Joseph Bacon Fraser (July 15, 1895 – March 1, 1971) 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.

Fraser was born to the Honorable 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, 1888, 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.

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.

Fraser was ordered to federal active duty as a colonel and sent to Australia in February 1942. 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, Florida, 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 Cape Town, 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 Sydney 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 Coast Artillery Battalion (Anti-Aircraft) which Fraser commanded in the United States Army Coast Artillery Corps 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."