat landing in World War II. Their job there was to build a bomber strip there and Fraser’s job was to defend the airport with his weapons platoon. They were there about three months. Then they went over the bridge Samoa and we were there about 60 days before going to Guadalcanal. The whole regiment went to Guadalcanal. They had landed the 1st and 5th Marines there; the 7th Marines came in later. Fraser recalls that after landing, the first thing was that they got a naval bombardment, which he found to be the scariest thing he experienced in World War II. On Guadalcanal, they were short of rations because after the ships landed them, they had to pull way out because the Japanese had command of the waters. While there, they were put up on Bloody Ridge, the first infantry attack that Fraser participated in. When the attack came, Fraser was directed to fire his mortars. And finally he fired 100 rounds for effect and knowing they were short of ammunition, he hated to accept that order. Fraser describes what mortars are and how they are fired. Those second lieutenants, who were out early, were then promoted to Captain and Fraser turned down going back to the States twice and finally they said, you have to go, they need experienced officers and you are probably going to come out again. At this point Fraser went back and joined the 9th regiment with General Sheppard, he was now the commanding officer of the 9th Marine regiment. He trained the men in regimental weapons and then the General insisted on everybody going to scout sniper school. Fraser was sent to George Company, 2nd Battalion, 9th Marines and from there to New Zealand, then to Guadalcanal. In preparation for the landings in Guam, in Guadalcanal they made practice landings with the first LVTs, which did not have a ramp and they had to come over the sides. Then used the landing craft vehicle personnel boats, which had a ramp. When they got to Guam, they would offload off of the APAs, Fraser was on the President Jackson about seven times in World War II. When they landed, the procedure was to go down the landing nets, the cargo nets, get into a boat, you would rendezvous and then the tractors would pick you up, take you to shore and then they would make another trip back to pick up somebody else. The 3rd Battalion was first to shore. The officers had excellent maps; they knew what was to be expected. They knew Tumon Bay was probably more heavily defended, that’s why they didn’t land there and landed between Asan and Adelup Point. The objective was the forced beach headline, was going to go clear to join up with the 1st provisional brigade; they made the objective the first day. They made that with Asan Point and swinging around to Adelup Point. In Fraser’s battalion, after the initial landing was committed on the attacking right. There were people in trenches and they suffered casualties, but it was light resistance. The most of their casualties were coming from artillery and mortar fire. The Japanese were good tactical soldiers and they had been pulled back into the reverse slope to take protection. And they were primarily using artillery and mortars and from their higher ground, the machine guns. They had bonzai attacks at night. The division marched towards the PD Navy Yard, over to join up and went up through to link up with the 1st Battalion 3rd Marines. Fraser describes the bonzai attacks and who was involved and how they managed to get through it. He explains that carried a carbine and a .45. The reason most all company officers carried a carbine was so you wouldn’t be identified as an officer. If you just carried a pistol, you are a marked man. Fraser was so exhausted at one point during the attack that he slept for two hours and during that time two additional bonzai attacks occurred. At the end of the attack, when they finally got to the top of Fonte Ridge, Fraser estimates that they killed 600 or 800 Japanese. After 50 years and looking back, Fraser’s says that the Japanese were good, dedicated soldiers, but they were not as flexible as Americans. He came back to the 50th anniversary at Guam with his good friend Obie, who he fought with. They wanted to see the island again and “refight the war” and see what progress had been made. He was very happy with the Park that was made there. Fraser’s lesson to the young people of today is that war could happen again and they need to be prepared. Fraser retired as a colonel. He got Presidential Unit citation from Guadalcanal as part of the 1st Marine Division in Guam, the 3rd Marines and the 2nd Battalion 9th Marines received the Presidential Unit citation. Because he was wounded, he got a Purple Heart. He got a Silver Star and was recommended for a Navy Cross.

U.S. National Park Service, War in the Pacific National Historical Park

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War in the Pacific National Historical Park, Code: WAPA

Guam , Guam
War in the Pacific National Historical Park, Guam , Guam
Latitude: 13.3905000686646, Longitude: 144.654006958008

ICMS (Interior Collection Managment System) : WAPA-00246
NPS Museum Number Catalog : WAPA 4170

War in the Pacific Oral Histories

2025/03/07

T. Stell Newman Visitor Center, Collections room, Safe and Shelf SLF D-01

Public Can View

Rose Manibusan, Jennifer Craig

Organization: American Memorial Park
Role: Chief Interpretation
Address: Micro Beach Road, Garapan, Mp 96950
Email: wapa_interpretation@nps.gov

Friday, April 4, 2025 4:54:46 PM

Friday, April 4, 2025 4:54:46 PM

West, Fraser_WAPA-246_WAPA 4170_OralHist_Video.mp4

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2216.1 MB

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