Raymond Brown was born in Richmond, Indiana. His childhood was spent between Indiana and Ohio, finishing high school in Richmond in 1965. In 1966 Raymond married his one and only wife, Linda Kathleen Barker.
In November of 1966, Raymond was called to join the United States Army. He took his Basic Training at Fort Knox, KY, and his AIT at Fort Monmouth,NJ. There, he was specially trained in Radio Microwave Equipment Repair. This equipment was widely used and relied upon in Vietnam. Raymond arrived in Vietnam, 3 days after the start of the TET Offensive, the largest and bloodiest offensive of the entire war. It was an eye opener of what was to come.
Raymond returned home from Vietnam in February 1969, and was assigned to White Sands Missile Range, NM. There, he was in direct support of communications for missile firings and testing for all branches of the military. While at WSMR, he was temporarily assigned (TDY) to Blanding, Utah, where they were firing high altitude missiles. In Utah, Raymond was the victim of a vehicular accident where a local ran him down broadside at 70 mph leaving his back broken in 4 places and his left leg in 134 places. Raymond was hospitalized in William Beaumont Hospital, Fort Bliss, TX for 1 year and 8 months.
After returning to duty at WSMR, and resuming his normal operations,Raymond and his wife Kathy were blessed with a beautiful daughter, Jennifer Marie. Less than a month later, Raymond was personally requested by the 1st Signal Brigade Commander, to return to Vietnam and carry out a specific operation. That assignment was to be the Non-Commissioned Officer in charge of the largest communications site in Vietnam, which was at that time, over 80% infiltrated with drugs. It was Raymond's job to clean up the drug abuse on the mountain and bring it back to the high standards required to provide quality communications throughout the war zone. Within 90 days, the mountain was down to 20% drug abuse, and in the remaining 30 days, 0 %. The site was awarded commendations for every quarter there after.
Raymond returned from his second tour in Vietnam in February 1972 to be assigned to Fort Hood,TX. In 1973 however, fair winds and a requesting General, assigned him to Fort Jackson, SC to begin teaching Basic Electronics to troops prior to their AIT assignments. In July of 1975, Raymond and the United States Army parted ways and he was once again a civilian. Moving back to his hometown of Richmond Indiana, with his wife and daughter, Raymond became employed with Fox Electronics Co. In February 1981, Raymond and Kathy were blessed once again with the birth of their son, Jeffrey Matthew.
In 1984, Raymond left Fox Electronics Co. and moved to Indianapolis to work for Simon Property Group. For the next twenty years, Raymond continued to work for SIMON. In September 2001, Raymond retired from SIMON. Raymond dedicates his time to restoring Veteran markers in cemeteries throughout Indiana. He is the director for Mission Restore Bronze Indiana. He restores Veteran Markers at no charge whatsoever to the family. In 2017, he restored numerous markers in Central Indiana as well as trained groups and organizations to help in the process. Currently in 2022, his goal is to clean and restore 49 Medal of Honor recipients interred in the State of Indiana.
