Commodore Eric Fraser, CBE, BDS-US Naval Attaché

Commodore Eric Fraser was born in 1959 and educated at InvernessRoyalAcademy.  He joined the Royal Navy in 1976 as a Seaman Officer, spending the first three years of naval life studying Mathematics at Edinburgh University.  On graduation and basic training, he enjoyed a succession of challenging appointments at sea that included being Gunnery Officer in HMS FARNELLA during the Falklands War and Navigating Officer of HMS ROTHESAY throughout an extended period of operations in the Pacific Ocean, Mediterranean and North Atlantic.  

By 1986 Commodore Fraser had completed the Principal Warfare Officer course, specialising in communications, and joined the Type 42 destroyer HMS EDINBURGH.  This was a short tour that led to appointments on the staff at the BritanniaRoyalNavalCollege and Joint Maritime Operations Training Staff at RAF TURNHOUSE.  In 1993 Commodore Fraser took command of the Island-class Patrol Vessel HMS GUERNSEY before attending Staff Course at Greenwich in 1994.  Promotion to Commander quickly followed along with command of the Type 22 frigate HMS BOXER.  The next 20 months included a lengthy deployment to the Adriatic in support of NATO and UK operations against the Former Yugoslavia, anti-submarine patrols in the North Atlantic and a period of counter-drug operations in the Caribbean.  This was an exhilarating time but by 1997 Commodore Fraser’s period in command had come to an end as he was re-appointed as the Communications specialist at the Maritime Warfare Centre at HMS DRYAD to assist in the preparation of officers for sea command.   

In 1999 Commodore Fraser joined the British Defence Staff in WashingtonDC, first as a desk officer but later, on promotion to Captain, as Assistant Naval Attaché.  After three years in the USA which spanned the attack on the World Trade Centre, he returned to the UK and a post as a Deputy Assistant Chief of Staff (DACOS) in the Operations Division (J3) of the Permanent Joint Headquarters (PJHQ) in Northwood.  Here he was responsible for UK operations in the Balkans, Afghanistan, Sierra Leone and other UN theatres where UK troops were deployed.  Two years in this busy job were followed by a period as Director of the Joint Maritime Operations Training Staff where he headed a team providing advanced tactical training for Allied navies and air forces. Following this post he returned to PJHQ, this time as ACOS J6 and head of the CIS Division.  In this demanding role Commodore Fraser was responsible for providing communications support to all UK deployed forces, particularly in Iraq and Afghanistan, for which he was awarded the CBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honours List of Summer 2009.

Commodore Fraser has just completed a year at the Royal College of Defence Studies and took up his new appointment as Naval Attaché in WashingtonDC in January 2010.  He has been married to Bo for over 25 years, has two grown up children and, like many Scots, enjoys fly fishing, golf and travelling.