Ray, Ronald Earl
Army Staff sergeant

Ronald Earl Ray, age 22, from Port Arthur, Texas, Jefferson county.

Service era: Vietnam

Death details: On the afternoon of November 13, 1969, a six-man reconnaissance team comprising two Americans and four local troops were on a mission in Laos when they were attacked by a numerically superior enemy force. Three of the four local team members were killed in the initial contact, and the two Americans were both hit by enemy gunfire and severely wounded. The remaining local team member survived the incident, and reported that the area was subsequently overrun by the enemy and that the Americans were both still lying on the ground wounded when he left the area. Beeper signals were received in the days following the incident, but bad weather and heavy enemy presence in the area prevented search and rescue teams from recovering the two American troops. Neither was seen again and further attempts to locate them were unsuccessful.

Staff Sergeant Ronald Earl Ray entered the U.S. Army from Texas and served in Command and Control North, 5th Special forces Group. He was one of the two Americans on this patrol, and the survivor reported that SSG Ray sustained a bullet wound to the chest, fell to the ground, and went silent. The survivor also reported that he shook SSG Ray before he left the area but received no response. Attempts to locate SSG Ray or his remains following the incident were unsuccessful.  He was promoted to Sergeant First Class after his disappearance. Today, Sergeant First Class Ray is memorialized on the Courts of the Missing at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific.

Date of death: Thursday, November 13, 1969

Source: National Archives, Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency