Missing In Action: The Story Of Ray Davis

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — Ray Davis’ story is like that of thousands of other American boys sent off to fight for democracy and freedom in the greatest war of the twentieth century.

Born and raised in the small town of Fort Deposit, he quit his job at the railroad in 1943 and volunteered to fly planes over Germany. He fought hard, he fought well, and he paid the ultimate price, going down with his plane in a ball of fire over Stotzheim, Germany just as the war was turning for good in 1944.

But members of Davis’ family did not know the whole truth behind their loved one’s demise until 50 years after the fact, when the information became officially declassified and available to the public. Sam Duvall, in the Winter 2001 issue of Alabama Heritage, examines the anguishing process the Davis family went through to find information about their son, who was reported missing in action for over a year before the Army finally declared him dead. In the process, he documents Ray’s successes in the air along with those of his unit, capturing the drama that surrounded the “good fight,” and passing along information about how others might research their own loved ones’ military history at Maxwell AFB in Montgomery.

Sam Duvall is a political consultant and freelance writer living in Montgomery. He served as legislative liaison in Gov. Guy Hunt’s administration and worked as executive assistant to Gov. Fob James in his last term, 1995-1999. During that time, Duvall worked for Bobby Davis, Ray Davis’ younger brother, who was James’ chief-of-staff at the time. Prior to his work in government, Duvall was a political and investigative reporter for the Montgomery Advertiser (1979-1983) and the Birmingham News (1983-1989).

Alabama Heritage is a nonprofit quarterly magazine published by The University of Alabama and the University of Alabama at Birmingham. To order the magazine, write Alabama Heritage, Box 870342, Tuscaloosa, Alabama 35487-0342, or call 205/348-7467.