One of my goals during our recent visit to the Washington area was to visit my uncle's grave site at Arlington National Cemetery. I had only been there once before when we took my mother to Washington to celebrate her 75th birthday a few years ago.
Over a decade before I was born, my Uncle Raymond M. Raykovitz, a native of the Mayflower section of Wilkes-Barre and a United States Marine, was killed - at the age of 21 - on an island during WW II. From journals written by his friends that survived, he had his leg blown off and died shortly thereafter. There's more to the story, including how he shielded a close friend from the brunt of the mortar's blast at the last second...but I'll save that for another day.
Many years ago, my mother gave me Raymond's Marine Corps ring. For reasons unknown, something compelled me to reunite Ray and his service ring some 67 years after his passing on March 7, 1944. Here are some pics from our visit that day, as well as a few from 67+ years ago.
RIP, Uncle Ray.
No comments:
Post a Comment