Virgil E Raines

Colonel (U.S. Army Retired) Virgil E. "Sonny" Raines Jr. was born in Jackson County, Missouri, to V. Elwood Raines and Ruby Nadine Adams Raines. He was raised on a farm in Shelby County, Missouri, attended school there, and graduated from Paris High School in Paris. He worked in the defense industry for three years and married Emma Jo Painter in August 1963. He enlisted in the army and obtained a commission as a second lieutenant. He became an army aviator, served in several overseas...See more

Colonel (U.S. Army Retired) Virgil E. "Sonny" Raines Jr. was born in Jackson County, Missouri, to V. Elwood Raines and Ruby Nadine Adams Raines. He was raised on a farm in Shelby County, Missouri, attended school there, and graduated from Paris High School in Paris. He worked in the defense industry for three years and married Emma Jo Painter in August 1963. He enlisted in the army and obtained a commission as a second lieutenant. He became an army aviator, served in several overseas assignments, and commanded from captain to colonel level during his nearly thirty-year career. Virgil Raines graduated from Park University and the University of Pennsylvania with multiple degrees, and is also a graduate of the Army Command and General Staff College and the Army War College. He served on several college faculties and as a professor of military science at the Naval War College. He has published articles on the war on drugs, several technical articles on military aviation, and a book, Horse Sense-William Rains and the Missouri Seventh Volunteer Cavalry. Soon to be published is his book Beat Your Drum Loudly: The Raines-Painter Revolutionary War Patriots. He also published several short articles on family members who were killed in the Second World War. Virgil is a member of the Sons of the American Revolution and teaches genealogy research to potential DAR and SAR members as well as to patients at veterans' hospitals. See less