The FReeper Foxhole Profiles Lieutenant George H. Gay, Jr., USNR, (1917-1994) - May 21st, 2004

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Lord,

Keep our Troops forever in Your care

Give them victory over the enemy...

Grant them a safe and swift return...

Bless those who mourn the lost.
.

FReepers from the Foxhole join in prayer
for all those serving their country at this time.


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Lieutenant George H. Gay, Jr., USNR



George H. Gay, Jr. was born in Waco, Texas, on 8 March 1917. He entered the Navy in 1941. After completing flight training and receiving his commission in September 1941, Ensign Gay was assigned to Torpedo Squadron Eight (VT-8). On 4 June 1942, while operating from USS Hornet (CV-8) during the Battle of Midway, his squadron was wiped out while making an unsupported torpedo attack on the Japanese carrier force. Gay was the only survivor of the thirty pilots and radiomen in that attack. While swimming after his plane went down, he observed the dive bombing attack that destroyed three of the four Japanese carriers present.

Ensign Gay was rescued by a seaplane the following day. After recovering from his injuries, he served in Torpedo Squadron Eleven (VT-11) during the Guadalcanal Campaign, and was later a flight instructor. He was also active making public appearances in support of the war effort. Following the end of World War II, he remained in the Naval Reserve into the 1950s and was a pilot with Trans-World Airlines for thirty years. George Gay died on 21 October 1994.

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Oral History - Battle of Midway
Recollections of Lieutenant George Gay, USNR -- sole survivor of Torpedo Squadron Eight (VT-8) -- describing his experiences during the Battle of Midway. He was subsequently awarded the Navy Cross and the Presidential Unit Citation for his actions in the battle.

Adapted from Ensign George Gay, USNR, interview in box 11 of World War II Interviews, Operational Archives Branch, Naval Historical Center.

Lt. Gay:
Well, as you know Torpedo [Squadron] 8 was organized in Norfolk [Virginia] and I think you know the history of the [aircraft carrier USS] Hornet [CV-8] and where we went and what we did. I won't go into that but I will say a little bit about Torpedo 8 and the things that they did before the Battle of Midway and before we lost the half of it that was in that battle, stationed aboard ship.

One thing we'd like to clear up right to begin with, Lt. Larson and his half of Torpedo 8 stayed in Norfolk when we left there in order to get TBF's [single-engine "Avenger" torpedo bombers] and get the bugs out of them and get them fixed up for combat and they were to bring them out and join us aboard ship. However, it happened that we were in the Battle of Midway, he came out on the [aircraft carrier USS] Saratoga [CV-3] and they requested six planes from him to go to the Island of Midway and they participated in the battle that day, however, the bulk of the TBF's attached to Torpedo 8 at that time were in Honolulu [Hawaii] and missed the Battle of Midway. They later went to Guadalcanal and I came home on sick leave.

I might just as well start down. Well, Torpedo 8 had a difficult problem, we had old planes and we were new in the organization. We had a dual job of not only training a squadron of boot [inexperienced] Ensigns, of which I was one of course, we also had to fight the war at the same time, and when we finally got up to the Battle of Midway it was the first time I had ever carried a torpedo on an aircraft and was the first time I had ever had taken a torpedo off of a ship, had never even seen it done. None of the other Ensigns in the squadron had either.



Quite a few of us were a little bit skeptical and leery but we'd seen [Lieutenant Colonel James H.] Doolittle [USA] and his boys when they hadn't even seen a carrier before and they took the B-25s [twin-engine "Mitchell" bombers] off, we figured by golly if they could do it, well we could too. It turned out the TBD [Douglas "Devastator" Torpedo Bomber] could pick up the weight, so it was easy. We learned everything that we knew about Japanese tactics and our own tactics from Commander Waldron and Lt. Moore and Lieutenant Owens as they gave it to us on the blackboards and in talks and lectures. We had school everyday and although we didn't like it at the time, it turned out that was the only way in the world we could learn the things we had to know, and we exercised on the flight deck, did all kinds of things that we'd have to do artificially because we couldn't do our flying most of the time.

In the Coral Sea Battle we tried to get there and missed out on most of it but we were able along about that time to get in some bombing practice and to do some submarine patrol. However, the squadron didn't get to fly near as much as we should have. In the actual battle do you want me to say anything about the actual Battle at Midway and what we had there?

As I said, we had had no previous combat flying. We'd never been against the enemy, our only scrap with them had been in taking Doolittle to as close to Tokyo as we went and in trying to get into the Coral Sea Battle, but when we finally got into the air on the morning of June the 4th, we had our tactics down cold and we knew organization and what we should do. We could almost look at the back of Comdr. [Commander] Waldron's head and know what he was thinking, because he had told us so many times over and over just what we should do under all conditions.



I didn't get much sleep the night of June the 3rd, the stories of the battle were coming in, midnight torpedo attack by the [twin-engine patrol bomber seaplane, known as "Catalina] and all kinds of things, and we were a little bit nervous, kind of, like before a football game. We knew that the Japs were trying to come in and take something away from us and we also knew that we were at a disadvantage because we had old aircraft and could not climb the altitude with the dive bombers or fighters and we expected to be on our own. We didn't expect to run into the trouble that we found of course, but we knew that if we had any trouble we'd probably have to fight our way out of it ourselves.

Before we left the ship, Lt. Comdr. Waldron told us that he thought the Japanese Task Forces would swing together when they found out that our Navy was there and that they would either make a retirement in just far enough so that they could again retrieve their planes that went in on the attack and he did not think that they'd go on into the Island of Midway as most of the Squadron commanders, and air group commanders, figured and he told us when he left not to worry about our navigation but to follow him as he knew where he was going. And it turned out just exactly that way. He went just as straight to the Jap Fleet as if he'd had a string tied to them and we though that morning, at least I did when I first saw the Japanese carriers, one of them that was afire and another ship that had a fire aboard and I thought that there was a battle in progress and we were late.

