Ray Boro, Korean War Vet-- Part 5: After the Navy

Ray met his wife Catherine after he was in the Navy at a bowling alley in Round Lake and knew she was the one right then and there.

He is proud to be a member of the American Legion for 64 continuous years.  He started at the McHenry Post, transferred to Gurnee and has been at Fox Lake for many years.  In addition, he is a lifetime member of the McHenry VFW.

--Cooter

Ray Boro, USN Korean War Vet-- Part 4: Love That Pensacola and Ray Gets A New One

"I loved my liberty time.  My absolute best liberty was at Pensacola," Ray said smiling.  Pensacola was also his best duty.  "It was like a country club.  But when you got on a ship you find out what the Navy is all about."  He has great memories of those white sand beaches.  A trip to the Pensacola NAS museum is strongly recommended.

One time while he was at Jacksonville NAS and on guard duty at the Flight Line, where the planes were parked, the pilot of his plane came out to take a look at the plane.  Standing orders were that everybody, and I mean EVERYBODY had to gave proper id to be anywhere near that line.  The pilot, a newly commissioned ensign, did not have his and Ray wouldn't let him near the plane.

The pilot said, "You know me."  Ray said, "Yes, but I have to follow orders."  The pilot walked off muttering he'd get Ray back.  There would be payback.  The next day Ray preflighted the plane and everything was alright.  However, the pilot went over the plane with a fine tooth comb and found a speck of a hydraulic leak and that downed the plane for the day.  "Boy did I get in trouble.  The leading chief cut me a new one. Navy Chiefs were like gods."

The pilot was new to the game, but afterwards he and Ray became friends.  Ray says he became one of the better pilots and was good at gunnery, bombing and air-to-air.

--Cooter

Ray Boro, USN-- Part 3: The Marines Sure Loved Their Corsairs, War Experience, Home

The Marine pilots loved their Corsairs and really flew in close to support their Marines on the ground.  Navy Corsair pilots didn't get as close in.   Ray is happy that his squadron was the last in the Navy to have Corsairs and Korea was the last hurrah for the Corsairs.

His aircraft carrier arrived in Korea in 1952.  Mr. Boro said that his pilots saw action, but he never did.  He never even saw Korea except on occasion way off in the distance.  None of his ship's planes were shot down though some returned with bullet holes.

"We had jets, F-14s.  The enemy had MIG jets."

Life on the Boxer was "compact."  The Flight Deck was often a madhouse.  Much of the time it was the old military axiom "Hurry up and wait."  He remembers that one man lost his life when he fell overboard and was lost at sea.

On June 11, 1953, his ship left Japan for home.  Four destroyers accompanied the carrier back to the United States.  Ray was unaware that his half-brother was on one of them.  He didn't find out about it until after his discharge.  He had joined the Navy because of his half-brother and several uncles being in it during World War II.

--Cooter

Ray Boro-- Part 2: The Corsairs, VF-44 and Korea

Here he joined VF-44.  (VF stands for fighter squadron.)  They flew those vaunted old World War II fighters  F4Us, better known as Corsairs.  Ray is very proud of those Corsairs:  "We were the last squadron to have them.  The others were sent to France."

Being the newby in the squadron, his first job was in the library.  Then you went to the night shift and then you became a plane captain.  Soon after arriving, he was directed to preflight a plane.  Only problem was that he "did not know the first thing about preflighting a plane."  However, in time he was trained to do so.

Another job he had was taxiing his plane.  And that was by far the worst thing he had to do as he had to be very, very aware of those props.  And not just from your plane, but the other ones as well.

After Jacksonville his squadron was transferred to the aircraft carrier USS Lake Champlain, but weren't there long because its catapult broke.  They were needed for launching the planes.  So, VF-44 ended up on the aircraft carriers USS Coral Sea (CV-43) and USS Boxer (CV-21) and off to Korea they went as the Korean War was underway.

--Cooter

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