Raymond McDougal[2] (レイモンド・マクドゥガル Reimondo Makudugaru), commonly shortened to his nickname Ray (レイ Rei), was a U.S. Army captain and a member of the Grey Fox Commando Group. He served as the vice commander of the unit under Shane J. Caxton.
Appearance[]
Ray was an older man of Caucasian descent with a muscular build. He had short light-brown hair styled into a military buzz cut, and he also had a thick mustache and a cleft chin. He wore tan pants and a light blue polo shirt. Like other members of Grey Fox, he wore a tactical vest over his clothing. Ray used a M21 Springfield rifle as well as a secondary, standard-issue pistol for weapons.
History[]
In the manga, it was shown that Ray served in the same squad as Major Shane Caxton during the Vietnam War. In a flashback in 1969, after a Vietnamese village was entirely massacred by Caxton's unit except for one young girl, one of the instigating soldiers there, Larkin, wanted to rape and kill the child, even offering Ray to rape the girl first after the former looted the houses. Interfering, Shane refused to let him do that and shielded the girl. When Larkin pulled out his gun and commanded his other officers to also kill Caxton, Ray was the only soldier not to follow that order and in fact helped Caxton shoot and kill Larkin and then helped the girl get to safety. From that day forward, Ray began to admire Caxton and wanted to imitate Caxton's moral actions.[3] At some point, he married a woman named Shirley and had one daughter, Brenda.[1]
El Baile de la muerte / Roberta's Blood Trail[]
Ray served as Caxton's right-hand man in the Grey Fox unit. When they went to Barinas, Venezuela to kill a leader of the new leftist party MVR, Ray and Caxton stayed in a building and waited for Caxton to give the order for the bomb to detonate. Once the bomb exploded, they began to exfiltrate themselves from the area since the National Security Agency's Plan 117 succeeded. Shaking Ray's hand, Caxton recommended that he bring his wife and child with him for their next vacation. Unknown to them, their bombing also killed Diego Lovelace.[1] Some time later, Grey Fox was assigned their new mission, Operation China Pit, to track down and capture Shue Yan, a high-ranking enforcer in Khun Sa's drug empire in the Golden Triangle.[2]
The unit arrived in Roanapur as a starting point to travel inward in Thailand to go to the disputed border point where the Golden Triangle and Shue Yan are located. While in the city, Ray noted Roanapur's nature as a cesspool of crime to Caxton,[4] who said that the city reminded him of the crime and prostitution that they saw among U.S. troops in Saigon. Ray and Caxton soon found out that multiple factions in the city knew of their presence and did not want them there, so they ordered their fellow troops to keep gathering intelligence and prepare countermeasures. When the sun was close to setting, several low-rate gunmen from Bren the Black Death's murder business tried to storm the Grey Fox's place but were easily pushed back. Caxton, Ray, and their men went to the roof, and Ray pointed out Roberta with a Barrett sniper rifle, immediately taking cover and quickly finding a way to escape her range. Caxton, Wright and Horner engaged in suppressive fire while Ray guided the troops on their makeshift escape path, successfully fleeing.[5]
After the three teams of Grey Fox left their hotels and began to scout the area at night, they realized that Roberta was their primary obstacle in their mission to leave Roanapur. Caxton and Ray made a pincer formation to corner Roberta, but Horner changed his plan to save Garcia Lovelace from being killed by Roberta, changing the priority temporarily to ensure the boy's safety. While they let Garcia rest, the young boy recognized Caxton and Ray as the American soldiers who had a role in the Venezuelan bombing that killed his father. Ray was surprised that the child grabbed a gun and tried to shoot Caxton. When Caxton learned about the casualty, he acknowledged responsibility for the murder and offered his gun to Garcia to shoot him as revenge, making Ray uncomfortable. When Roberta appeared out of nowhere, Ray and the other soldiers aimed their rifles at her, but Garcia ordered them to hold their fire. Suddenly, the Vysotniki appeared on the rooftops above the soldiers, with Balalaika telling Caxton that she and her snipers would hold off Roberta to allow them to escort themselves out of the city since she did not want the U.S. Army there. Baffled at the turn of events, Ray asked what side the Russians were on since they hated both the U.S. Army and Roberta, but Caxton replied that he did not truly know.[6]
