RAYMOND J. MURRAY, LTJG, USN

Raymond Murray '40

Date of birth: August 17, 1916

Date of death: August 9, 1942

Age: 25

Lucky Bag

From the 1940 Lucky Bag:

RAYMOND JAMES MURRAY

Whitestone, New York

Ray

Ray is the boast of the city next to the largest city in the world, Whitestone, suburb superb of New York. True to his birthright and his upbringing in the big town, he can assume the role of confidence man, card-sharp, Shylock, Tammany politician, or anything else he desires with equal facility. His genial blarney will always carry him out of any situation. Did he miss his calling? Not at all! Beneath all his fun and joking Ray sets his course with hard common sense the determining factor in every case. He makes certain of knowing the score all the time. In him the Navy is getting a man, a real man.

Track Manager 2, N.A.; Track Manager 1, N; Hop Committee 1; 1 Stripe.

RAYMOND JAMES MURRAY

Whitestone, New York

Ray

Ray is the boast of the city next to the largest city in the world, Whitestone, suburb superb of New York. True to his birthright and his upbringing in the big town, he can assume the role of confidence man, card-sharp, Shylock, Tammany politician, or anything else he desires with equal facility. His genial blarney will always carry him out of any situation. Did he miss his calling? Not at all! Beneath all his fun and joking Ray sets his course with hard common sense the determining factor in every case. He makes certain of knowing the score all the time. In him the Navy is getting a man, a real man.

Track Manager 2, N.A.; Track Manager 1, N; Hop Committee 1; 1 Stripe.

Loss

Ray was lost in USS Vincennes (CA 44) during the Battle of Savo Island on August 9, 1942.

Other Information

From researcher Kathy Franz:

Raymond was born in Elmhurst. He enlisted in the New York State National Guard on April 4, 1935, in the 16th F1 Division. He separated on June 15, 1936, for educational reasons.
In 1930, his father was Matthew Murray, a New York City patrolman, mother Margaret, sister Anna, and brother Matthew who was a runner on Wall Street.

His mother was listed as next of kin.

Raymond has a memory marker in Arlington National Cemetery; he is also remembered at the Courts of the Missing in Hawaii.

Career

From History of Class of 1940:

Ray, a native of New York, was the manager of the track team and man-about-town at the Academy. On graduation, he reported on board VINCENNES, a 10,000-ton ASTORIA-class heavy cruiser, and was assigned as an assistant M-Division officer during overhaul at Boston Navy Yard. On the ship's return to sea in October, 1940, Ray was assigned to the 4th Division as its junior officer responsible for the 5"/25 gun battery; his battle station was that of spotting officer to correct the fall of shot of the main battery, three triple-gun 8"/50 turrets. In mid-1941, he became junior officer of the F-Division, fire control of the main battery. The ship was involved in "neutrality patrols" and convoy duty in the Atlantic throughout the year. By late summer, 1941, Ray was one of only four qualified Officers-of-the-Deck, which continued for the remaining year of the ship's life.
In early 1942, Ray was assigned battle station as Plotting Room Officer, in charge of the main battery fire control, stationed well below the ship's waterline. In March, 1942, VINCENNES joined the Pacific Fleet, where she participated in the launching of the Doolittle raid on Tokyo and in the Battle of Midway.
On August 7, 1942, the ship was a member of the gunfire support force at the initial landings on Guadalcanal. In the ensuing surface Battle of Savo Island during the early hours of August 9, VINCENNES was in the northern force, leading cruisers QUINCY and ASTORIA and destroyers WILSON and HELM. The attacking Japanese force of five heavy and two light cruisers separated into two columns as they came north, straddling the U.S. force. VINCENNES' main battery commenced firing during condition watch, ceased when the ship's captain came to the bridge, then resumed. It fired two salves under director control, but within the early minutes both of VINCENNES' main battery directors were shot out of commission. The ship was also struck by three or four of the enemy cruisers' torpedoes, one of which either directly flooded the Plotting Room or indirectly flooded it as the result of a hit in the forward fireroom, immediately aft of the Plotting Room. A few members of the Plotting Room crew escaped through a vertical trunk, but the majority did not survive.
Lieutenant (junior grade) Murry’s body remained with the ship when it sank. His surviving shipmates remember him with admiration and affection. Ray Hundevadt

Photographs

From the Lucky Bag

Navy Directories & Officer Registers

The "Register of Commissioned and Warrant Officers of the United States Navy and Marine Corps" was published annually from 1815 through at least the 1970s; it provided rank, command or station, and occasionally billet until the beginning of World War II when command/station was no longer included. Scanned copies were reviewed and data entered from the mid-1840s through 1922, when more-frequent Navy Directories were available.

The Navy Directory was a publication that provided information on the command, billet, and rank of every active and retired naval officer. Single editions have been found online from January 1915 and March 1918, and then from three to six editions per year from 1923 through 1940; the final edition is from April 1941.

The entries in both series of documents are sometimes cryptic and confusing. They are often inconsistent, even within an edition, with the name of commands; this is especially true for aviation squadrons in the 1920s and early 1930s.

Alumni listed at the same command may or may not have had significant interactions; they could have shared a stateroom or workspace, stood many hours of watch together… or, especially at the larger commands, they might not have known each other at all. The information provides the opportunity to draw connections that are otherwise invisible, though, and gives a fuller view of the professional experiences of these alumni in Memorial Hall.