First, note that the Navigation Control is the little 3-horizontal-lined device in the upper left corner, labelled "Nav Menu". Click it whenever you want to change pages. The selection buttons in the Nav Menu are red if they have been recently updated, such as new photos, or green if no recent changes have been made. Some of the buttons are blue if they are not yet "valid" until the next RAYunion. These are details which presently contain old information from the 2025 RAYunion that will be updated as we develop new information for the next (2028) RAYunion.
This website is intended to support RAYunions in the future.

Stay tuned to the USS RAY Facebook group and watch your e‑mails (and here) for more information as it becomes available.
PLEASE help us keep your e‑mail and phone contact information up‑to‑date.

^NEW!UPDATED 08/26/2026.^NEW!
Fellow Crew Members,
Based on the voting for a location for the next RayUnion, the top two choices were Charleston and Norfolk, with Charleston leading by a large margin. The committee tasked our agent to solicit proposals from hotels in the Norfolk and Charleston regions.
Five responses were received from Norfolk and six from Charleston. The committee reviewed these proposals using the following criteria:
• Dates available to host the event.
• Cost of rooms.
• Restrictions on hospitality Suites.
• Ancillary costs.
Several of the proposals were discarded due to the very high cost of the rooms at their facilities. Many had daily parking fees. Some required very high minimum expenditures for the event. Almost all but one would not provide us the flexibility we need to host our hospitality suite, where any prior attendees understand is the heart of our event.
Based on the above, the committee unanimously decided to select, again, the Crowne Plaza in Charleston, the site of the 2025 RayUnion. Their willingness to work with us, flexibility and costs provided the committee with the absolute best proposal.
The dates for the next RayUnion2028 will be April 4 – April 11, 2028. The Crowne Plaza has provided us room rates of $169 (plus tax and fees), complete control of our hospitality suite, free parking and the responsiveness and assistance that will make this event great.
Room reservations will not be open until after April of next year.
The committee will be working to develop events for the group before we issue a registration form and proposed costs. I would expect this to be out early next year.
But for now, Save the Date, reach out to our long lost shipmates, and send me any ideas or thoughts for trips and events.
Thank you all for your support.
Jeff Angleberger
RayUnion 2028 Committee

VIEW photos of the 2025 RAYunion HERE!
Special thanks to the 2025 RAYunion Planning Committee for the success of the entire event! The 2025 RAYunion Planning Committee included Jeff & Angel Angleberger, Jim & Marie Huyge, Dwight Lowdermilk, Tim Hayes, Mike Hylton and George Koucheravy.

If anyone has copies NEM, MUC, NUC, etc. awards, please forward them to
webmaster@rayunion.net,
even if all they say is
"For completion of a mission of extreme significance to the United States"
or
"For doing the stuff you did when you didn't go where you were doing the stuff you didn't do (even though you really did.)"
See the few we have HERE.

A link to a YouTube video displaying maps of the USS RAY WAR PATROLS in World War II at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-6jISqxO4oA has been added to the RAYunion Links tab.

The USS Ray (SSN-653) was commissioned April 12, 1967, and decommissioned March 16, 1993. The first USS Ray (SS‑271) was commissioned July 27, 1943, and decommissioned February 12, 1947. It was recommissioned as a radar picket submarine on August 13, 1952 and decommissioned September 30, 1958. Welcome to all who manned RAY or helped RAY be the best. A special welcome to the families who stood by us.