Ray Woodworth, a volunteer Course Marshal and long-time SCCA member passed away Wednesday night, November 11 at Mercy San Juan in the north area of Sacramento.

Services will be at 1 pm Friday, November 20 at:
 
Lind Brothers Mortuary
arranged by Thomas P. Eyre
4221 Manzanita Ave.
Carmicheal, CA 95608
Phone 916-482-8080 for more details if needed.

Cecil Barbee, Course Marshall Chief, writes: Ray was the person that recruited me into SCCA many years back, He and another close friend showed me the ropes while befriending me. I will miss this great man and pray for him.

Ray was in WWII and served as a bombardier in a B-17. He did not talk much about his experience to folks but did start to share details later in life and I was one of those blessed with his life history. Ray was proud to be the first to add a machine gun to the glass dome on his B-17. He stated to me many times that the enemy fighters came at the nose of the B-17 with him sitting there looking at the enemy pilot and nothing he could do but watch. The gun gave him a chance to fight back. When he saw a photo of a B-17G he would say I never flew on of those later models.

Ray was shot down over Germany and spent two years in a prison camp and required surgery for the injuries suffered from the hard landing on the ground. He was lucky that the Germans treated officers with great respect. Rays legs shattered when he hit the ground and the repairs done as well as could be at the time bothered Ray to the very end.

As I was told and hopefully have this correct from Ray flak hit his B-17 at the waist gunners position blowing the B-17 apart at the gunners location killing both airmen. Ray had to crawl under the flight crew position and find the hatch in the nose of this craft while it was spinning to the ground, if you have ever been in a B-17 this space is very tight. While finding his way to the hatch he had to put on his parachute for the jump. As Ray informed me one of his flight crew members was frozen with fear in the hatch and had to be kicked out of the falling B-17. 

Ray shared more stories of prison camp and how they manage the freezing barracks in the winter and the lost freedoms, loved ones and other things in life we all take for granted.

Ray is and always will be my hero and I will miss him with a saddened heart.

Ray was also a loving father and husband. I can only imagine the sorrow in their loss. I will share the memories of his life and presence of his being forever in my soul.

Cecil Barbee

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