Joseph Bacon Fraser General Joseph Bacon Fraser commanded the 48th Armored Division of Georgia and Florida Army National Guard . His Military career spanned from World War I to the Korean War before retiring a Lieutenant General in 1956 . He was also a former Mayor of Hinesville , a timber baron , and one of the first resort developers of Hilton Head Island , South Carolina which his son , Charles E . Fraser developed into Sea Pines Plantation . Early years . Fraser was born to Honerable Joseph Bacon Fraser , Sr . and Maria Boulineau Fraser on July 15 , 1895 . He was preceded by brother Charles W , born October 29 , 1886 , Sister Mary B . , born August 31 , 1988 , Donald A , born January 10 , 1890 , Addie W , born October 30 , 1891 , and Harry B , born September 4 , 1893 . He had one younger brother , Thomas Layton , born March 16 , 1899 . His father was a mayor of Hinesville in 1913 and 1915 , a stockholder in the Hinesville Bank , a director in the Flemington , Hinesville & Western Railroad , and an owner of considerable real estate . Joseph B Fraser completed his preparatory studies at Napier Edinburgh in Hinesville . Afterwards , Fraser entered into the University of Georgia at Athens , where he played football , but did not letter , and was a member of the Alpha Tau Omega fraternity . Military career . World War I . When World War I broke out , Joseph Bacon Fraser and his brother , Donald A . Fraser enlisted as privates in the U . S . Army . Joseph was commissioned a second lieutenant in July , 1918 and promoted to first lieutenant in March 1919 . He was released from federal service in May 1919 , but continued his record of military activity in the National Guard . In September 1920 , he was commissioned captain of Troop B . Georgia Cavalry where he served under Harry Truman . He was promoted to major in September 1927 , and to lieutenant colonel in January , 1935 . Becoming a full colonel in June 1936 , he was placed in command of the 108th Cavalry . World War II . Fraser was ordered to federal active duty as a colonel and sent to Australia in February 1941 . He left Boston aboard the RMS Queen Mary , the largest passenger ship at the time , with 10 , 000 other men and overloaded equipment . Chaplain Lt . Clarence Letson was one of Fraser ' s Hinesville companions also on board the ship . Leston wrote in his diary that the ship sailed first to Key West , Fla . , then to Rio de Janeiro . They spent two days there , blockaded by an axis submarine but escaped over a shallow bar at high tide . “ A zigzag course was then taken to Capetown , South Africa , during which the ship caught fire three times — all caused , the captain felt , because of the overload on the wiring . They entered the Tasmanian Sea and stopped in Perth , Australia , then disembarked at Sidney and caught trains up through the interior to Brisbane . The following day , Gen . MacArthur arrived . " With Fraser and Lt . Letson were men from Georgia and South Carolina ; they composed the major portion of the 101st Separate Coast Artillery Battalion ( Anti - Aircraft ) which Fraser commanded in the Pacific Theater of Operations from 1942 to 1943 . The rest of the 10 , 000 men aboard the Queen Mary were dispersed throughout the Pacific . Years later , when addressing a group honoring Fraser for his safe return to Hinesville , he said , " When I left Camp Stewart in February 1942 , I requested the men under my command to be made up of Georgia men . A number of the men came from Liberty and Long counties . They were among the best in the country and I am indeed grateful in the manner in which they met the enemy on the battlefront and conducted themselves during the perilous trip overseas . " After receiving General MacArthur ' s Orders in Sydney , Fraser and the 101st Battalion were the first American combat ground troops to go into New Guinea during the New Guinea Campaign in 1942 . With the Japanese rapidly overtaking New Guinea and MacArthur ’ s forces regrouping in Australia , MacArthur told Fraser that they would have little chances of surviving but to hold off Japanese forces as long as they could . A diary entry by Lt . Lester on March 30 , 1942 , shortly before the battalion sailed to New Guinea reads , " This is it . The Japanese are moving in toward New Guinea . . . Into combat . We ’ ve been preparing but didn ’ t really believe it would happen . … We can ’ t believe that we ’ re playing for keeps . Col . Joe