Ray Puglia Biography/ Research Paper English 112

Jabari Stafford

Professor Brandon

English 112

4/18/13

Ray Puglia Research Paper/Biography

In English 112, Dr. Brandon introduced us to a chest with many memories from a man he knew of named, Ray Carmine Puglia. The research activity on Ray Puglia was an entertaining way to find information in class. It was a lot better than going home and doing all the research alone. My group, which included four other individuals, was the main reason for my success in writing this biography/research paper. While doing this research, I noticed Ray Puglia had an interesting life. Our research activity for English 112 was a great way to learn more about Ray and the research process.

                Ray Puglia, born May 10^th, 1915, lived in Pennsylvania during his childhood. He attended Jefferson high school and received his diploma in 1941. Right after graduating high school, he began to work at a blue coal mine located in Pennsylvania. We were not exactly sure what year he joined the Marine Corps, but it was sometime during WWII. He served in the marines for twenty-four years, which is a decent amount of time. He spent around thirty days in Korea between June on 1950 and July of 1953. While he spent time in Korea, he was a part of the biggest land battle in the famous Korean War. His occupation in the Marine Corps most of the time included cooking or stewardship. This was discovered from his many pictures with cakes and pastries. He was also a gunnery sergeant according the additional research from my group.

There were two valuable items we located in his chest. His purple heart, which indicated he was a disabled veteran, and was wounded in action. The other item was an emblem, which said “2^nd Battalion, 4^th Marine.” The nickname was “the Magnificent Bastards.” I believe this meant he did much island hopping. Ray also met his future wife, Eva Marie, while in the marines also. They began to be friends because they both had something in common, which was being from Pennsylvania. Eva was 21 years older than Ray Puglia. Eva also served in the Marines. I am not sure of the exact date of their marriage, but Eva married Ray after her previous husband, Mr. Johnson died. Eva died before Mr. Puglia on April 17, 1969. She is buried in Arlington, VA at the Arlington National Cemetery. Ray’s sunset, I am unsure of, but it had to be after 1985, because in his chest was a letter sent from a friend. All of these precious items, pictures, and books told a sizable amount of information about Ray Puglia.

In conclusion, Ray is a man who spent a large portion of his life in the marines. These were treasured memories of his, which I know he would like to be taken care of. Altogether, Ray is not the most well-known man, but I am sure if other people were to do this assignment, they would definitely respect him for serving our country for such a long time. The group assignment on Ray Puglia is an effective way to analyze valuable items of history and learn the research process all at the same time.