Raymond W. Bunting

Seaman Second Class, U.S. Naval Reserve
Serial: 6503029 — USNR V-6

Entered the Service from: New Jersey
Died: November 20, 1942
Buried at: Arlington Cemetery, Cove Road, Pennsauken, New Jersey

Seaman Second Class Raymond Walter Bunting, best known to family and friends as “Duke,” was born in Audubon, New Jersey on March 30, 1920 to Raymond James and Edna Eliza Phillips Bunting. His grandfather, Elwood Bunting, was a member of the Camden Board of Education in the early 1920s. The Buntings were living at 308 Edgewood Avenue in Audubon, New Jersey when the Census was taken in January of 1920. Raymond J. Bunting worked at the Philadelphia Navy Yard, and had worked there during World War I. The 1920 Census states his occupation then was “electrical machinist.” Raymond Walter Bunting, the eldest of three children, was baptized by Rev. Martin S. Stockett at the Church of Our Saviour on Broadway in Camden on June 20, 1920. His sponsors were Francis J. Bicker Jr. and Emily Jane Phillips. Two daughters, Jane and Sandra, were born into the Bunting family during the 1930s.

The 1921 Camden City Directory shows the family had moved to 718 Cedar Street in North Camden. The family was still at that address during the summer of 1935. Raymond Walter Bunting graduated from Camden High School in 1939. He had been the class treasurer. Musically talented, he played clarinet and saxophone in the high school band during his time at Camden High, where he met Norma Jefferson, who sang. They dated for five years before becoming engaged in May of 1942. After graduation Raymond W. Bunting went to work as an assembler at the RCA radio factory in Camden.

The 1940 Census shows that the Bunting family was at 6106 Camden Avenue in Pennsauken, New Jersey. The elder Bunting was still working at the Philadelphia Navy Yard, but had by this time been promoted to supervisor.

On March 23, 1942 Raymond Walter Bunting enlisted in the United States Navy. After completing his basic training in Rhode Island, he trained as a radio operator at Bedford Springs, Pennsylvania. On May 24, 1942 Raymond Walter Bunting and Norma Jefferson became engaged. He graduated from radio school on August 31, 1942 and was then sent to aerial gunnery school in Jacksonville, Florida.

Raymond Walter Bunting was next sent to California, arriving in San Francisco on October 16, 1942. Sadly, on November 20, 1942 Seaman Second Class Bunting was killed when the plane he was in, piloted by Ensign Thomas Edward Rogers of Lubbock, Texas collided in mid-air with another aircraft near San Diego, California. Compounding the tragedy for the Bunting family was the fact that Seaman Bunting’s uncle, Walter M. Bunting, had been killed in an airplane crash while flying for the United States Postal Service in May of 1921. Raymond Walter Bunting’s cousin, Second Lieutenant Bruce R. Bunting, died as a result of a wound to the head from enemy machine gun fire while on a bombing mission in Italy on September 10, 1944.

Seaman Second Class Bunting was brought home to New Jersey. He was buried at Arlington Cemetery on Cove Road in Pennsauken.