Raymond Leon Bray

On 7 August 1942, Corporal Raymond Bray and the 1st Marine Parachute Battalion assaulted Japanese forces on the island of Gavutu. He was one of several Paramarines to distinguish himself in the fight for Hill 148. “When the progress of a company was retarded by heavy sniper opposition, Corporal Bray and others courageously attacked a heavily barricaded three-inch gun emplacement from which the deadly fire was emanating,” read his subsequent Navy Cross citation. “Utterly disregarding his extreme danger, he charged forward and, without waiting for his comrades, unhesitatingly plunged through the entrance and in spite of great odds engaged the enemy in hand-to-hand combat until reinforcement by other Marines insured elimination of the hostile position.”

At 1530, an American dive bomber mistook the Marines on Hill 148 for Japanese troops and dropped a bomb directly on top of their position. Corporal Bray was killed by the bomb blast; no remains could be recovered from the site of the strike.