Ray Boro, Korean War Navy Vet-- Part 1

I visited with well-known Legion member Ray Boro in March and interviewed him about his service to our country.  He is a regular at the Drop Zone Bar at the Legion and called "OROB" because of his name.  In the service, his nickname was "BoBo" though he is not sure why, perhaps they didn't know how to pronounce his name.

He was born in Chicago on August 30, 1930, but spent most of his life growing up in Lakemoor, Illinois.  At one time he attended a one-room schoolhouse there and was a graduate of McHenry High School.  For awhile after graduation he delivered milk door-to-door.

Ray and his buddy enlisted in the Navy on October 13, 1950, at age 20, with the hopes of serving together,  and spent eleven weeks doing basic training at Great Lakes Naval Training Station.  At least here, he and his buddy were near each other, but in different training groups because they were placed alphabetically.  But that ended after graduation.

Pensacola, Florida's Corry Field was Ray's destination.  His buddy went to Guam.  Here Ray received his AD classification as an airplane mechanic.  He was there for 18 months when he was transferred to the VF-44 Squadron based at Jacksonville NAS in Florida.

--Cooter