Rodney Charles Fraser was born in Alameda, California in January 1926. He was an active child who never knew he was poor. He played sports. He never asked his father for money, but had a small allowance every week. He worked in a delicatessen when he was in high school. His father was a superintendent for a paint contractor. Fraser was an only child who was adopted. His mother died when he was very young. He followed world events while in high school. Fraser, like others, worried about the Japanese invading the west coast. His uncle was a photographer in the Navy. The family worried about him. Fraser found out about the attack [Annotator's Note: the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on 7 December 1941] while walking home as people came out of their homes shouting that the country had been attacked. He was young, but could feel the anxiety of those around him. The west coast had a blackout. Rationing started which resulted in food shortages, particularly meat. There were always worries about the events occurring in the war. Even though serious events were befalling the United States, one commentator would always start his program with the preface that good news was available. The activity at the Oakland [Annotator’s Note: Oakland, California] naval and Army bases ramped up as supplies were shipped out of the facilities. Fraser was a baseball player. He would play games against teams in those camps. As a consequence, he could personally observe the increases in tempo there. Fraser was involved with school, football and sports so he was not anxious to get into the service. He went along with the flow. He knew at graduation from high school that he would be drafted. The expected notice came within a few months. He wanted to serve, but did not want to be a foot soldier.

Rodney Charles Fraser was drafted into the Army and went through basic training at Camp Roberts in California [Annotator’s Note: near San Miguel, California]. The training was intended to be 16 weeks, but was reduced by two weeks due to the Battle of the Bulge [Annotator's Note: Battle of the Bulge or German Ardennes Counter Offensive, 16 December 1944 to 25 January 1945]. Fraser was to be sent to Germany. The training had not been difficult because of his athleticism. The training could not prepare anyone for all that would happen in action. The instant response needed on the battlefield could not be fully taught. Fraser was a rifleman, so he trained on the M1 rifle [Annotator's Note: .30 caliber M1 semi-automatic rifle, also known as the M1 Garand], mortar, bazooka, and machine guns. He was taught that Hitler [Annotator's Note: German dictator Adolf Hitler] and what the Germans were doing, were both bad. The trainees were also stirred up against the Japanese. The whole process was not easy, but the brainwashing worked. After basic training, Fraser went directly overseas. Replacements were needed in Europe. He flew in a C-47 [Annotator’s Note: Douglas C-47 Skytrain transport aircraft] to Baltimore, Maryland. En route, the plane landed in Winslow, Arizona on New Year’s Eve [Annotator’s Note: 31 December 1944]. He came in contact with an Indian girl that he thought was attractive. That meeting brought him in contact with segregation as she pointed out the separation between Caucasians and Native Americans in the dance hall. He enjoyed his time with her without regard for the prejudice. Fraser and his buddy almost ran late to the airfield to take the next leg of the flight to Baltimore. Knowing he was headed overseas, the flight was a big deal for Fraser. From Baltimore, Fraser went to Fort Myles Standish outside of Boston [Annotator’s Note: Boston, Massachusetts]. There, he boarded the Ile de France [Annotator’s Note: SS Île de France] passenger liner for England. The ship seemed short of lifeboats for the 10,000 troops aboard. Reaching Glasgow, Scotland, Fraser boarded a train for Southampton [Annotator’s Note: Southampton, England] where he embarked on a small English freighter to cross the Channel [Annotator’s Note: English Channel]. Arriving at Le Havre [Annotator’s Note: Le Havre, France], the troops were kept on the ship and given two meals a day, each one consisting of a boiled potato and a small can of corned beef. Two days later, they disembarked and bivouacked in a park. While there, they were inspected by a dentist. Fraser then processed through a series of replacement depots prior to reaching the front. He knew that the extent of casualties required him as a replacement to fill in for the losses at the front. There was no added training except for a day to zero in rifles at a rifle range. During the return to camp, Fraser and a friend dropped off at a pub for warm, French beer. It was not impressive. He made it back to the replacement depot without being missed. Next day, he was packed up and sent to another one.

