By David Fleet
dfleet@mihomepaper.com
Brandon Twp. — Jim Frazer watched as sailors aboard the aircraft carrier USS Enterprise pushed helicopters off the deck into the South China Sea.
“There were so many refugees onboard that ship, its planes and helicopters would no longer fit below deck,” recalled Frazer. “The planes had to be refueled below deck but since it was now full of people into the sea they went.”
April 30 marks the 50 anniversary of the end of the Vietnam war and during those last weeks of the conflict that claimed 58,220 US service members, Frazer, now a 70 year old Brandon Township resident reflected on his experience offshore the war torn county.
In April 1975 Frazer was a 20-year-old Marine stationed aboard the USS Long Beach just off the coast of Vietnam where he watched the evacuation fallout when the North Vietnamese troops entered the capitol city of Saigon and the South Vietnamese government surrendered unconditionally. The event marked the end of US involvement and the reunification of Vietnam under communist rule and the collapse of the South Vietnamese government.
Frazer attended Pontiac schools until his family moved to the Ortonville area in 1971 where he completed studies and graduated from Brandon High School in 1973.
“I always knew I was going to be a Marine,” said Frazer who enlisted after high school. “I support philosophy and their style of warfare. Still 5 feet 8 inches and 145 pounds Marine boot camp was tough. They want to make sure the smaller guys can make it and the bigger guys are tough enough since they are rarely challenged.”
Frazer was assigned Marine Corps Depot San Diego for boot camp then Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton, Calif. for infantry training.
“My first duty was sea duty as a Marine,” he said.
Frazer was assigned to the USS Long Beach CGN-9, the first nuclear-power surface warship in history. The 721 feet warship was a guided missile cruiser with 1,100 sailors and 42 Marines which included Frazer.
“Our assignment was external security, or guarding the nukes we had onboard the ship,” he said.
In November 1974, the Long Beach set out on a “WestPac” cruise, a deployment by the US Navy to the Western Pacific and Indian oceans. These cruises are often associated with the 7th Fleet, responsible for the Western Pacific. The cruise included Hawaii, Guam, Philippines, Singapore and in March 1975 into Vietnam waters in the South China Sea.
“Our job was to assist in the evacuation and escort the ships as they left North Vietnam and sailed south,” he said. “We sailed up and down the coast and from our ship we could watch the country burn. Still we never knew our location inland as we cruised along the coast. We could only watch the shore.”
Frazer’s task force a subgroup of the fleet which included the USS Enterprise, the first nuclear-powered aircraft carrier that had launched strikes against the Viet Cong prior to the end of the war.
“They were receiving so many refugees who had evacuated Saigon and other parts of Vietnam,” he said. “There was no room on deck, they just dumped planes off. We watched them push these big beautiful helicopters off the side into the ocean.”
Frazer watched the refugees come out from shore to many ships just off the coast.
Known as “Operation Frequent Wind,” helicopter evacuations of Americans along with South Vietnamese civilians went on for about a week, he said.
“Some refugees fled via cargo planes to other countries, some in boats or even dugout canoes, anyway people could get to a ship,” he said. “We were looking for any aggression directed toward the US ships. While there was a big build up to the surrender and a lot after it, the whole evacuation only lasted about a week. It was get everyone out.”
“At the time I thought, ‘we’re leaving all this US military equipment behind for the Communists,’” he said. “Our thoughts were, ‘Let’s blow all this up and don’t leave anything for the Communists who took it over.’”
Following his deployment to Vietnam Frazer continued to serve as a Marine and was stationed at Camp Pendleton, Calif.
In 1976, the refugees were housed in camps near the base.
“Our duty was to patrol the compound to make sure no one pestered the Vietnamese and to make sure they did not leave,” he said. “The refugees wanted out and some Marines had hostilities with the Vietnamese. We were peacekeepers.”
After his service at Camp Pendleton, Frazer went to El Toro Marine Corps Air Station, near Santa Anna, Calif. then US Marine Corps Headquarters, Arlington Va., then transferred to Quantico Va. Marine Corp Base. He also served as a Marine Officer recruiter for several years.
In August of 1990 Frazer was pulled off recruiting detail and returned to Quantico for the first Iraq War.
“I got there and they said, ‘here’s your men you’re leaving (for Iraq) tomorrow,’” he said. “The next day the war was over.”
Frazer retired in 1993 from the US Marine Corps Gunnery Sergeant E-7.