I was a little bit impatient that we didn't get right on in there then and when it finally turned out that we got close enough in that we could make a contact report and describe what we could see the Zeros [Japanese fighter-bomber planes] jumped on us and it was too late. They turned out against us in full strength and I figured that there was about 35 of them, I understand, that is I found out later that they operated Fighter Squadrons in numbers of about 32 and I guess it was one of those 32-plane squadrons that got us. Its been a very general opinion that the anti-aircraft fire shot our boys down and that's not true. I don't think that any of our planes were damaged, even touched by anti-aircraft fire, the fighters, the Zeros, shot down everyone of them, and by the time we got in to where the anti-aircraft fire began to get hot, the fighters all left us and I was the only one close enough to get any real hot anti-aircraft fire, and I don't think it even touched me and I went right through it, right over the ship.



I think we made a couple of grave mistakes. In the first place, if we'd only had one fighter with us I think our troubles would have been very much less. We picked up on the way in a cruiser plane, a Japanese scout from one of their cruisers, and it fell in behind us and tracked us and I know gave away our position and course, and speed. We changed after he left but then I know that they knew we were coming. If we'd had one fighter to go back and knock that guy down, catch him before he could have gotten that report off, I believe the Japs might have been fooled some, quite sometime longer on the fact that our fleet was there. I think that might have been one of their first contacts warning them that we had a fleet in the vicinity and that got us into trouble, I'm sure.

Also, we went in to a scouting line out there when we were still trying to find them and didn't and the skipper [commanding officer] put us in a long scouting line which I thought was a mistake at the time. I didn't ever question Comdr. Waldron, of course, he had his reason for it and I know that he expected to find them but he wanted to be sure that we did and that is the reason that we were well trained, and when he gave the join-up signal we joined up immediately. I was only afraid that in the scouting line in those old planes we would be caught by Zeros spread out and it would be much worse. As it turned out, it didn't make a whole lot of difference anyway, but we joined up quickly and we got organized to make our attack, the Zeros got after us.

I remember the first one that came down got one of the airplanes that was over to the left. Comdr. Waldron on his air phone asked Dobbs and came out over the air if that was a Zero or if it was one of our planes and I didn't know whether Dobbs answered him or not, but I came out on the air and told him that it was a TBD. He also called Stanholpe Ring from "John E. One, answer" and we received no answer from the air groups. I don't know whether they even heard us or not, but I've always had a feeling that they did hear us and that was one of the things that caused them to turn north as I think the squadron deserves quite a bit of credit for the work that they did.


LCDR John C. Waldron, Torpedo Eight's CO, and Horace F. Dobbs, CRMP on the flight deck of Hornet in the Coral Sea.

Personally, I was just lucky. I've never understood why I was the only one that came back, but it turned out that way, and I want to be sure that the men that didn't come back get the credit for the work that they did. They followed Comdr. Waldron without batting an eye and I don't feel like a lot of people have felt that we made mistakes and that Comdr. Waldron got us into trouble. I don't feel that way at all. I know that if I had it all to do over again, even knowing that the odds were going to be like they were, knowing him like I did know him, I'd follow him again through exactly the same thing because I trusted him very well. We did things that he wanted us to do not because he was our boss, but because we felt that if we did the things he wanted us to do then it was the right thing to do.

The Zeros that day just caught us off balance. We were at a disadvantage all the way around.

Interviewer:
All right. Don't you think those Zeros would have been up there even if they hadn't run into that cruiser plane?

Lt. Gay:
I do, yes, but in our particular case I think they would have been at that altitude after the dive bombers, which I think also was one thing Torpedo 8 and the other Torpedo Squadrons should be credited for, I mean given credit for doing. They sucked those fighters down so that when the dive bombers did get there, as I was in the water, I watched them and if they didn't like to dive they were able to pull out and circle around a little bit and come on down later and if they felt like kind of individual bombing practice it was, it turned out to be beautiful bombing, because the fighters were not--I don't say that there weren't any fighters up there to get after them, there weren't nearly as many as there would have been if they hadn't come down to get us. So I think that is one thing that helped save the day as far as the battle was concerned. It was pretty rugged on the Torpedo Squadrons, there were two other ones out there that day, Three and Six, and they were shot up, one of them almost a bad as Torpedo 8, only they just didn't get the publicity, but they do deserve the credit.

Interviewer:
Year, well, it's in the O.N.I. [Office of Naval Intelligence] report. Of course wasn't one of the very bad breaks, the fact that the dive bombers didn't get there about the same time you did?

Lt. Gay:
Well, yes, of course. If it could have been a co-ordinated attack the fact that the fighters wouldn't have come down against us in strength, of course, there would have been just that many more airplanes around for them to take care of and they couldn't have concentrated on us as well as they did. Naturally, a concentrated, I mean an organized raid, if we'd been able to all get there and co-ordinate the thing we'd have come out a whole lot better. Definitely that's a fact that we, well, it's just known that co-ordinated attacks, torpedo planes always come out better if you've got that much help. It's the same way with anti-aircraft fire. The more planes you have to shoot at the better chance each one has.

Interviewer:
Do you think that the attack would have been any more successful if the planes had been more or less spread out. Wasn't Torpedo 8 rather close together as they went into the attack?



Lt. Gay:
Well, that might be true had it been that we were being shot down by anti-aircraft fire, but being jumped, as we were, by a squadron of Zeros, our beliefs were, and I think they were very well founded, that our only protection would be to stick together and let each plane's gun try and help the other plane.

In other words, in a TBD, with as few guns as they've got, the idea was to let, to stay together as a formation and fight them off as a pack rather than to try and spread out. We could have spread out all right, but they could have spread out too, and it would have been just that much worse on us.