As the Grey Fox team drove in their cars to exit the city, Ray remarked that there was no difference to what was happening that night and years ago back in Vietnam, recalling the incident with the young girl of the massacred village. Ray remarked that he never got over killing Larkin, but Caxton assured him that he did the right thing in protecting the Vietnamese child, stating that Ray was a real man among corrupt soldiers. Ray thanked him, saying that on that day, Caxton reinforced to him that they should always protect non-combatants even if they were greatly outnumbered.[3] Once Ray and the others got to the rendezvous point, they embarked Dutch's boat to travel northward on the Mekong River to go to Shue Yan's approximate location.[7] After Caxton spoke with Garcia, he then went to the boat's hold and recapped the objective to his men, emphasizing that they would not kill Roberta despite her pursuit. When one soldier had hesitation about the order, Ray defended Caxton's decision by proclaiming that they were fighting for justice.[8]
When they got into the Golden Triangle in Shue Yan's territory in pitch black night, the Grey Fox team reluctantly brought Garcia and Fabiola Iglesias with them. As the soldiers traversed through the jungle, they found unusual objects which Ray thought possibly signified cultural or religious markers, but Caxton rejected that assumption. Soon, the Grey Fox team came across multiple corpses, and Ray and Caxton spotted Shue Yan tied to a chair in an area surrounded by Claymore mines.[9] Roberta then began using the flechette rounds that the soldiers saw on the ground to aid her killing of several Grey Fox soldiers, terrifying Caxton enough to ask Ray if he expected her tactics. Ray pleaded with Caxton to consider killing Roberta since they underestimated her abilities and bloodlust, but Caxton remained silent. Fabiola then aimed her pistol at Caxton, prompting Ray to point his gun at her in turn. When Fabiola asked Caxton if he would fulfill his duty to justice, the major listened to Garcia confirm that he would save Roberta.[10]
To stop Roberta from killing more Grey Fox soldiers, Caxton radioed Roberta to tell her that he would surrender if she handed over Shue Yan to his men, but Roberta responded that she could not forgive him. Garcia took the radio to convince her to come out, and a tense situation began while Ray stayed behind. After the confrontation between Caxton and Roberta ended with the two agreeing to leave to their respective countries, Ray held up his rifle toward Roberta, reasoning to Caxton that they could not just let Roberta leave after she killed several of their comrades. When Ray tried to shoot Roberta despite Caxton forbidding retaliation against her, Caxton shot him first, killing him.[11] In the Roberta's Blood Trail OVA, the standoff between Ray and Caxton, including Ray's death, was not included. In the OVA immediately after Roberta's mind became clear again, Ray had watched nearby and pointed his rifle at Roberta but Caxton told him to lower his weapon. Accordingly, Ray lowered his gun and stated that he almost fired a shot since he thought that Caxton had been shot with a real bullet instead of the fake one.[12]
Trivia[]
- In a popularity contest during the 10th manga collection release, Ray ranked 47th (tying with several characters) with 3 votes.[13]
- In a popularity contest during the 12th manga collection release, Ray ranked 67th (tying with several characters) with 1 vote.[14]
References[]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 Chapter 44: El Baile de la muerte Part 1
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Chapter 56: El Baile de la muerte Part 13
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 Chapter 70: El Baile de la muerte Part 27
- ↑ Chapter 52: El Baile de la muerte Part 9
- ↑ Episode 27: Angels in the Crosshairs
- ↑ Episode 28: Oversaturation Kill Box
- ↑ Chapter 72: El Baile de la muerte Part 29
- ↑ Chapter 73: El Baile de la muerte Part 30
- ↑ Chapter 74: El Baile de la muerte Part 31
- ↑ Chapter 75: El Baile de la muerte Part 32
- ↑ Chapter 76: El Baile de la muerte Part 33
- ↑ Episode 29: Codename Paradise, Status MIA
- ↑ http://sundaygx.info/blacklagoon_contest/
- ↑ http://sundaygx.info/blacklagoon_contest_12/