2Lt. Raymond Simmons Hobbs was born on November 16, 1917 to the union of Raymond Bruitt Hobbs and Leslie Hessie Simmons. His father supported his family as a school teacher in Milton and as of 1930 they owned their own home valued at $2,500. Following high school, Raymond left for the University of Florida where he graduated in 1938. Afterwards, he went to work for the Florida State Road Department as a civil engineer. With war imminent,
Raymond enlisted in the Army on February 20, 1941 and was assigned to the 3rd Photo Reconnaissance Squadron. While home on leave in 1943 he married Emma Lois Smith before he had to return to duty. By 1944, his squadron returned to the U.S. from the Pacific and was re-equipped with the long range B-29 Superfortresses that was converted to a F-13A reconnaissance aircraft. With their new aircraft they would assist the strategic bombing campaign against Japan by identifying electronic threats and assisting with jamming efforts. The squadron returned to the Central Pacific Area in January 1945 to their new home air field on Guam, recently wrested from the Japanese in July 1944.
Overall, the squadron would lose 46 men during their 466 solo missions during World War II. One of those missions began on a June morning in 1945 when Raymond and his crew took off from Guam and for whatever reason they crashed. His grave marker is now located in the Milton Cemetery alongside his parents. His brother John William Hobbs was himself a Marine WWII fighter pilot that passed away in 2012.
Boeing B-29 Superfortress F-13 Reconnaissance aircraft
University of Florida, Class of 1938
Milton Cemetery, Santa Rosa County, Florida