6b116180-9969-4151-9bea-7373103ab2ad

Brewer, Frank_Z02_WAPA-246_WAPA 4170_OralHist_Audio_public.mp3

Frank V. Brewer enlisted in the United States Coast Guard in Chicago, Illinois, on May 20th, 1943. He was sent to the Manhattan Beach training station in Brooklyn, New York, and after boot camp was sent to Camp Lajune, New River, North Carolina, for training on an LCVP. On November 8th, 1944, at the age of 18 he went aboard at Norfolk, Virginia, the AKA-17 USS Centuris that was an amphibious assault transport ship that carries small boats called LCMs and LCVPs. Aboard ship he was assigned to LCVP-7 as a motor machinist mate with a cocksman and a seaman to make a three man crew. On January 30th, 1944, they arrived at Kwajalein Island in the Marshall’s group for their first invasion landing. After Kwajalein they made six other island invasions in 13 months, never losing a man or a boat. Next they went on down to New Guinea, making landings at A-tape on the 23rd and on April 29th at Saidor New Guinea. In June their ship joined the floating task force of ships bound for Saipan Island as the floating reserve unit. After returning to the Witok Islands they left for the invasion of Guam, arriving at Agat Bay Friday morning July 21st, 1944. Their ship lowered all boats into the water that morning, and all boats were assigned to other transport ships to transport troops and equipment to Agat beach. They did not go back on board their ship until they left Guam on July 27th. After a short stay in Guadalcanal they departed on September 8th for the invasion of Peleliu, which took place on September 15th. They departed Peleliu on October 3rd with captured Japanese prisoners of war, stopped in Guadalcanal to refuel, and arrived in San Francisco, California on October 28th. After debarking the prisoners all of the ship’s crew went home for thirty days. On December 2nd, 1944, Brewer was married in Chicago. His ship departed San Francisco on December 22nd, stopping at Pearl Harbor and Guam, Eulithy [sp] before arriving at the invasion of Okinawa, Japan, on April 1st, 1945. On April 9th he left Okinawa for Pearl Harbor, where he was transferred to the USS Henrico APA-45 for transportation to the United States. After arriving in San Francisco he was transferred to a sub-chaser SC-1340 at Charleston, South Carolina, where he stayed until he was discharged at the age of 19 on December 18th, 1945. Brewer describes the experience of hitting the beach with a boatload of troops or equipment. From a transport area, each boat was sent to a transport ship, where it would load 30 to 40 men and start for the beach, stopping a thousand or so yards off the beach to form a horizontal line of 50 to 60 boats called a wave of boats. Then each boat would head for the beach, drop off its load, and go back to the ships for the next load to the beach. Sometimes Brewer’s boat would hit the beach 10 to 15 times during an invasion. The boat crews never went beyond the beach and so did not get a chance to know the people on the islands, but Brewer grew up with his boat crew and developed pride and family values. He recommends that today’s youth start with the tour of duty in the military to learn about the position of America’s military in the world, then stop to think about the most important thing they would like to accomplish for freedom for their families and themselves.

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U.S. National Park Service, American Memorial Park

This digital asset is in the public domain. This digital version was made possible through the National Park Service by a grant from the National Park Foundation through generous support from the Mellon Foundation. When using this asset for any purpose, including online, credit 'Courtesy U.S. National Parks'.

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American Memorial Park, Code: AMME

Saipan
American Memorial Park, Saipan Municipality, Northern Mariana Islands
Latitude: 15.2164001464844, Longitude: 145.720092773438

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

War in the Pacific Oral Histories

2023/12/14

Sourced File: Video File (S:/WAPA_OralHist_0001_master.wav, 361,768 KB)

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

Tuesday, May 7, 2024 12:35:04 PM

Tuesday, May 7, 2024 12:35:04 PM

Brewer, Frank_Z02_WAPA-246_WAPA 4170_OralHist_Audio_public.mp3

mp3

10.9 MB

Historic

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