Page 19 - Desert Lightning News October 2015

Desert Lightning News
A prisoner’s war
Senior Airman Cheyenne A. Powers of the guys said ‘I was here in World
355thFighterWingPublicAffairs
DAVIS-MONTHAN AIR FORCE
BASE, Ariz. -- It began as a civil war, but
would soon become an international af-
fair when the United Nations decided
to join and support South Korea against
North Korea and its ally, the People’s Re-
public of China. One man found himself
caught in the middle of it all.
Ray “Doc” Frazier, was a young man
living in Tennessee with his grandpar-
ents and two siblings when he decided
to join the Army to serve his country.
But with a minimum age requirement
of 18 to enlist in the Army, Frazier, then
16, had to lie about his age to get in.
“I grew up in poverty, illiteracy and su-
perstition,” Frazier said. “I had only com-
pleted the second grade and I couldn’t
even sign my name. When I went to join
the Army, the recruiter wrote my name
in pencil and I traced it with ink.”
Frazier started his Army career as
an ambulance driver but soon made
his way up to a medic working with
special forces teams.
“I had done a little of everything,” Fra-
zier said. “My military occupational spe-
cialty was a medical NCO, but I was ev-
erything from special forces on down.”
Frazier received a majority of his
training while in Guam in 1949, pri-
or to being sent to Korea.
“At first I was an ambulance driver,”
Frazier said. “I would get called out to
wrecks whenever one happened and
the victims would be either cut up, beat
up or have a broken bone. Since I was
the first person there, I would adminis-
ter first aid then take them to the hospi-
tal. So I learned first aid pretty well.”
About two and a half years into Fra-
zier’s enlistment, he was sent to help in the
Korean War and attached to a machine
gun platoon as a medic. On May 19, 1951,
Frazier was captured by Chinese soldiers.
“We managed to hide, fight and run
for about three days, but they got us,”
Frazier said. “There were 128 of us in
the company and they killed 121 with-
in the first 30 minutes. By the fifth of
June they had 750 soldiers captured,
and we started the long march north.”
During the death march, Frazier met
one prisoner who was captured during a
previous conflict which involved the U.S. “At the time I could imitate everyone
“We came up on this town and one
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War II for three years,’ we looked at
him and thought he was lying,” Fra-
zier said. “He said that he had drawn a
picture in the barracks there and sure
enough when we got there, his picture
was still there with his name next to it.”
Upon arriving to Camp 3, Chang-
song, North Korea, 180 of the men sur-
vived the four month death march. Fra-
zier however, was still not willing to let
his freedom be taken away from him.
“I tried to escape a couple of times,
(but) they weren’t successful,” Frazier said. to show the POWs were able to play
His longest escape lasted a total of
18 days, and the closest he got to free-
dom was the difference of one hill.
“We were on one hill and the Ameri-
can troops were on another, firing (at) the
hill we were on,” Frazier said. “We found
a bunker to wait in until the American
troops came, but we were caught when
one of the guys went to find water and
was seen by a Chinese soldier.”
While captured, Frazier faced
many hardships, from malnutrition
to brain washing as well as witnessing
the execution of a fellow comrade.
“The Chinese brought this guy, James,
into camp with his hands tied behind his
back and we all thought he must have
been a bad one,” Frazier said. “Well one
day they were setting up machine guns
all around the barracks and everyone
was wondering what was going on.
James told everyone they were there to
execute him. He had escaped before,
and killed every Chinese man he could.
Everyone got upset, especially one of his
good friends. James said, ‘Don’t cry, I got
it comin,’ I don’t mind.’ He took off this
towel he used to wear around his neck
and put it on his friend and said, ‘I’ll see
you buddy.’ His last words were, ‘God
bless America,’ and he was one of the
bravest men I had ever seen.”
Frazier said that there were times
when the Chinese soldiers would gather
them up and fire blank shots at them.
“They did it to mess with your
head,” Frazier said. “After a while,
you got used to it.”
The POWs had to find ways to
keep themselves busy and deal with
the lifestyle at the camp.
“Every Saturday night we would
have a Grand Ole Opry,” Frazier said.
on the Opry. The guys all loved it.”
