TAMPA, Fla. (AP) — For more than half a century, Raymond Loring Chambers believed he was one of the fortunate few who survived World War II unscathed.
For that, the 93-year-old Navy veteran was grateful. When his three years were up, Chambers returned to Michigan in 1946. He was 21, had seen combat, but came home with no medals. He just put the war behind him.
Chambers became a father, went to work selling soft serve ice cream in a traveling carnival, and learned about “love at first sight” the day he met the animal keepers’ daughter. They married four weeks after the day they met. They have now spent 60 years together, raising children and grandchildren in their Gibsonton home.
“I was lucky,” he said. “I’ve lived a wonderful life.”
Turns out, he wasn’t done with the war. Nor did he actually escape injury.
Tears welled in Chambers’ eyes as U.S. Rep. Kathy Castor, D-Tampa, presented him Friday with the medals he never knew he had been eligible for while fighting in the Pacific theater. The medal ceremony took place at the Jan Kaminis Platt Regional Library as Chambers’ wife, children and grandchildren looked on.
Chambers was only 18 when he was first deployed to fight with the Navy special forces alongside the 5th Marine Division. Yet he survived one of the theater’s bloodiest clashes in 1945: the Battle of Iwo Jima.
“During this brutal battle that went on for weeks Mr. Chambers was actually shot in the leg,” Castor said.