Rodney Charles Fraser went through Aachen [Annotator’s Note: Aachen, Germany] and saw the obvious destruction [Annotator’s Note: Fraser was a replacement rifleman in the 29th Infantry Division]. Aachen was one of the first German towns to be overrun. The front was on the Roer River across from the town of Jülich [Annotator’s Note: Jülich, Germany]. Of the 1,800 buildings in the town, only 300 remained. The Germans attempted to knock out the bridges installed by the Army engineers. The baptism of fire for Fraser came when he spoke with a combat veteran who reminded him to not stand too long in his position because a German rifleman across the river would fire on him if he did. Fraser took the soldier at his word and backed off from his location. The second night he was there, he spent the night with a .30 caliber machine gun [Annotator’s Note: Browning M1919 .30 caliber air cooled light machine gun] in a muddy foxhole after being told that he should shoot anything that moved. Nothing happened, but he lost the night of sleep. The outfit was to attack the next morning with a preparatory artillery bombardment. Fraser slept through the three hours of explosions and then requested that his comrades move forward without him. He told them that he would catch up. The others coaxed Fraser into accompanying them on the advance. He ran across a footbridge that was featured in Time magazine. The Germans fired on the Americans as they crossed the bridge. That was his real baptism of fire in action. During an officers’ conference, the Germans fired mortars [Annotator's Note: a short smoothbore gun which fires explosive shells at high angles] on them. Several of them were wounded and had to be carried back to an aid station or field hospital. Fraser donned a Red Cross armband and carried the captain on a stretcher across the river on a bridge the enemy was trying to destroy. When he returned to his unit, he turned in the armband and said that he did not want that duty again. Fraser and his outfit seemed to always get the dirty jobs. Given an objective that another unit failed to reach, he was fortunate that the Germans had withdrawn. Next was protecting engineers on a road to the next town. One of his soldiers was lost while on the assignment. They kept moving. They crossed a sugar beet field full of clay. It took more time to cross the wet ground than to go around it. They reached a beautiful setting of a farm house among trees with a stream running through it. The inhabitants were in a cave and were told to stay there. The men set up a perimeter and Fraser decided to have breakfast. He warmed up his K ration [Annotator's Note: individual daily combat food ration consisting of three boxed meals] of ham and eggs. Incoming shells came. The barrage turned out to be from friendly tanks who thought Fraser and his comrades were Germans. Afterward, they found a haystack camouflaging a stack of enemy artillery shells. Fraser and his outfit kept moving without regard to where the front was. Progressing onward, they reached Mönchengladbach [Annotator’s Note: Mönchengladbach, Germany]. They discovered a safe in the middle of the town with the doors blown open. An officer told them that the money on the ground was counterfeit and that they should keep moving. To his surprise, Fraser later discovered that the money was in fact real and not counterfeit [Annotator’s Note: he laughs]. The civilians in the German towns he went through were leaving the premises. They had been told to exit because they were in the front-line area. After digging in, one of the young men in the unit who had been wounded four previous times was hit by a German sniper while digging a foxhole. Fraser just ducked down, and the sniper was eliminated thereafter. The next day, the men advanced into Mönchengladbach. The enemy fired on the advancing Americans. Fraser was wounded in the foot by artillery fire. It was painful and shocking. The medic wrapped his wound. Fraser was on the flank of the main force and was taken back to the main force. Fraser felt like he was going to pass out. A German bicycle was used to transport Fraser to an aid station. He was treated and given peaches. Previously, his comrades had raided a wine cellar and Fraser had gotten a bottle for himself. The Americans took what they wanted. They had no thoughts of right or wrong. It was more important to drink the wine than worry about right or wrong.

