Contact: Melissa Reifert
October 22, 2007

MECC Welcomes PBS Subject Frazier in November

Glenn Dowling Frazier has been through a lot in his 83 years, and as he will tell you, there has been a theme of cause and effect in his life. For instance, at the age of 17, he decided to visit the local juke joint after discovering that the girl he loved was interested in someone else. However, the owner refused him service, so Frazier, angry and upset, climbed onto his motorcycle and roared through the front door of the place. These actions led him to the nearest recruiting office, where he lied about his age and joined the peacetime army, too scared and humiliated to face his parents.

What happened after that is best told by Frazier, himself. Luckily, guests will have the chance to hear his remarkable story and more on November 14 at Mountain Empire Community College. His appearance, which will be held at 1 p.m. in the Goodloe Center, is sponsored by New People’s Bank. Below is just part of Frazier’s story.

After volunteering to serve on the other side of the world, he landed on the Philippine Island of Luzon on September 18, 1941. He was assigned to the 75th Ordinance Depot and Supply Company. When the Japanese attacked on December 8, Frazier, a corporal now, found himself in the midst of a war he thought he would never have to face. Under orders from General MacArthur, he retreated onto the Bataan Peninsula.

On April 9, 1942, Frazier became part of the largest surrender by the United States Army in its history – 78,000 American and Filipino troops. He then endured the Bataan Death march and months of horrific conditions at Camp O’Donnell, where hundreds of prisoners died every day from disease, starvation, and abuse.

In October 1942, he was shipped to Japan, and spent nearly three nightmarish years in a succession of prison camps there. Forced to perform slave labor, Frazier and his fellow prisoners did their best to sabotage the Japanese war effort by putting rocks into cement mixers, drilling holes into the bottoms of oil barrels, pouring sand into gas tanks, and loosening blocks so that a submarine under repair slid into the bay upside-down.

During his imprisonment, Frazier survived double pneumonia, torture, a week of isolation in a covered pit, and routine, frequent beatings. In late summer 1944, because he had not been heard from in two and a half years, the army sent a telegram to his family saying that he was presumed dead. When dog tags that he had thrown into a mass grave in the Philippine jungles were found in early 1945, the army notified his family that he was now “confirmed” to be dead.

Perhaps, one of the greatest instances of cause and effect in Frazier’s life occurred when the atomic bomb was dropped in Japan. After the first bomb, he and his fellow prisoners of war (POWs) were given orders to dig their own graves. However, after the second bomb was dropped, the guards at his prison camp simply walked away. Frazier and a number of other POWs walked among the dazed Japanese civilian population, and took the train to Tokyo and freedom.

After the war, Frazier married, had two children, and ran his own trucking business. His autobiography, Hell’s Guest, was published this year. He was also recently featured on the PBS series, The War.

For more information about Frazier’s book or the PBS series, visit the websites at www.hellsguest.com or www.pbs.org/thewar/. For more about his visit to MECC on November 14, contact Mike Strouth at (276) 523-2400, extension 234 or mstrouth@me.vccs.edu.

Army portrait of Glenn Frazier taken in 1945, just after he had returned from the war. Frazier spent most of the war as a POW after surviving the Bataan Death March. He will be a guest speaker at Mountain Empire Community College on November 14. His appearance, sponsored by New People’s Bank, will be held at 1 p.m. in the Goodloe Center.

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