Fraser and I met and prayed to God last night for guidance and leadership to carry our men through the battles before them . He was crying ; his men were going to die . All are willing to go , but what a sinking feeling . " ( Col . Fraser later told a group in Hinesville that he prayed another hour in his headquarters before leaving for the Jap - infested area ) . The Battalion sailed unmolested through enemy waters , where they landed safely and fought off repeated air attacks by Japanese Zeros with 50 - caliber machine guns over the next few months until the rest of MacArthur ' s forces returned . Fraser made his gunners frequently relocate the anti - aircraft gun locations so that the Zero ' s had a hard time determining where to focus each new attack . Colonel Fraser was ' mentioned in despatches ' in Canberra , Australia , on January 13 , 1944 . Ordered to the European theater in February 1944 , he commanded the 23rd anti - aircraft group there . He was again released from federal service in December 1945 . He returned to duty with the Georgia National Guard , and was promoted to the rank of brigadier general on February 3 , 1947 , and placed in command of the 108th Anti - Aircraft Brigade , Georgia National Guard , with headquarters at Savannah , Georgia . Korean War . Called back into federal service in August , 1950 , Fraser was promoted to the rank of major general and commanded the 48th Infantry Division , composed of Georgia and Florida National Guard units . Retirement . He was promoted to the rank of lieutenant general when he retired from the Georgia National Guard on August 1 , 1956 . Business career . Mr . Fraser was president of the Fraser Lumber Company since 1929 , and president of the Fraser Supply company since its organization in 1956 . We he left for World War II , his son Joe Jr . ran the lumber company . Much of the timber operation at the time was based on cutting naturally seeded forests , rather than forest replanting operation in common practice today . In 1949 , in efforts to seek out new properties to timber , he joined a group of lumber associates to buy a total of 20 , 000 acres of pine forest on Hilton Head Island ' s southern end for an average of nearly $ 60 an acre . Gen . Joseph B . Fraser , Fred C . Hack , Olin T . McIntosh , and C . C . Stebbins formed the Hilton Head Company to handle the timber operation . In 1956 , Fraser youngest son , Charles E . , who had recently graduated from Yale law , bought his father interest in the Hilton Head Company and created the Sea Pines Company . Fraser served as the chairman of the board for the company . Personal life . Robert Groover , author of " Sweet Land of Liberty : a History of Libery County , Georgia " , writes , " No one person did more to promote the general welfare of his fellow citizens in Liberty County from 1930 to 1940 than did Joseph B . Fraser Jr . During the worst economic depression America had ever known , he worked tirelessly in the Liberty County Chamber of Commerce and with various state and federal programs to help alleviate the suffering of the people of Liberty County . " Fraser was very active in the Presbyterian Church . He was a communicant of the First Presbyterian Church of Hinesville where he served as an elder . He was a member of the Board of World Missions , Presbyterian Church of the United States , and is past president of the Assembly ’ s Men ' s Council of the national church organization . In 1949 , Fraser served as the Chairman of the Board of Trustees for Presbyterian College in Clinton , South Carolina . Fraser , like his father , served as Mayor of Hinesville in 1932 . He took an active interest in the program of the Boy Scouts of America and was a member of the national council and vice president of region six . His memberships included the Lions Club of Hinesville , of which he was a charter member ; the Oglethorpe Club of Savannah ; and the Lodge of Free and Accepted Masons . In Masonry , he was a member of the higher bodies of the Scottish Rite . At Cobbtown Georgia , on November 14 , 1923 , Joseph B . Fraser married Pearl Collins , daughter of Elbert and Margaret Elizabeth ( Davis ) Collins . Mr . and Mrs . Fraser had two children , both of whom were born in Hinesville . Joseph Bacon , Jr . , born January 27 , 1926 and Charles Elbert , born June 13 , 1929 . He was born a junior , but dropped it when his father died and subsequently named his son junior also .