Rodney Charles Fraser used to have wheelchair races down the hospital hallways [Annotator’s Note: he laughs]. The young men would think up the strangest things to do in Fort Lewis, Washington [Annotator’s Note: Fraser was wounded in action with the 29th Infantry Division in Germany. He was sent to the several hospitals including one in Fort Lewis near Tacoma, Washington]. Due to swelling in his legs, he was kept in bed for two weeks. He was given two bottles of beer per day, but did not drink them. He kept them under the bed. A nurse invited him to bring his beer to a party in the next ward. A gurney was sent for the incapacitated Fraser so that he and his liquor could attend the festivities. It was one of the best parties he ever attended [Annotator’s Note: he smiles broadly]. One of Fraser’s fellow patients had been wounded when a plane returning from a mission crashed into his barracks while he was in bed. The crash injured his legs. Another patient had been wounded by flak [Annotator's Note: antiaircraft artillery fire] during a flight to bomb Germany. He was the lead plane and had to stay alert to drop his bombs on target. Each night particles of flak would come out of the man’s body and had to be removed from the bed the next morning. Fraser and others helped remove the remnants that worked out of the injured airman. The man’s legs were severely damaged. A man next to Fraser was in a full body cast. When he had to go to the bathroom, the bedpan commando contorted him until a mess was made. The men were so bored with their broken bodies and keen minds that they would invent things to do. Fraser was in several hospitals from March to November [Annotator’s Note: of 1945] before he was discharged. When the war in Germany ended [Annotator’s Note: 8 May 1945], Fraser was in Fort Lewis in Washington and was relieved. The big relief was when the bombs were dropped [Annotator's Note: nuclear weapons dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan, 6 and 9 August 1945], and it was all over. Fraser had nightmares about having to go back to the front. He had a long time to get over that. In a hospital in Liege, Belgium, Fraser heard the bombs whose engine stopping caused it to drop [Annotator’s Note: the German V-1 rocket “buzz” bomb]. It would make him want to get under the bed when the engine noise ceased. After being wounded, there were trying moments for Fraser. It took a long, slow time to get over it. Family could not visit him in Fort Lewis because it was too far from their home. His father had a heart attack, so Fraser was relocated to Modesto, California which was closer to his home [Annotator’s Note: Alameda, California]. After just a few weeks, he was sent to a different hospital closer to the Mexican border. Next was a convalescent hospital at Lockett [Annotator’s Note: Camp Lockett is near San Diego, California] after which he was discharged.

Rodney Charles Fraser had nightmares after his time in combat [Annotator’s Note: Fraser was serving with the 29th Infantry Division when wounded in Germany in 1945]. After discharge, he did not know what he wanted to do. It took time to readjust to civilian life. He bounced from one thing to another. Fraser was a lost soul who finally came out of it. It is important to try to understand what combat troops go through. It is hard to visualize what it is like in actual warfare. The issues that happen are indescribable. The only way to understand it is to go through it. It was a tremendous experience. Fraser is not happy with situations going on now [Annotator’s Note: he does not elaborate on his thoughts in this regard]. He did not use the G.I. Bill [Annotator's Note: the G.I. Bill, or Servicemen's Readjustment Act of 1944, was enacted by the United States Congress to aid United States veterans of World War 2 in transitioning back to civilian life and included financial aid for education, mortgages, business starts and unemployment]. His injury had a lot to do with it. He was a good baseball player who had his playing cut short. That disturbed him. On the operating table in Liege, Belgium, Fraser asked the surgeon if he would be able to play baseball. The response was that it depended upon what position he played. It sank in for Fraser that he would not be able to play as before. There has not been a day in the postwar years that he did not realize that he had been wounded. The swelling and pain were continual reminders to him that he had been wounded. While in basic training on bivouac, he was always first to clean his mess kit after chow. His great cook had prepared a chicken dish and Fraser was late to finish. He washed his kit late in the used, dirty wash and rinse waters. He got very badly sick. It was terrible. He learned through experience not to be late. Similarly, he learned to urinate in the low end of a slit trench built on a hill when others were higher on the hill than him [Annotator’s Note: he laughs]. Fraser always got the job of leading his squad without being officially in that responsibility. Not personally being given the detailed instructions, he did not know what the expectations were. Officers sometimes admonished him for not leading his squad properly. He was not officially a squad leader, but was often selected to be one. Nevertheless, Fraser enjoyed going through basic training. He and the men were in good shape. Basic training was good, but it did not prepare a person for the experience of the front lines. He was lonely in basic at first, but grew fond of it. Overseas, no one wanted to know the new men. It was due to the losses of buddies by the older veterans. They did not want to get to know the replacements. It is important that young people know about what Brokaw called the Greatest Generation [Annotator’s Note: author and newsman Tom Brokaw wrote “The Greatest Generation” which was a book about America’s veterans of World War Two]. The National WWII Museum [Annotator's Note: The National World War II Museum in New Orleans, Louisiana] tells a great story, but more about the armor Fraser saw in an exhibit in California would be good. Fraser’s uncle lived above Pearl Harbor when the attack came [Annotator's Note: the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on 7 December 1941]. The uncle became a photographer aboard an aircraft carrier and took some fantastic images. The book “Unbroken” [Annotator’s Note: “Unbroken” by Laura Hillenbrand is the story of airman Louis Zamperini during his time in the Pacific, and the capture and mistreatment by the Japanese] was a tremendous story. Fraser wonders how he could have forgiven the guards. He saw Zamperini on television recently. Fraser’s message to future generations is to dig their foxhole deep and keep their heads down. At the same time, he wishes everybody well.