I never have understood why it's been the general opinion in designing torpedo planes that it is not an offensive weapon. They don't seem to feel like they ought to put guns in it, and I disagree with that very thoroughly, and I can give my reasons for that.



When the Zeros attacked us that day, I was able, with my one fixed gun, to hit one; I know because I saw the tracers going into him. Of course, it couldn't hurt him with one 30 caliber [machine gun], but in fighting us since in the TBF's, I've seen them get in front of me and I've wanted in the worst way to be able to have something to shoot at them with, and I had nothing to shoot at them with. In other words, we go out and get in trouble and we have to just hope that there'll be fighters around to take care of us; whereas, if we had a way of fighting our way out, we not only would go out with a little more of an aggressive spirit, we'd get the job done a little better.

That day, I got a chance to shoot at other airplanes that just got in my way. It wouldn't have been that I would go out of my way to try and act as a fighter plane, it was just that the targets were there and they will be there every time a torpedo plane makes an attack, those targets will get in his way and he ought to have something to shoot at them with.

I had to fly right over destroyers that were shooting at me. If I had machine guns forward and plenty of them, I'd have been able to give them a little trouble. Then as I got in close enough to drop my torpedo, I could see everything on the port side shooting at me. If I had had some machine guns to shoot back them, I might not have been able to silence those guns, but I could have made the gunners a little nervous. As it was, they were just sitting there shooting at me and I wasn't shooting back at them. Then after I pulled up over the ship and did a flipper turn, I dove down right at the fantail of this big carriers where they were rearming and regassing the planes. Gas hoses were scattered all over the place out there, and I know they were full of gasoline. If I'd had forward guns, I could have set that ship afire right there myself.



I had no guns to shoot with except that one little pea shooter, the 30 caliber putt-putt and by the time I got there it jammed, it either jammed or was shot up. Then after I went out, I flew over another destroyer and every time there was a target and every time I had no guns to work on it. They seem to feel that they don't put the guns in the torpedo planes because we'll go off and fool around and get ourselves in trouble. I don't think they'll have that trouble with the pilots because I do think that they should have fire power forward and also aft to take care of themselves so that when the targets get in the way you can at least have the self satisfaction, if nothing else, of shooting at them. I really strongly recommend them forward. I find a lot of people who disagree with that, but that's my personal opinion on it.

I found out a couple of things about the Battle of Midway in talking to a few people that were aboard the ship other than some of the pilots that I've known. Of course, I talked to the pilots that came into the hospital at Midway and I was very much worried and wondered why, when I was in the water there and there were so many ships around me that were dead in the water, either damaged or picking up personnel, I've wondered why they didn't come in for a clean up. I mean our forces, why they didn't and I found out that unfortunate events had taken place.



The torpedo squadron hadn't come back to the Hornet, of course, the fighter pilots were unfortunate and ran out of gas before they got back and I think most of them landed in the water, and the dive bombers went to the Island of Midway, to land, so the ship was back there with no aircraft whatever, except their combat patrol of which there were just a few fighters, and they were worried sick and I know, I've talked to them about that afternoon, and I can imagine a ship sitting there with her air group gone and way overdue to return and nobody's come back yet. That's one of the reasons why the Task Force was leery about coming on into clean up and I think the [aircraft carrier USS] Enterprise [CV-6] and the [aircraft carrier USS] Yorktown [CV-5] probably had the same trouble and that's one way [reason] that the 60 ships that were there got away from us because we sure could have gotten some more of them. Any other questions?

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Interview Continued

Interviewer:
What happened to your torpedo when you launched it?

Lt. Gay:
Well, I was very lucky. Of course, I said it was the first one I'd ever carried and naturally the first one I've ever dropped. I had learned from Commander Waldron in his lectures that ships, especially large ships of that kind when they commit themselves to a turn, full rudder or something, it's quite some time even if they apply full reverse rudder it will be some time before they are able to straighten down and usually he told us from reports and things the Japs would nearly always commit themselves when subject to torpedo attack, they will maneuver. So I came in with, of course, with the rest of the Squadron, I keep saying "I", I shouldn't do it. We came in to make attack on this ship on her starboard side.

When the Squadron was finally wiped out and I got in close enough to the ack ack [anti-aircraft fire] to pick me up, she was in a hard turn to starboard, evidently going to circle, but at least took all my torpedoes if we'd have gotten in. Well, when I got in close enough to think about dropping a torpedo, I saw that she was in this hard turn and I pulled out to the right and swung back and gave her a lead and it was a perfect set up. I couldn't have missed it if I'd wanted to because all I had to do was to give her about a ship's length lead and then instead of the ship turning away from me, buy the time the torpedo got to her she was broadside and when I shot at her she was coming to me and turning hard, so I just veered off to the left a bit and, I was to her port by this time see, and she was in the turn to starboard and I laid off left and she just turned right around into it. It was easy.



That right there, by the way, brings up a point that I'd like to mention--Torpedo Director. Somebody asked me if I had a Torpedo Director in the plane, and I did, but I was so "gol darn" busy I'd forgotten all about it and I never used it. I think they're a very nice instrument and very handy for training, but I believe you'll nearly always find, at least I always have, that when I got in close enough to think about dropping the torpedo, I was so doggone busy, and had been up to that time, I didn't have time to fool with that thing. You'll find that you make an attack, you use your evasive action that you're so busy that you have to determine right out between 1500 and 1000 yards from the ship what you're going to do and you can't set up torpedo director in that length of time. you have to fly into your dropping point and it can't be a set angle either. You've just got to fly up to the ship and then take whatever you get when you get there and make up your mind what you're going to do about it in the split seconds and drop and then go on. Now that's an attack against the large fleet that way where you got anti-aircraft fire all around.

