Football Players lift up Vietnam War ex-POW

Football players lift spirits of hospitalized Vietnam veteran
The Auburn Plainsman
by Kelsey Davis
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
January 18, 2014

In December 1972, when most Auburn fans were still absorbing the glory following the Tigers’ historic ‘Punt Bama Punt’ Iron Bowl win, 1966 graduate Ray Bean was being transported from one room to the next in a North Vietnam prison of war.

The guards typically confined the soldiers to groups who were brought into the prison at the same time to prevent them from obtaining knowledge from new prisoners. However, on the day Bean was moved, the guards made a mistake.

“When we moved into this room, there was one guy in there all by himself who had just been shot down, which was unusual,” Bean said.

The group of men drilled the newcomer with questions, thirsting for information from the outside. Answers were given and questions tapered off, but Bean, who was in the company of an Alabama graduate, had one more inquiry.

“Finally, at the end of about an hour, it had kind of quieted down and I said, ‘All right, let’s find out the real important stuff. Who won the Auburn-Alabama game?’”

Forty-four years later, Bean is still the die-hard Auburn fan he was the year he asked about the Iron Bowl outcome in a Vietnam prisoner of war camp.

“My dad went [to Auburn], my brothers went there, I went there, and then my daughter went there,” Bean said while explaining the Auburn roots that run throughout his family.

“My cousins all went there, and all their kids. So, it’s a pretty big family connection.”

After his release as a POW, Ray continued to serve in the Air Force for 30 years. He earned numerous decorations, such as the Distinguished Flying Cross, the Air Medal and the Defense Meritorious Service Medal. He later retired to Montgomery as a colonel.

But nearly one year ago, Bean braved battle again when he was diagnosed with cancer. On a week when he was out of town visiting family in Atlanta, complications from the illness sent him to Northside Hospital. He wasn’t in his team’s home state, but in a sea of bulldogs, Bean managed to find an other member of the Auburn Family.
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