Frazier also explained that while in
the camp, a prisoner of war built two
guitars out of scrap metal and anything
he could get his hands on. The Chinese
soldiers let Frazier and his friend play
the guitars over the public announce-
ment system for the camp to hear.
“They had captured a war corre-
spondent who had kept his camera
with him,” Frazier said. “They took a
picture of us playing the guitars and
used it as propaganda.”
The picture was sent to the U.S.
music for the camps. Frazier said
that the photo was how his family
learned he was a POW and still alive.
“Another thing we would do is have
imaginary meals,” Frazier said. “Each day
someone would imagine what we were
eating. One morning I imagined scram-
bled eggs and bacon. One guy asked if I
could imagine some ketchup for his eggs,
so I did. Another asked for mustard and
the first guy hit him, it was the stupidest
fight I’ve ever seen in my life.”
While living in such poor conditions
at the camp, Frazier relied on his Army
medic training as well as home remedies
his grandmother taught him to cure any
ailments the POWs contracted.
“My grandmother was Cherokee In-
dian off a reservation in Missouri, and she
had a charm for everything,” Frazier said.
“She treated everything with kerosene,
wild onions and castor oil. The combina-
tion of it all was the key. Back then, she
would also use charcoal to cure stomach
pains, I thought if it worked then, it would
work now. So I burned that sorghum seed
into charcoal and it stopped everyone’s
stomach pains. I also remembered she
would crush up red pepper and stir it up
with water and make you drink it to cure
stomach worms. So I stole a sleeve of pep-
pers off a Korean porch one day, made a
cup of hot water and did the same thing
and it killed all the worms. Soon the guys
all called me Doc.”
Frazier also organized a resis-
tance group within the camp.
“We were called, ‘The Dead Don’t
Collaborate,’ we were pretty well orga-
nized throughout North Korea,” Frazier
said. “We even communicated, and cor-
responded with other camps and told
them what to do (during certain circum-
stances). But it didn’t take (the captors)
long to figure it out, we were all caught.”
19
Frazier was court martialed and
charged with refusing to confess.
The Chinese soldiers confined him
in a small box as punishment.
“That box was 60 inches long,
24 inches wide and 30 inches tall,”
Frazier said. “There was no way you
could stretch out or sit up straight.”
While spending time in the box, Fra-
zier had to find ways to keep his sanity.
“I had a black widow spider in the box
with me,” Frazier said. “I named her Ber-
tha and caught flies for her, she helped
maintain my sanity. I tried to teach her
to bite the guards. She lasted about three
months. I woke up one morning and
found her dead in her web. However,
she had laid eggs. I didn’t want 500 black
widow spiders crawling around here, so
I took the web, eggs, and her, and then
threw her outside my box. I appreciated
her while I had her though. I spent many
hours with that spider.”
Without the company of his spider,
Frazier thought of new ways to occupy
his time. He would make up songs in his
head and count how much money he
would have when he got out of the camp.
“If I stayed there long enough I could
have bought the place,” Frazier said.
After seven months in the box, Frazier
was finally released. For a year afterward,
he was sent from camp to camp. While in
Kaesong, Frazier and other POWs were
loaded onto trucks and sent to Freedom
Village where they would be liberated.
“We knew the war was over because
we hadn’t seen any plane activity in two
or three days,” Frazier said. “When (I was)
told the war was over, it felt like a ton of
bricks had been lifted off of my shoulders.”
More than 3,000 American POWs re-
turned home after the war ended in July
1953, and more than 8,000 were still miss-
ing in action. Frazier had spent 865 days,
five hours and 15 minutes as a POW.
He received very little reintegration
when he returned to the U.S. in Sept.
1953, and immediately continued his
life in the active duty Army for 22 years.
Frazier retired as a 1st Sgt. after serving
tours in Africa and Turkey with a secu-
rity agency, and also served during two
tours with special operations in Vietnam.
Frazier’s POW memorabilia can
be seen on display during the POW/
MIA Remembrance Ceremony at
the Pima Air and Space Museum, in
Tucson, Ariz., on Sept. 18.