Of course, if you've got a transport or something that's sitting pigeon or something that you figure will go straight, you got time to use your director, that's something else.

Interviewer:
Right after that, as I understand it, you flew directly over the ship and circled about and finally was downed by a Zero. Do you want to go on from there please?

Lt. Gay:
Well, yes, I dropped the torpedo and was fortunate enough to get away from the anti-aircraft fire although everything was shooting at me. I flew right down the gun barrel on one of these big pom poms up forward. I think it must have been about 20 mm. [anti-aircraft guns] stuff. I looked in the sights and tried to get a shot at that fellow but my gun was jammed by then and I figured the only say that I could evade all that anti-aircraft fire was not to throw my belly up in a turn away from the ship, but was just to go right straight to her and offer as small a target as I could. So I flew right down the gun barrels, pulled up on the port side, did a flipper turn right by the island, I could see the little Jap captain up there jumping up and down raising heel, and I thought about wishing that I had a .45 [US Pistol, caliber .45, M-1911A1] so that I could take a pot shot at him. I couldn't hit him, but, if nothing else, thrown the gun at him, just something, but I then dropped right back down on the deck and flew aft looking at these airplanes.

By the way, I had a thought right in a split second there to crash into those planes. That I don't feel is any suicidal instinct at all. I know that if I had been shot up to the extent where I felt that I'd only go over those planes and fall in the ocean on the other side, feeling that I was pretty near gone, just a matter of seconds, that I would have crashed right into those planes, because I could have started a beautiful fire and I figured that's the way the Japs do it when they crash into a ship. It's when a fellow is just gone and knows it, it is just crash into the ship or crash into the sea, and you have enough control to do a little bit more damage, why you crash into the ship.



I dropped down after going over these ships, I didn't feel very badly, I had a left leg that was burned and a left arm that was gone, the plane was still flying and I felt pretty good and I didn't see any sense in crashing into those planes. I though maybe I'd get a chance to go back and hit them again someday and as long as there's life there's hope, so I pulled up and went over them, dropped back down next to the water, just after I passed over the fantail and then I heard the torpedo go off. Just a little bit after that then anti-aircraft fire hadn't picked up anymore, but the Zeros jumped on me and I was trying to get out of the fleet. Before I got away from them though, the five Zeros dived right down on me in a line and about the second or third one shot my rudder control and ailerons out and I pancaked into the ocean. The hood slammed shut, I couldn't keep the right wing up. It had hit the water first and snapped the plane in, and bent it all up and broke it up and the hood slammed shut and it was in the sprained fuselage. I couldn't hardly get it open. That's when I got scared. I was afraid I was going to drown in the plane.

I got out of there and thought about my rear gunner, made a dive to try and pick him up, but I couldn't get to him. The first thing I saw after I came to the surface was the other of those two large carriers headed right straight for me and she was landing planes.

By the way, that was an interesting operation. The Zeros were coming aboard and they'd circle way back behind the ship, have 1500 or 1000 feet altitude above her and coming straight in on their low gliding approach coming in straight and they weren't landing planes nearly as fast as we do. It seemed to be a slow operation. I don't know what kind of arresting gear they had aboard ships, it seemed to stop them pretty well as soon as they hit the deck, must have had a number of wires because when they landed in all kinds of different places it would stop right off, but I was a little bit interested in watching that, but I didn't care to do it at such close hand. They went right by me about 500 yards to the west of me and the cruiser that was with her was only a thousand yards, screen and I presume, went by about 500 yards to the east of me headed north and they circled back.



After the [US Navy] dive bombers came in and beat those carriers up and got them burning good and they lost control of them and they stopped pretty close to me, there was another [Japanese] cruiser that patrolled up and down on the north and south line that came by me first to the east, I guess about two miles away, and turned to me, and I thought they saw me and were coming over, but instead of that she just ran a 180 degree reversal and went back to the south. The next time she came up, she went by me much closer, but still to the east, went up and make her turn, and in her turn she got to the west of me and came back down by me on the other side. And then the third time that she came up, she came almost to me and made her 180 degree turn and went back, and on her way back that time, a patrol plane came by over to the west and she circled around the [Japanese aircraft carrier] Kaga to get on the other side and help throw up a screen against the patrol planes. They were trying to knock her down and she didn't come back anymore.

Then during the afternoon, there was a [Japanese] destroyer came pretty close to running me down. It came closer to me than any other ship. If there had been anybody aboard that I knew I could have recognized them as they went by. Of course, I was hiding under this cushion and instead of having my head above and out of the water, I presented the side of this little black cushion to him and hoped that they'd figure out that I was a piece of the wreckage. Pretty fair estimate about that time anyway, so I managed to not to be picked up by them somehow.

My main troubles in the water, outside of my leg burning very badly in the salt water, I didn't know exactly what was the matter with it until after I got into the hospital the next day. My hand was bleeding and I thought about sharks and then I remembered the concussions of the bombs and things and I knew that the sharks didn't like those things and I figured that they would be run off and I think that this is the case, but I swallowed an awful lot of salt water, I lost an awful lot of weight and my main difficulty was keeping my eyes open. The salt water finally got in my eyes to such an extent that I could only with very great difficulty open my eyes and I would open them and scan the horizon 360 degrees and then shut them again and leave them that way unless I heard something or unless I figured it was maybe a ship might have gotten close since I looked the last time and I'd force them open and look again. I got better on that score, much better after I got out of the water and was able to kind of clean my eyes out and get the salt water out of them.



I had no provisions aboard in this lifeboat and I was very lucky in even having the boat because it had been in the plane fastened down with a safety belt and the only way in the world that I know of that it could have been gotten out of the plane was that one of the bullets had punctured the boat, knocked the safety catch on the belt loose and it floated out. Just a piece of my luck, that's all and the emergency rations had a great big sack full of water and all kinds of things and it had SBC4 [Curtis single-engine Navy scout bomber] tail wheel inner tubes in it and it was fixed to float. I know it would float. I had it sitting on top of the lifeboat so that it would float out or so that I could take it and throw it out in case I was able to work with the boat. I never did see it, I didn't know whether it came out of the plane or not.

