He is also a retired U.S. Army officer who was decorated twice for his actions in combat during the Vietnam War, and later served as the Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for POW/Missing Personnel Affairs.

[3][4] In the course of his 20-year Army career, he earned two Bronze Stars and an Armed Forces Humanitarian Service Medal.

[5] During his tenure at the State Department, he served as deputy chief of mission at the U.S. Embassy in Freetown, Sierra Leone, in the State Department's Bureau of Political-Military Affairs, and at the U.S. Consulate General Offices in Guangzhou and Shenyang, China.

[2][3][4] In September 2006, President Bush appointed Ray as Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for POW/Missing Personnel Affairs.

He reported to Secretaries of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and Robert Gates on administrative and policy matters relating to missing personnel.

In June 2008, Ray's first book, Things I Learned From My Grandmother About Leadership and Life, was published.

His second book, Taking Charge: Effective Leadership for the Twenty-First Century, was published in March 2009.