TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — A former Army cook convicted of multiple rapes and murders is set to die next month in what will be the U.S. military’s first execution in nearly 50 years.The military said Thursday that former North Carolina soldier Ronald A. Gray is to be executed Dec. 10 at the federal prison complex in Terre Haute, Ind.Gray was arrested in connection with four slayings and eight rapes in the Fayetteville, N.C., area between April 1986 and January 1987, while he was stationed at Fort Bragg. He was convicted of murdering two women.President Bush approved Gray’s execution in July, and a month later Army Secretary Pete Geren set the execution date and ordered that Gray be put to death by injection. The date was publicly released Thursday.”The Army is moving forward with plans to fulfill the court-martial sentence,” said Army spokesman Lt. Col. George Wright.Gray has appealed his case through military courts and the U.S. Supreme Court, which declined to hear the case in 2001. —-Contact The Daily Reveille’s news staff at [email protected]