Interviewer:
How about this cushion? Did you break that out or did that float out too?

Lt. Gay:
No. The cushion just came floating out and Comdr. Waldron had always told us that he insisted that we have knives on our belts and everything else and he always told us that if we ever got in a spot like that never to throw anything away. I saw this cushion and at first I had no idea what I'd do with it but I figured I'd keep it. It turned out that it, I think, saved my life. I am very sorry that we didn't have time when Pappy Cole came along in his P boat [PBY seaplane?] and picked me up, I would like to have, rather, gotten that life boat, the cushion and all that stuff brought back, but he asked me if I'd seen any planes that day and I told him I'd seen a couple of Jap cruiser planes, so he didn't stay there very long. I was so tickled to be picked up along about that time that I wasn't worried very much about souvenirs anyway.


The last of Torpedo Eight's TBDs, T-16 (BuNo 1506), flown by LCDR John C. Waldron with Horace Franklin Dobbs, CRMP, in the rear seat, taking off Hornet on 4 June 1942.

Interviewer:
How about those heavy explosions you heard at night, didn't you experience some heavy explosions?

Lt. Gay:
Well, not too many at night. The carriers during the day resembled a very large oil field fire, if you've ever seen one. The fire coming out of the forward and aft end of the ship looked like a blow torch, just roaring white flame and the oil burning, the crude oil, boil up, I don't know how high and just billowing big red flames belch out of this black smoke. The dive bombers told me they saw this smoke at 18,000 feet that day and really did make a nice fire and they'd burn for awhile and blow up for awhile and I was sitting in the water hollering "Hooray, Hooray."



I was in a funny position to be cheering for the thing, but I was really tickled to see the dive bombers really pasting them even though they were in pretty bad shape. But during the afternoon after they pretty well burned themselves up, the larger one close to me there, the [Japanese aircraft carrier] Akagi, sank just after dark, the [Japanese] cruisers raked her with fire finished her off, and the other two, the [Japanese aircraft carriers] Kaga and the Soryu, burned all night, but they didn't necessarily explode. As a matter of fact, the Japs were there trying to put the fires out. I could seem them playing around, searchlights, picking up people and trying, I think they were trying to salvage these two ships; but the explosions that I heard the next morning turned out to be our submarines putting torpedoes into these things and they finished them off. That was early the next morning just as dawn was cracking.

I think the submarines, of course I know they knew they were there, and as soon as they could get a bead on them, why they let them have it and got out of the way again, cause they weren't sure what was around. That's where the explosions were.

Interviewer:
Like they did to us a little bit later on the Yorktown. What time of morning was it that you got rescued Mr. Gay?

Lt. Gay:
Well, P-boat came along, he told me later, about 6:20 and circled me. I knew immediately when I saw it what it was, of course. I never had cared much for P-boats before; I was sure glad to see that one. Since then I always thought them a very beautiful airplane and by the way, they do marvelous work. They picked up an awful lot of people there, but he came over and he circled. One of the kids in the rear blister waved his handkerchief at me and I knew that they had seen me. I didn't expect them to stop, as a matter of fact I would have been surprised if they had, because I knew they had a job to do and I knew that they had just come out from Midway that morning fully loaded and on their mission to find the Japs, so he went off and was gone until in the afternoon about 2:30 he came back and decided that I was too far out.

They already had dispatched a PT [high-speed wooden motor torpedo] boat to come out and pick me up from Pappy's message, he radioed back, but he said that he thought maybe they might not find me and I was too far away, so he landed in the open sea and made a beautiful landing, came in, headed right for me and before he even lost all of his speed in the landing, he came by me with the fuselage of the airplane almost on one side and wing float on the other, rocked me around, got me all wet again, but I was so tickled to see him that it didn't make a bit of difference. He circled back and picked me up.



Interviewer:
This burn you talk about, was it a flash burn from anti-aircraft fire?

Lt. Gay:
Yes, a 20 mm. [anti-aircraft shell] exploded right by my left rudder pedal and the flash backed. I had wrapped my pants' leg in my sox, which pilots do quite often, and I think they ought to always do it to protect against such things. my right leg, I don't think would have received any of that anyway, but it evidently was still wrapped and my left, leg, the pants leg had come out of the sock and it was just the flash. I mean the flash burn will get you and you don't need to think, just because you wrap your pants leg down and pull your sock up over it, that you're not protecting yourself, because you are. A flash like that, even just a flare back in the plane, if it catches fire, you can't ward off a continuous fire, of course, but you can get a nasty burn from flash that will be saved if you will only have just some light piece of material between you, you know, just to protect your flesh, skin.

Interviewer:
These two injuries you have from anti-aircraft, from plane fire, or anti-aircraft fire.

Lt. Gay:
Well, as I said before, the anti-aircraft fire didn't come anywheres close to me, at least I don't think it even hit the plane. The slug that I had in my hand and the one that had been in my arm, were both machine gun bullets from Zeros. I think both of those pieces had been ripping through the plane and were very well spent by the time they hit me, cause they just went under the skin and stopped. A machine gun bullet, if it had caught me with any force, it would have gone right on by, but both of those things were pretty well spent, when they got me and knocked me around a little bit, I felt it when they hit, of course, but they were able to take them out and no injuries, only scars, show for it. They didn't hurt my hand at all.

Interviewer:
Did you have a shoulder holster when you were in the water?

