Operation 85 is honored to announce that Chaplain Brian D. Ray, Ph.D. (Colonel, US Army Retired) , will serve as the official Operation 85 Chaplain and will deliver the Invocation on behalf of the U.S.S. Arizona families during the historic December 7, 2026 disinterment ceremony at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific in Honolulu, Hawaii.
But perhaps most importantly — Chaplain Ray is one of us.
Dr. Ray is the paternal grandnephew of Gunner’s Mate 3rd Class Robert Adair Anderson, US Navy, of Missouri, who was killed aboard the USS Arizona during the attack on Pearl Harbor. Like hundreds of other Operation 85 families, Dr. Ray personally participated in the mission by donating his DNA to help identify the Unknowns.
Now, 85 years after the attack on Pearl Harbor, he will stand alongside the families and offer the Invocation during one of the most significant moments in U.S.S. Arizona history.
A retired U.S. Army Colonel and Chaplain, Dr. Ray served our nation for 35 years across the active Army, National Guard, and Army Reserve. His distinguished military career included deployments to Iraq, Afghanistan, Jordan, Kuwait, and Qatar following the September 11 attacks. He served as Chaplain for the Office of the Joint Chiefs, Command Chaplain for the 377th Theater Sustainment Command overseeing more than 100 chaplains, and later as a Faculty Instructor in Leadership and Ethics at the U.S. Army War College.
His awards include two Bronze Star Medals, the Defense Meritorious Service Medal, the General Douglas MacArthur Leadership Award, and numerous additional military honors recognizing his extraordinary leadership and service to the nation.
In his civilian career, Dr. Ray serves as Director of the Poe Business Ethics Center and Instructional Professor of Leadership and Ethics at the University of Florida. He has also taught graduate-level ethics courses for The George Washington University Elliott School of International Affairs and served as a contributing professor for The Wall Street Journal in the fields of leadership and ethics.
For Operation 85 families, however, titles and awards are only part of the story.
Dr. Ray represents exactly what this mission has always been about: families stepping forward to help bring America’s Missing home and ensure the men of the U.S.S. Arizona are Unknown No More.
Operation 85 is deeply honored to have Chaplain Ray standing with the families during this historic ceremony in Hawaii.
“Some moments transcend history books. December 7, 2026 will be one of those moments.”