On the morning of March 20, in the year 1969, Hospital Corpsman Tommy Vickers, stationed in Quang Nam Province, Vietnam, was looking for his friend and fellow corpsman after Viet Cong had run over their positions at An Hoa.

Vickers and others were had toiled through the previous long day and longer night and were still at it that day helping to treat and care for mass casualties.

As choppers landed – ferrying supplies in, taking wounded out – Vickers could not locate his friend.

He began asking Marines from the outfit his pal was assigned if they knew where he might be.

“Everyone said he had been hit, but no one knew how badly. Then this one kid told me what happened. I couldn’t work. All I could do was sit and stare,” Vickers penned in a letter back to the parents of his friend.

Gone was Hospital Corpsman 2nd Class David R. Ray, killed in action on that fateful day, March 19, 1969.

Vickers wrote, “They - the Viet Cong - ran over An Hoa. This is the story I got from a Marine that Ray patched up, ‘They started when one got through the wire and pulled a satchel charge under a hutch. When it went off everyone ran outside. They started mowing them down as they ran out. Bob got hit but was still treating wounded when he was hit the second time.’



‘The Marine said Bob knew his job and was doing it. He said that the enemy was all over them, plus rockets and mortars as thick as flies.’”

Their unit, while defending their fire base at Liberty Bridge, Phu Loc 6, near An Hoa Combat Base, came under intense hostile fire during the early morning hours by an estimated battalion-sized (approx. 1,000) enemy force. The initial burst of enemy fire caused numerous casualties among the Marines.

Ray, Vickers and the others were tasked to protect Liberty Bridge, a strategic supply artery across the Thu Bon River connecting An Hoa to Da Nang. The bridge was a high value target for the Viet Cong and destroyed then rebuilt throughout the war. It was attacked again on that morning.

Undaunted by the intense hostile fire, Ray moved from emplacement to emplacement, rendering emergency medical treatment to the wounded.

Although seriously wounded while administering first aid to a Marine casualty, he refused medical aid and continued his lifesaving efforts. Ray was forced to battle two enemy soldiers who attacked his position, killing one and wounding the other.

Even though he was rapidly losing strength because of his severe wounds, Ray still managed to move through the hail of enemy fire to other casualties.

Once again, he came under intense fire and despite grave personal danger and insurmountable odds, succeeded in treating wounded Marines and holding off the enemy until he ran out of ammunition, at which time he sustained fatal wounds.

His final act of heroism was to protect the Marine he was treating. He threw himself upon the wounded patient, thus saving the man's life when an enemy grenade exploded nearby. In addition to Ray, ten Marines died in the battle.

His body was returned to the United States and was buried in Mountain View Cemetery McMinnville, Tennessee.

He was awarded the Medal of Honor posthumously.

Ray was born February 14, 1945, to David F. and Donnie M. Ray of McMinnville, Tennessee. After high school and three years of college, he voluntarily enlisted in the U.S. Navy on March 28, 1966. His first assignment was aboard Naval Hospital ship USS Haven. From haze gray he went to the green side requesting a tour of duty with the Marines. He joined Battery D, 2nd Battalion, 11th Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division, in the Republic of Vietnam in May 1968.

The legacy namesake of Navy Medicine Readiness Training Unit Everett…Gone But Never Forgotten.

Story originally posted on DVIDS: The Day After, March 20, 1969