Lt. Gay:
I did, yes. I had my .45 in the shoulder holster and I took it out, it lasted pretty well. I expected to be able to get some material out of the emergency rations, to take care of a thing like that, I didn't have anything to keep it from getting rusty. The next day when they picked me up, one of the Ordnance boys aboard the plane told me that he'd fix my .45 up for me and bring it to me the next morning early, but the Doctors, of course, the hospital at Midway was blown up and with my hand in the condition it was in they decided to fly me to Pearl Harbor as soon as possible, so the next morning before daylight why they put me aboard a PB2Y [four-engine "Coronado" seaplane patrol bomber] and I was flown back, so I didn't get my .45.

I don't know what the kid did with it, but I do know that coming in that day after they picked me up there were a couple of our fighters saw us and came over to investigate and, of course, the crew aboard ship weren't sure what they were right at first and they began to limber up their guns and get ready to repel Jap fighters and I know that everybody in the crew pulled out all kinds of guns from everywhere. They pulled out rifles, army rifles, and one kid had an old western .45 with big old cock back hammer and so I figured that if my .45 would be put to such use as that, I could do without it.



Interviewer:
Well, getting back to this holster. Were you the first man of Torpedo 8 to have a shoulder holster?

Lt. Gay:
Well, I kind of think that I am. I feel that I was the person that started the shoulder holster business. I came into the Ready Room one day, I'd been worrying about carrying my gun. I always wanted to have it with me in the air, and in the old armor plate bucket seat in the TBD it was very uncomfortable to carry side arms in a holster. So I went into the parachute loft and had the boy make me a shoulder holster, and I came into the ready room wearing that thing and everybody in Torpedo 8 immediately took a liking to it, and we got some leather out of the store room and began making leather shoulder holsters for everybody. So the whole squadron had them, everybody else on the ship called us, "Circus" and a bunch of "Mexican Panchos" running around with knives and shoulder holsters and everything else, and them when we finally got down into the Coral Sea and began losing pilots and the boys were going into the Islands without their knives and things, they came around to ask us if we didn't have some spare equipment, but we had, thanks to Commander Waldron, we'd gotten all that stuff way back in San Diego when it could be had.

But I think since then, as a matter of fact I know that nearly all the boys that fly planes that will offer difficulty in carrying a pistol as a side arm, use shoulder holsters and there's quite a few of them in the Southwest Pacific now, and nearly every time I see one, I kind of feel like personally I started that. I don't know whether its true or not.

Interviewer:
Another thing in which Torpedo 8 more or less pioneered was this business of exercising?

Lt. Gay:
Well, yes. Commander Waldron had us out on the flight deck every morning taking our exercise. He figured that we needed it and we didn't get to fly much and we'd go up on the flight deck and run around the deck and also do regular physical drill. It didn't hurt us at all. As a matter of fact, it did us a lot of good; but the rest of the squadrons on the ship would stand around and "haw'" at us and laugh about it; but I found out later though that after Torpedo 8 was gone, that the whole ship was doing it and it's a good idea.



Interviewer:
One thing more before we leave Midway. How did Commander Waldron know exactly where to fly? From previous contact reports that had come in?

Lt. Gay:
Well, yes, that and his old foxy brain. He was a tactician from way back. He studied those kind of things. He thought about them all the time. We'd be sitting in the Ready Room and it'd be just a general bull session going on, everybody would be laughing and talking, and he'd be sitting there looking up in the ceiling thinking about tactics and Japanese, what they might do on certain occasions and things, and he'd stand up and call the place to attention and go into an hour and a half or so lecture. I don't mean to say that he wasn't a good sport, because when it came to throwing a party or having a good time on the beach, why we had a devil of a time keeping up with him. Boy, he was a party man. But he had his parties when he had his parties, and when he got aboard ship it was business. And I think that he just figured that thing out himself. Of course, he had all the contact reports at his disposal, and from that he just figured his strategy and when he took off to go, he told us where he thought they'd be. By golly, that's where they were.

Interviewer:
He figured it out perfectly.

Lt. Gay:
Um hum.

Interviewer:
Allright. Do you want to tell us something about your further combat experiences?

Lt. Gay:
Well, after Midway, I came back to the States for a period of 30 days' leave, and I began my combat experience with the United States Public Relations and Incentives Division in going around talking to all of those war industries and what not, and I was in the [United] States for a little over three months, of last year; then I joined Torpedo Squadron 11. The Air Group Commander at that time was Commander Ramsey, my squadron Commander was Lt. Comdr. F.L. Ainsworth, and he came to the Squadron from the Bureau and previous to that time, he'd been a patrol plane pilot. he had a very difficult job of learning torpedo tactics and torpedo work, and he did a very marvelous job. He was a great skipper, and I've admired him as a friend and also as a squadron Commander. A great man.

We were supposed to go back aboard the Hornet. I had asked Admiral Nimitz and later Admiral Mason if it would be arranged so that I could come back and go aboard the Hornet and Air Group 11 was supposed to go to the Hornet, but before we could get back out there, she was sunk and we stayed in Pearl Harbor for some time training.


Day of Hornet's sinking

Went from there to the Fiji's [large island group in Polynesia] and trained a little while there and then went on up to Guadalcanal where we did quite a bit of might work on what we call prowl hops. Strike Command would send us up 300 miles from Henderson Field into the Bougainville-Kahili [Solomon Islands] area looking for shipping at night. We would drop flares and skip bomb them and were fairly fortunate in quite a few ships. The squadron was told before we left down there, that we had been able to wreak more havoc on the enemy with less casualties to ourselves than any other unit that had been at Guadalcanal, which I thought was a pretty good record.

