From Joe Galloway and Chuck Oualline:

-----Original Message-----

From: Jlgalloway
Sent: Tue, Feb 1, 2011 4:49 pm
Subject: Fwd: Loss of Ray Burns

gents:
we've lost a fine old Aggie Huey pilot and buddy of mine, Col. (ret) Ray Burns of Ganado TX.
It was Ray who flew me into Plei Me SF Camp in Oct 1965 and started me off on the adventure that took me into the Ia Drang a couple weeks later.
ray and chuck oualline, who also hailed from south texas and was, of course, another Aggie, were hoochmates in the 119th AHC at Camp Holloway.
i used to bunk down on their floor now and then, and drank their whiskey and played poker with them on occasion.
Cleared HOT, Ray. Shout when you find a good LZ.....

joe galloway

Attached Message

From: Chuck Oualline
To: Undisclosed-Recipient:;
Subject: Loss of Ray Burns
Date: Tue, 1 Feb 2011 15:07:19 -0600

I am sad to report that Ray Burns passed away this morning, 1 February 2011, in a Bryan, Texas, hospital. His home was in nearby College Station. Ray had been in the hospital about a week with complications from his brain cancer.

Marsha Burns asked me to tell everyone about the planned services. Visitation will be held in the Memorial Funeral Chapel from 5:00 to 8:00 p.m. on Friday, 4 February. The chapel is located at 2901 Texas Avenue South in College Station (phone 979-694-8615.) The funeral will be conducted on Saturday, 5 February at 1:30 p.m. at A & M Church of Christ, 2475 Earl Rudder Freeway South in College Station (phone 979-693-0400.) Following a procession from the church, internment will follow in the relatively new Aggie Field of Honor, a College Station cemetery created for former students, staff, and friends of Texas A & M University. Ray will receive military honors, as he was a retired Army colonel.

Ray, A & M Class of 1959, was an upperclassman of mine in the same Antiaircraft Artillery battalion. It was a military school when we attended. When I joined the 119th Aviation Company in Vietnam in 1965, Ray was already there and was my flight section leader. We often flew together, sometimes in the same cockpit and sometimes in the same formations, on many hairy missions. We were usually the first to reach the club every night. We have had many good times over the years, the last time being in San Diego at an aviator reunion in July of last year. One night there, our wives feared we would be thrown out of a restaurant because we were laughing so hard.

There will never be another Ray, and we all will miss him greatly.

Chuck Oualline