Ralph Frederick Gray

Ralph Gray was born in Sidney, Illinois on 22 December 1922. He is the only known child of Frederick and Dollie Gray, and spent most of his life in Danville. Few details are known about his early years.

Prior to joining the service, Ralph worked as a doorman for the Lincoln Theater, a cinema located on Danville’s Main Street.

Ralph decided to enlist in the Marine Corps, and raised his right hand at a recruiting office in  Chicago on 17 September 1942. Immediately after completing boot camp at San Diego, Private Gray was assigned to duty with Company E, Second Battalion, 9th Marines.

Gray deployed overseas in January 1943. He spent time in camps in New Zealand and on Guadalcanal, training constantly for combat. On 1 November 1943, he participated in his first combat landing at Cape Torokina, Bougainville.

On 7 November 1943, 1Lt. Thomas Hunter, Jr. led a 22-man reconnaissance patrol out from Easy Company lines towards Piva Village. Their job was to scout Japanese positions around the village itself and explore up the Piva/Numa Numa Trail, the main thoroughfare in the area. As they departed, the Marines little suspected they would soon earn some little-sought fame as a “Lost Patrol.”

The mission reached its initial objective without incident – but as they prepared to return, “movements ahead indicated a Japanese ambush” in the words of a combat correspondent. The Marines spread out, and PFC Alston Langston drew first blood when he out-drew a Japanese soldier.

“A Jap machine gun nest opened fire at three Marines, killing one,” continued the correspondent. “The other two… cut loose with automatic rifles, silencing the nest. One weaponless Marine was killed while trying to cut a path for the patrol. Marines killed the two Japs who fired on him.” The Japanese attempted to encircle the Americans, but Marine marksmen picked them off one by one. Lieutenant Hunter claimed his men accounted for no less than 22 Japanese.

The Marines killed near Piva Village were Private Leonard Bibee and Private Ralph F. Gray. Neither man’s body could be carried to friendly lines as the patrol, split into two halves by the Japanese attack, was hard-pressed to find their way back. Occasional firefights broke out as the withdrawing Marines bumped into other Japanese outposts. Private Don DeLaney was killed at 1300 hours; Sergeant Jack D. Burton and PFC Leuin L. David, Jr., were shot in a skirmish at 1700; PFC Edwin A. Pesek died of bullet wounds at 1715. All bodies were left where they fell.

Lieutenant Hunter brought his survivors to safety on 8 November. Four other Marines, led by Sgt. Howard Meyers, soon after. Two men – Private Elbert Alexander and Private James Pitts – did not return, and were never seen again. They had disappeared into the jungle, and their exact fates were never known.

Over the following weeks, the bodies of Burton, David, DeLaney, Pesek, and Petersen were found along the Piva Trail. Burton and Petersen were brought back to the Bougainville cemetery, while the other three received temporary field burials along the trail. When the area was fully secured in early 1944, Graves Registration personnel retrieved David, DeLaney, and Pesek.

The remains of Bibee, Gray, Alexander, and Pitts were never positively identified.

“Private Gray was serving in a patrol against the enemy in the Piva Village area, Bougainville, where he was ambushed by two enemy forces who were concealed on both sides of a trail which he was following. He was observed by members of his patrol to receive direct fire from enemy rifles and machine guns at a distance of approximately ten yards. Due to the intense fire his body was not recovered.”
– Quartermaster Form 371, Gray Individual Deceased Personnel File

CENOTAPHS
Manila American Cemetery and Memorial