A Portrait of HM2 Bobby Ray, Heroic “Doc” of Liberty Bridge
In the early morning of March 19, 1969, a Marine combat base at Phu Loc 6 near An Hoa, Vietnam, became the scene of a surprise enemy attack. As the North Vietnamese Army (NVA) infiltrated the camp’s barbed wire perimeter, a 24-year old corpsman named Bobby Ray charged into the melee to render emergency aid to the mounting casualties. He even fought off an attack of two NVA soldiers before he himself was wounded. Despite heavy loss of blood, Ray managed to crawl through the barrage of enemy fire to assist another fallen Marine, shielding him from a grenade blast. In the act of saving this Marine’s life Ray ultimately sacrificed his own. The following year, Bobby Ray—or as he is better known to us today, David Robert Ray—was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor.