We had one thing that happened that was a distinct blow to the whole squadron. After having worked there for a period of about, well, it was nearly three months, they told us we could have a blow and go to Sidney, Australia. We were given four SCAT [Service Command Air Transportation] planes, one to leave each day with our pilots and our crews. One of those planes crashed in Tontouta, killing our then Air Group Commander, Lt. Commander Hamilton, and his crew. He was a TBF flier, of course, and also killed other pilots, Lieutenant Lindsey, and an NAP {Naval Aviation Pilot] by the name of Quick, Ensign Paul Bable, and Ensign Weise and Ensign Burke, and their ground crews and another very marvelous man, by the name of Mike Flynn, Lieutenant, A-V(S) [US Naval Reserve aviation officer qualified for specialist duties] officer.



He was our Operations Officer and left a job that we later found out we couldn't get three men to fill. He really was a good man and he didn't know about the Navy when he got into it, and didn't know much about airplanes and flying them, but he really took over his job out there and really went to town. He did a beautiful job and I like Mike very much. He had a habit in his civilian life of being able to make money without any trouble and he was a good poker player, and he came out pretty well on his poker winnings, and he also had a lot of money. He bought a $100 bond for everybody in the squadron. He put it up in his will, and I'll probably see it some day. I never did think Mike would get it. He just made up his mind that he wanted to go with us when we went to Australia, and he got on this transport and got killed. I think that was about the second or third hop he'd taken since he'd been with the squadron.

But to the enemy we didn't lose very many people. One radio man was killed in the plane with Ensign Weise on a daylight raid to Bougainville and, of course, the next day Weise was killed in this Tontouta crash in a DC-3 [twin-engine Douglas "Dakota" transport], but we lost on a night mine laying hop an Ensign who had joined the squadron in the Fiji Islands by the name of Sweitzer, and on a daylight raid we lost an Ensign by the name of Snell. Of course, we lose their crews with each of the pilots. Unfortunately, I don't get to know the crews very well.

On this publicity business, it's unfortunate to me that I can't tell their story and give them the credit that they deserve. They never get the credit that they really have coming to them. That's another story. That's all we had lost to the Japs. We had another kid lost in the fog one night, by the name of Harry Brown. He and his crew. We were very lucky and had a wonderful squadron. We were in on the initial softening up [pre-invasion bombardment] of Munda [peninsula on the island of New Georgia, Solomon Islands] and then came back to the States. I've been back here about weeks.

Interviewer:
Can you tell us anything more about that initial softening up of Munda?

Lt. Gay:
Well, yes. Munda had been pounded long before we ever got to Guadalcanal [easternmost large island in the Solomons]. As a matter of fact, the palm trees and everything up there were pretty well beat up and we'd go up on an average of about twice a day with some 48 TBFs, loaded with either four 500-pound bombs, demolitions or 2,000-pound instantaneous or daisy cutters, and we'd have some 40 or 50 SBDs [Douglas "Dauntless" dive-bombers] with thousand pound bombs, and a number of fighters, and we'd go up there and just move the dirty over a couple of hundred yards, and then the next afternoon we'd come back again; and we did that nearly every day.



Just kept right on pounding them, but it happened that although we thought that it would be easy for the ground forces to walk in there and take the place, the first thing they started crying for when they got there was more air support. The Japs were dug in, they were all underground, and I think that although you beat on them from the air like the devil, they are going to be hard to take whenever you hit them on the ground. Of course, I am not much of a ground tactician, I don't know much about the ground fighting out there, except that we all though thought Munda was beat down to such a state that it would be easy. It turned out that it wasn't. It took them longer than we thought it would. We had to go back up and do it some more.

The question's been asked if I saw any of our rear gunners in the TBDs shoot down any of the Zeros in the action at Midway. My answer to that is "Yes." I saw five Zeros shot down. Of course, now that has been my answer to that question has been interpreted that my rear gunner shot down five planes. That's not true. That was the combined action of the squadron, the boys were working on them with everything they had, trying to keep them off us and we may have gotten more than that. As a matter of fact, I would be inclined to think that we did, but I know positively that we got five. Because I saw them hit the water.

Interviewer:
Another question. Going back to your rescue at Midway, how did you identify yourself to your rescuing planes?

Lt. Gay:
Well, I was sitting up in the middle of this battle area and there was all kinds of things around, oil slick and barrels and lumber and the Japanese life rafts were black. I was in a big four man yellow rubber life raft and I am sure he knew, as soon as he saw that yellow boat, that I was an American. Of course, I waved to him and had my regular Navy T-shirt, took my khaki shirt off and just figured if he saw that Navy T-shirt, me in that yellow boat, that he'd know it was one of his buddies.

Interviewer:
You said you did some mine laying. Where did you do that and what type of work is that?

Lt. Gay:
Well we did that up in the Kahili area up around Bougainville [largest of the Solomon Islands] in Shortland Harbor. To me, outside of daylight skip bombing in TBFs, that's about as rugged a thing a flight command can dream up. It's aerial mines. They've got to be dropped from about 800 feet altitude. You've got to go into the harbor, pick out a landmark and fly on a steady compass course for a period of seconds, depending upon where your mine belongs in the field. You come in, pick up your point, and fly right straight along, and if the Japs happen to see you out there, they kind of make it hot for you. They can pretty well figure out what you are doing right off the bat. It calls for some tricky flying, 'cause you've got, in our particular places, we had some 50 TBFs that had to get into the harbor and get out in some 15-20 minutes. We had the Army supporting us in bombing these ground installations along the beach, trying to keep their searchlights out and the anti-aircraft fire from eating us up, and they did beautiful work. The lights would come on and they' put them out.

Of course, in that night work also, no one has any lights on and you lean your mixture back to where the plane's just gasping for gasoline and that dampens down the exhaust. I never have seen the difficulty in getting out an exhaust dampener. I would think if you'd stick a plate over it somewhere where it don't show, that's all you need; but that work is tricky and it's got to be planned and well executed.

