Chief Emory is dead…

A Pearl Harbor survivor who pushed to identify buried unknown remains from the 1941 attack died Monday at age 97.

Ray Emory lived through the early morning Japanese aerial bombing but never forgot those who didn’t. He spent the past few decades doggedly pushing for those unknown buried remains to be dug up, identified and returned to their families.

Full article, HERE at Military.com

He was instrumental in pushing for the identification of the unknowns buried after Pearl Harbor, and could be considered one of the fathers of the Defense POW/MIA Accountability Agency, which now works to identify and return home those from WWII through Vietnam who died on the battlefield.

RIP Chief, know that others have stepped up and will continue your legacy!

Comments

Chief Emory is dead… — 9 Comments

  1. JL,
    The link under Pearl Harbor goes to a guide to the base, nothing about the Chief or victims of the attack. The link under “Here” doesn’t work.
    Scott

  2. When you pick the right people, they never go off duty.
    Never.

    They may stop collecting paychecks, they don’t wear the uniform, or pin on the insignia anymore, but it doesn’t matter, and it doesn’t stop them.

    The uniform wears them, and the insignia are pinned to their souls.

    What a helluva legacy, and a man.

    97?

    Fair winds and following seas, Chief.
    Taps is just the odometer rolling over on the loss of another sterling example of the human race.

  3. Under normal circumstances, I wouldn’t hijack a thread, but there is a common theme: recovering burial sites.
    On September 6, 1967, Marine Sgt Rodney Davis gave his life for his fellow Marines, covering with his body a grenade that was thrown into their fighting position. His family declined a burial at Arlington, wanting him closer to his home of Macon, GA (which is also my home). At that time, blacks could not be buried within the city limits, and so Sgt. Davis was laid to rest at Linwood Cemetery, a privately owned black cemetery in the Pleasant Hill neighborhood. Within a few years, the construction of I-75 had bisected the community, families began moving away, and the cemetery was neglected. Not until 2010 did Davis’ fellow Marines, including one whose life he had saved that day, discover the grave site and restore it. The 1st Battalion, 5th Marines Memorial Association initiated building of a permanent memorial to replace the wooden sign marking Davis’ grave, and other organizations joined in. Many other obscured and damaged gravestones were revealed, including one for Lucien Hayden White, a Buffalo Soldier veteran of the Spanish American War.
    The trigger for this was my blog post about 2018 Dragon Award Finalist “Ghost Marines: Integration,” by Jonathan Brazee