Lance Cpl. David T. Ray, a 2004 Dayton grad who was seriously wounded in
Iraq two weeks ago, was expected to return to his parents' Tillamook home
Friday night.
Ray, 20, was shot in the neck earlier this month while perched atop a
Humvee, cleaning his weapon, near the insurgent hotbed of Fallujah. The
bullet destroyed an artery that supplies blood to the brain, but
miraculously missed two even more vital structures - his brain and his
spinal cord.
"Overall, he's doing pretty darn well, considering he got a bullet in the
head and a broken neck," said his father, David Ray Sr.
David and Kathy Ray learned of the injury to their eldest son, assigned to a
U.S. Marine Corps weapons company, a week before Christmas.
Arrangements were quickly made for the couple to fly to Bethesda Naval
Hospital in Maryland. That's where they spent Christmas Day.
But they expect to spend New Year's Day with their son at home. He will be
wearing a neck brace, and experiencing some difficulty swallowing, but
recovering nonetheless.
Ray is one of more than 16,150 American soliders who have been wounded in
Iraq. That means he'll soon have a Purple Heart pinned to his uniform.
"He hasn't gotten it yet," his father said. "But he's got one coming."