Site packs emotional punch for those commemorating the day.
Harl “Butch” Ray joined the Sons of The American Legion to honor his father’s military service.
But when Ray, one of the SAL’s national vice commanders for 2024-25, participated in a wreath-laying at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C., on Veterans Day, it packed “a little bit more of a punch” for him.
“My brother-in-law (Lowell Davis), now deceased, was a Vietnam veteran. He served in ’68 through ’69, and was an orderly in the hospital in Saigon. So to have the opportunity to fill in for the national commander and lay a wreath at the wall put a little bit more weight,” Ray said.
“I always remember a quote from Ronald Reagan, he said, ‘Most people go through their entire lives wanting to know whether or not they made a difference in the world; a veteran doesn’t have that problem.’ And in my involvement with the Sons of The American Legion, I serve to honor my father (Harl H. Ray, a World War II veteran). And it’s what we can do to honor their service, so being there and knowing that my brother-in-law, who died from complications from Agent Orange, he died from bladder cancer, it had a little bit more of a punch for me today.”
Ray laid the wreath alongside American Legion National Vice Commander James Kellogg and American Legion Auxiliary National Vice President Lauren Lloyd. For Ray, participating in such an event with the Legion and the Auxiliary reflects the “concerted effort” over the last five or six years to bring the Legion Family closer together.
“Every successful post that I’ve seen are the posts that have a squadron, a unit and a post that work together. And that makes a huge difference in furthering the mission of the American Legion Family,” Ray said.
- Honor & Remembrance