CARPENTER’S MATE 3C (CM3), USN
(30 Aug 1918 – 28 Feb 1942)

Service #2955622
Awards: Purple Heart, American Campaign Medal w/Star, Navy Good Conduct Medal

CM3 Sanford Farris Ray, the son of Robert L. Ray and Mary Duffy Adams, was born on 28 Aug 1918 in Covington, Tipton County, Tenn., eight months after the death of his 37-year-old father who had passed on January 24 of that year from pneumonia, leaving his mother to raise five children alone.

Petty Office Ray joined the Navy, January 6, 1940 at Nashville, Tenn. After completing his initial training, Seaman Ray enjoyed a bit of traveling, with temporary duties enabling him to hop from one ship to another, and he enjoyed the views from lands much different from the one he grew up on.

His first duty saw him in New York assisting with the second season of the 1939/1940’s World’s Fair from May to October 1940. On Nov. 8, 1940, he was sent from the World’s Fair Detachment to the USS Jacob Jones (DD-130) for duty, where he and the rest of the USS Jacob Jones‘ crew members participated in neutrality patrols in U.S. waters, along with submarine work.

Mid-December 1940, Ray was sent from the Jacob Jones to Naval Station Key West for medical treatment and assigned to the Hospital for temporary duty on Dec. 30, 1940.

On May 1, 1941, Seaman2C Ray was promoted to Seaman1C and on June 30, 1941, he’s listed on the USS Yukon (AF-9) traveling from Guantanamo Bay, Cuba to San Juan, Puerto Rico with further transfer to the USS Denebola (AD-12). He arrives on the USS Denebola on July 10, 1941 for training and instruction. July 19 finds SN Ray in Bermuda onboard the USS Yukon again, and then a transfer on Aug 16, 1941 to the USS Wyoming (AG-17), he leaves Bermuda and heads to Receiving Station, Naval Operating Base, Norfolk, Virginia to await transfer to the Denebola again.

On Sept 7, 1941, he’s back in Bermuda but this time he’s recorded onboard the USS Melville (AD-2), but a change in orders, puts him back on the USS Wyoming (AG-17) on the same day, awaiting transfer to the USS Denebola once again.

He arrives onboard the USS Denebola at its homeport of Casco Barracks, Maine, on Sept 9, 1941 and stays with the ship for a couple of months. Dec. 12, 1941, he’s back in Bermuda onboard the USS Yukon again, where he travels to Receiving Station Boston, Mass., to await the USS Jacob Jones. He was transferred back to the USS Jacob Jones (DD-130) on Dec. 20, 1941, as a Seaman 1st Class. Shortly, after his arrival, he was promoted to Carpenter’s Mate Third Class on Jan. 1, 1942.

When the United States entered into the war in December 1941, USS Jacob Jones provided convoy escort out of Newfoundland. In February 1942, she began submarine patrol along the East Coast.

A month and a half later, on the morning of 27 Feb, 1942, USS Jacob Jones departed New York alone to patrol and search the area between Barnegat Light and Five Fathoms Bank. She then received orders to concentrate her patrol activity in waters off Cape May and the Delaware Capes. In the afternoon, the destroyer spotted the burning wreckage of a civilian tanker ship, R.P. Resor, which had been torpedoed by German submarine, U-578 the same day. The destroyer circled the tanker for two hours, searching for survivors before resuming her southward course.

At 10.57 hours on 28 February, USS Jacob Jones was hit by two torpedoes from U-578 at 38.37N, 74.32W – Grid CA 5458 Off the coast of Delaware, while proceeding completely blacked out at 15 knots. The first torpedo struck on the port side just aft of the bridge and ignited the ship’s magazine. The explosion completely destroyed the bridge, the chart room and the officer’s and petty officer’s quarters. As the ship stopped, the second torpedo struck on the port side about 40 feet forward of the fantail and carried away the after part of the ship above the keel plates and shafts and destroyed the aft crew’s quarters. The ship remained afloat for 45 minutes, allowing about 30 survivors to abandon ship on four or five rafts. But as the stern sank, the unsecured depth charges exploded, killing several survivors on a nearby raft. Some hours later, an U.S. Army observation plane sighted the life rafts and reported their position to USS PE-56 on Inshore Patrol. The patrol craft was forced to abandon her search after three hours, due to strong winds and rising seas. She had picked up twelve survivors, but one of them died enroute to Cape May. The search for survivors continued for two days but was fruitless. CM3 Ray, along with 137 fellow crew members, were killed when the ship was sunk. Eleven men survived.

Petty Officer Sanford F. Ray was posthumously awarded the Purple Heart. His body, along with those of his shipmates, were not recovered, and he is listed on the Tablets of the Missing at Monument at East Coast Memorial, Battery Park, New York City, New York.