Raymond Leon Iddings died November 14, 2014, age 93 years. He will be sorely missed by friends and family. Born December 18, 1921 at home on the family farm in Putnam County, Indiana, he was the fifth child of Claude and Ethel Iddings; a younger brother and sister were born later. He was preceded in death by his first wife Hazel (Iddings) Schultz, his second wife LaVonne Davis (Iddings) and five bothers. Raymond is survived by his sister Helen Lovingfoss, his four children Jackie, Cheryl, Ray and Becky, and two stepdaughters Pam McKechnie and Valerie Guice, and a daughter in-law Mal Yon. Also eight grandchildren, nine great-grandchildren with one on the way, and five great-great-grandchildren. Raymond was a hard worker as country boy growing up on a small farm in Putnam County, Indiana; he often took many odd jobs to help his mother with expenses. During the summer he enjoyed swimming and fishing in the local water hole. From youth Raymond was very artistic; his sister Helen commented that he had a passion for creating detailed drawings of airplanes. He graduated from Arsenal Technical High School in 1940 and took a job at meat packing company in Indianapolis, where he met his first wife, Hazel Johnson. Raymond and Hazel married on August 6, 1941. Raymond joined the United States Army during the Second World War, following the decisive victory against Japan at the Battle of Midway in June 1942. He enlisted on June 25, 1942, the day Major General Dwight D. Eisenhower took command of U.S. forces in Europe. Following basic training at Jefferson Barracks, Missouri he was assigned to March Field, California where he quickly bored or guarding airplanes. He volunteered for infantry duty in 1944 and after some additional training was aboard the United States Army Transport ship Edmund B. Alexander bound for Le Havre, France. During the war Sergeant Raymond Iddings served with the 354th Regiment assigned to the 89th Division commanded by old "Blood and Guts" General George S. Patton. In Company A, he crossed the Rhine River into Germany during the night of March 25, 1945. “All hell broke loose,” he later wrote in his memoirs: “Looking up we could see the red streaks of tracer bullets and the blue-green streak of incendiary shells coming right at us.” They suffered severe losses as they crossed the Rhine River under heavy small arms and 20-mm machine gun fire from German positions, and landed in Germany under a barrage of artillery bursts. His combat experienced forever identified Raymond Iddings as a professional soldier, and left scarred stories that he never told. Daughter Cheryl was recently told a final story while helping him eat some chicken soup. A few weeks after crossing the Rhine, on April 4, 1945 the United States Army liberated the first concentration camp prisoners from Ohrdruf, Germany. The conditions were so appalling that words fail description; the smell of feces and rotting corpses overpowered the senses. General Eisenhower, Patton and Bradley were all sickened during their tour and Eisenhower actually vomited. In his memoirs, Raymond wrote of the “foul odor that blanketed the area,” but said he never entered the camp. While Cheryl recently helped father eat some soup he began to cry and apologized to her for never telling this story before: He then shared with her a memory from that camp ... a day that he held a spoon of chicken broth for a severely starved prisoner at this camp; the starved man was too weak, the man took a deep breath and died. Raymond told Cheryl that for all these years he repressed this story as his most painful memory—a war memory he was never able to talk about. Raymond was stationed in Japan during the Korean War. Later, in 1953 Raymond took part in atomic bomb testing during Desert Rock V ground exercises called Operation Upshot–Knothole where soldiers were in proximity of atomic bomb blast and performed operational duties following detonation. Raymond completed a twenty-two-year career as a professional soldier serving with the United States Army. His military career took him and his family to many places around the world including Japan, Panama and Korea. He was with Infantry Engineers in Panama when they constructed the Army Jungle Warfare School. He also served as Command Sergeant Major for recruit training at Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri. He finally retired from the United States Army February 1, 1964 and settled in King City, California. Among his many earned military awards include the WWII Victory Medal, American Theater Medal, Army of Occupation Medal, Combat Infantry Badge, European Theater Medal with two Bronze Stars, Good Conduct Medal, Sharp Shooter Badge, and the Expert Marksman Badge. Leading an Army family to places around the world is a complicated, but adventuresome affair. A son beared in Japan, children growing up in Lewis Creek and Lockwood, both near King City; later living in the jungles of Panama with wild monkeys playing in the backyard not far from a tropical beach, and mother on constant watch to keep strange crawling creatures out of the house. We explored ancient indigenous and historical Spanish sites in Panama. He enjoyed exploring caves in Missouri and often took his son, Ray, spelunking with him. Raymond enjoyed exploring caves; in 1961 he accompanied a speleological research team for a week underground mapping the deepest North America cave then known. After retiring from the United States Army Raymond settled his family in the King City area where he became a general contractor. Post-Army life brought many new adjustment and a divorce for Raymond as he learned civilian life. He later married LaVonne Davis and built his own home in Pine Canyon. After retiring from the construction trade he started a sign business that operated for several years. While many of his works still stand in the King City area, his most cherished works remembered soldiers and veterans; Raymond designed and constructed the King City War Memorial at City Hall, the Raymond Eade veteran memorial in the Hernandez Valley, and the Veterans Memorial in Barstow, California. In life, he enjoyed artistic painting and sketching. In 1993, after many years of research, Raymond wrote a family genealogy and history titled “The Iddings and Their Forebears.” Yet his greatest joy was spending time with his family—his heart always rejoiced in the presence of his children and grandchildren. He also enjoyed meeting friends at the Wild Horse Café where they often joked, told stories and rolled dice for coffee. In lieu of flowers, folks are encouraged to donate to the Fisher House Foundation, helping military families during a wounded loved one’s hospitalization, www.fisherhouse.org.