Our Namesake
The Raymond Davis Foundation is named after GEN Raymond G. “Ray” Davis (Jan. 13, 1915 – Sept. 3, 2003), the four-star USMC general who lived through some of the most tumultuous and dangerous times of the last century.
About Raymond Davis
At Guadalcanal and Peleliu Islands he earned the Navy Cross for leading his men into the face of Japanese cannon fire, preventing a vital American position from being overrun.
In Korea he led a badly-depleted Marine battalion across the country, in a forty-below-zero snowstorm over three mountain ridges, to relieve a beleaguered Marine company holding a vital mountain pass. GEN Davis fought with his men against wave after wave of attacking Chinese soldiers for three days to allow army units to escape possible annihilation. President Harry S. Truman hung the Medal of Honor around then Lt. Col. Davis’ neck for his extraordinary heroism.
He later commanded the Third Marine Division in Vietnam, for which he was awarded one of his two Distinguished Service Medals, to be worn alongside his two Silver Stars, two Legions of Merit, Bronze Star, and Purple Heart.
But GEN Ray Davis was not just a Marine. His dedication to his family, his community, and to God were on par with his military service, and it is those ideals which we seek to emulate and for which this Foundation is named.
