The Life of Raymond Carmine Puglia

 

There is not much of a childhood or anything to prove his existence before becoming a member of the Marine Corps, 4^th Marine Division, 1^st Battalion, Company D, 24^th Marines.  How can a man that had fought in some of the most horrific campaigns in the Pacific just sort of disappear off the face of the Earth?  The answer is real easy.  Most men that fought in those campaigns never thought they would make it back home after the first skirmish they engaged.  Most of them just wanted to blend back into society without any fanfare or excitement.  Ray was this type of person. 

Trying to recreate his life or the part we can try to understand was difficult at best.  All we had was a military trunk full of memorabilia and some tidbits of information from our instructor, who was the husband of the granddaughter of Mr. Puglia.  I am going to attempt to do justice to what information I saw and put together a recollection as best as I can. So here it goes.

Raymond C. Puglia was born on 10 May, 1915 with black hair, brown eyes and died in 1985 probably at his home in Jacksonville, or Camp Lejeune Hospital in North Carolina at the age of 70.  He was assigned a Social Security Number of 197-10-8732 from North Carolina.  When Ray entered the Marines, he weighed only 145 pounds.  From pictures of him as a PFC, he did not gain any weight during boot camp.  He did however gain muscles.  The pictures clearly indicated that the physical endurance from boot camp paid off with a lean mean fighting machine.  His service number was 389143. After boot camp, he was either sent to Camp Lejeune, NC or Camp Pendleton, CA for additional training.  He was trained to work with the heavy weapons outfit, specializing with both the M109 water cooled machine gun and 81mm mortars.  Upon completion of his advanced training, he was assigned to the 4^th Marine Division, 1^st Battalion, Company D, 24^th Marines. 

Off to the Pacific he went as most did, by boat.  The picture showed how crowded it was with hammocks strung anywhere they could to get a bunk for everyone.  At least with a hung hammock, you avoided the sea motions while you slept.  There was some silver colored metal toilet paper holders found in the box too.  Apparently, they were used to stash cigars.  Marines can be clever when necessary.

He was an avid Catholic.  He had married twice in his life, to Eva and then Elizabeth.  The first wife was Eva Stabler, born February 18, 1894, from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.  From the picture of her in her younger days, it definitely could be said that she was a hottie.  She was a very good looking woman.  At first look, this seemed to be an older woman with a very young man … in today’s phrasing … A cougar.  Not the case here! 

We cannot ascertain when they were married, but there was a nine-year gap between the two.  Eva was a nurse in the United States Navy Reserves, an officer.  Most likely Eva met when Ray got wounded and received a Purple Heart. 

 

Eva lived in Jacksonville, NC, so it is probable their encounter started at Camp Lejeune Marine Corp Base Hospital or in Hawaii where most injured servicemen in the campaigns went for treatment and therapy.   Eva was involved in the community and in politics.  She had been a member of the Philadelphia, PA Dog Training Club and the Republican Party.  She loved her terrier dogs.  There were quite a few pictures of her dogs.  They had lots of personal friends and kept in touch with them as indicated from the numerous cards and letters we found. They traveled to many places and had taken photos of each other there.  I am sure that the kimonos found in the box were evidence of the little things Ray wanted Eva to have.   She died on April 17, 1969 at the age of 75 and is buried in Arlington Cemetery among the numerous honored there.

 

Ray then married Elizabeth and they were a couple until her death.  Ray married Elizabeth after her husband, Graham Johnson had died.  Eva had a daughter from that marriage.  Not too much to learn from that companionship, except from a newspaper article announcing a reunion of four women that had been friends during most of their lives and got back together one more time.  Elizabeth was nicknamed as Liz throughout the correspondences we found.   But from guessing from the way that he treated Eva, Ray did not want to live his remaining years alone.  Liz worked as a waitress from the information on a punch card.  I hope that their time together was a good companionship.  One of the pictures we encountered was one showing a young woman in a black playboy type bunny suit showing him smiling at her.  Whether it is a birthday or any other occasion, it would put a smile on me too.  His lasting memory from our teacher was seeing him trying to sneak out of the hospital to smoke a cigar with only one lung remaining.  Ray passed on in 1985.

            He was a proud man, proud to have been part of the Marine Corps and serving his country.  He obtained the rank of E-7 or Sergeant First Class, which is considered as a senior enlisted non-commissioned officer (NCO).  The 24^th Marine Division won 2 presidential citations and had President Truman present the citations to them personally as the pictures indicated. Ray earned the Good Conduct Medal in 1945 (4 stars), American Campaign, Asiatic Pacific Campaign (4 stars), World War II, Korea Conflict (4 stars), and National Defense Medals from serving at Roi-Namur, Saipan, Tinian and Iwo Jima.  The stars indicate how many campaigns were served within the specific areas.  These places were a real jungle with hot muggy blistering heat, monsoon rains and rugged country worse than anything so far experienced in his life.  After the war, Ray became a cook and supervised the mess hall (kitchen) and on occasion, for special events, more pictures were found to show his involvement there. The one most notable was the 179^th Anniversary of the birth of the Marine Corps in 1954.