: About Me

Charles A. Ray

US Embassy

Harare, Zimbabwe

(263) (4) 250-593

rayca7@yahoo.com

Areas of Expertise:

I have extensive experience in political-military affairs, and have worked in east and southeast Asia for several years. For the past fifteen years I have devoted a lot of time and effort to team building and working with dysfunctional organizations.

Candidate Overview:

A native of east Texas, I joined the U.S. Army in 1962. I was commissioned a second lieutenant in 1965, and served in a number of command and staff positions until my retirement in 1982. My military experience was in public affairs, psychological operations, unconventional warfare and military intelligence. I saw service in Vietnam (1968-69, 1972-73), Germany, Okinawa and Korea as well as a number of posts in the United States.

Upon retirement from the Army I joined the U.S. Foreign Service. I have served in China (Guangzhou and Shenyang) as a consular officer, in Chiang Mai, Thailand as administrative officer, and Freetown, Sierra Leone as deputy chief of mission. I also served in the Department of State's Bureau of Politico-Military Affairs, Office of Defense Trade Controls. In 1998 I was appointed as the first U.S. Consul General in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, and in 2002 sworn as the U.S. Ambassador to Cambodia. I spent the 2005-2006 school year as Diplomat-in-Residence at the University of Houston and in September 2006 was appointed as the Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for POW/Missing Personnel Affairs, and I served in that position until August 2009. In October 2009, I was sworn in as the U.S. Ambassador to the Republic of Zimbabwe. So, while my home is still in Maryland, for the next three years, I will be residing in Zimbabwe.

I am relatively proficient in Vietnamese and Thai and have limited ability in German, Korean and French. I am an avid golfer and published poet and recently published a book on leadership. I also paint and draw cartoons and have been an editorial cartoonist and magazine cartoonist, and a freelance newspaper and magazine writer mostly on historical or travel subjects.

I am married and have four adult children.

I have published two books on leadership: Things I Learned From My Grandmother About Leadership and Life, June 2008 and

Taking Charge: Effective Leadership for the Twenty-First Century, March 2009

Both are available at http://www.amazon.com

My passion is ...

Learning as much as I can.

My parents always told me ...

to work hard and be honest.

My childhood ambition ...

was to see the world.

Why I write ...

Because I feel compelled to.See http://www.poets2000.com/charlesray/default.html

Arts & Humanities > Colonial & Early American What was most revolutionary about the American Revolution?

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If you think the Revolutionary War was all about establishing a new country on the shores of what was then known as the New World, then think again.  The most revolutionary thing about the Revolutionary War was that achieved what it did not originally set out to achieve.  Fought between 1775 and 1783, it began as a dispute between the Parliament of Britain and the American colonists.  The Parliament insisted it had to right to tax the colonies, and the Americans, claiming their rights as Englishmen, insisted on No Taxation without Representation, and violently opposed the St...

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