Bernard J. Ray
U.S. Army Medal of Honor recipient (1921–1944)
Bernard James Ray (June 9, 1921 – November 17, 1944) was a United States Army officer and a recipient of the United States military's highest decoration—the Medal of Honor—for his actions in World War II during the Battle of Hurtgen Forest.
Biography
Ray was born in Brooklyn, New York City and raised in Baldwin, New York. After graduating from Baldwin High School, he went to work at the Sperry Gyroscope Company manufacturing plant in Brooklyn. Ray volunteered for military service in June 1942.
Ray joined the Army in 1943, and by November 17, 1944 was serving as a First Lieutenant in Company F, 8th Infantry Regiment, 4th Infantry Division. On that day, in the Hurtgen Forest near Schevenhütte, Germany, Ray exposed himself to intense enemy fire in an attempt to destroy a wire obstacle that was blocking his unit's path. Seriously wounded while setting up an explosive charge to blow up the obstacle, he realized that he would not be able to accomplish his mission if he did not detonate the charge immediately. Ray set off the explosives, killing himself but successfully destroying the wire barricade. He was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor a year later, on December 8, 1945.
Ray, aged 23 at his death, was buried at the Henri-Chapelle American Cemetery in Belgium.
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This entry incorporates text from “Bernard J. Ray” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.