It seems to me, in speaking of night flying, especially in a harbor that way, the general tendency of nearly all pilots when they get under that kind of fire, is to get down next to the water, which is a good idea; but at night, anytime, flying over the water, you can't judge your distance, and my tendency, my feeling was always to pull back on the stick rather than go down, because I'm sure that some of the boys that we lost up there in that stuff just flew into the water. That's all there was to it. And so, I think that it should be borne in mind that radar altimeters should always be used in planes doing that work, because, when that red light flashes on, you are getting too close. I think it should be remembered in all cases that that equipment be required for such work.



Interviewer:
What types of mines were you laying there, and how heavy were they, and how many could you carry with your plane?

Lt. Gay:
In the TBF we were able to carry one. It was a big 1000 pound Mark 2. We had some Mark 2's and Mark 3's, aerial mines. They had parachute attachments and we could drop them as high as eleven, twelve hundred feet. They'd parachute down and they were magnetic mines. They had devices in the exploder mechanism fixed so that they would, if a minesweeper or a ship would pass over them, they would click. In other words, click, off a section; and they could be set for any number of notches that you wanted to put on them, I think up to 12. And we managed to harass them a bit as we set all of them at different intervals, and we know that they were sweeping the place all the time, and they'd sweep over one of those things three or four times and they'd think the place was clear and maybe on the fifth click she'd go off. You understand those things. I didn't know much about mines. Haven't done a whole lot of that kind of work, but it was interesting, and it was tricky and I was very glad to have that experience.

Interviewer:
How successful was it?

Lt. Gay:
Well, we were told that it was fairly successful. It's hard to determine how many ships you sink in a case like that, because you can't be on the spot when the ship's sunk. They sneak in on you there at night and it's liable to be sunk and you'd never know about it. We were given credit for a number of ships being sunk, two or three, I am sure, but the main thing that a field like that will do will be to make them mine-conscious, keep them constantly working on sweeping the fields and make them bring their ships into their harbors by a definite route each time, which helps us when we want to go in and make a raid you see. We know where the ships ought to go, what lanes they'll use. They'll make a definite effort to sweep one place, make an entrance, so that they can get in. Well, we can find out where that is and when we go up there hunting ships, we know what lanes they should be in. It makes them worry a lot and although we were kind of leery about it, at the time, we felt that we were doing a job that wasn't of much importance. Since then, I found out that it was, and did a good deal of damage and accomplished its purpose very well.

Interviewer:
Thank you very much Lieutenant Gay.

---

Today's Educational Sources and suggestions for further reading:
www.navy.mil
www.centuryinter.net/midway/Carrier_Squadrons/Torpedo_Eight/
www.americanairpowermuseum.com

[snippy_about_it]

FALL IN to the FReeper Foxhole!



It's Friday! Good Morning Everyone.


If you would like added to our ping list let us know.

[snippy_about_it]

Veterans for Constitution Restoration is a non-profit, non-partisan educational and grassroots activist organization.

---

Tribute to a Generation - The memorial will be dedicated on Saturday, May 29, 2004.

Thanks to CholeraJoe for providing this link.

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Actively seeking volunteers to provide this valuable service to Veterans and their families.

Thanks to quietolong for providing this link.

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Iraq Homecoming Tips

~ Thanks to our Veterans still serving, at home and abroad. ~ Freepmail to Ragtime Cowgirl | 2/09/04 | FRiend in the USAF

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UPDATED THROUGH APRIL 2004



The FReeper Foxhole. America's History. America's Soul

Click on Hagar for
"The FReeper Foxhole Compiled List of Daily Threads"

[SAMWolf]

Good Night Snippy. Gonna have to read this one in the morning.

[snippy_about_it]

It's a long one but an easy read. There was no way to shorten his interview and have his story told. See you tomorrow, goodnight Sam.

[GATOR NAVY]

This is the first I've read about what Gay did after Midway. Those guys had balls-I mean big brass ones hanging down past their knees-to fly Devastators aginst Japanese carriers at that stage of the war.

[GATOR NAVY]

Sorry, I meant #6 to go to you too, especially since you posted it.

[Aeronaut]

Good Morning Snippy.

[E.G.C.]

Good morning, snippy and everyone at the Foxhole.

[GailA]

Good Morning

Coffee's on

[snopercod]

My dad's on the left:

[Professional Engineer]

Good morning ladies. Flag-o-gram.

[Samwise]

"Morning snippy!

[Soaring Feather]

Good Friday morning everyone.

[The Mayor]

May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. —Romans 15:13

No one is hopeless whose hope is in God.

[bandleader]

Dear snippy_about_it,How are things?Now you've "profiled"the only survivor of"Torpedo 8/USS Hornet".Lt. Gay went on to a long career flying for TWA if I'm not mistaken.The action where he emerged as the only survivor of his squadron was Midway(June,1942).Some historians refer to it as"The Miracle of Midway".So many ifs;What if Spruance hadn't been needed to replace Halsey(he was suffering from an outbreak of shingles).What if the Japanese hadn't been in the process of changing the armament on their planes at just the Wrong time???

[Soaring Feather]

Good morning PE. Love today's Flag-o-gram. What a great family living in the White House.

[SAMWolf]

Morning Gator Navy.

Thank God for men like Ensign Gay.

[SAMWolf]

Amazing man, after all he went through and he wanted to do more. America is lucky that it produces such men.

[SAMWolf]

Morning Aeronaut

[SAMWolf]

Morning E.G.C. Cloudy here today, looks like we got some light rain last night.

[SAMWolf]

Morning GailA. Perfect breakfast for this morning.

[SAMWolf]

Morning Snopercod.

Do you know where the picture was taken?

[SAMWolf]

Morning PE.

Boy, those people sure look familiar. :-)

[SAMWolf]

Hey Samwise. You're early today.

[SAMWolf]

Hi Feather.

[SAMWolf]

Good Morning Mayor.

[Valin]

On This Day In History


Birthdates which occurred on May 21:
0427 -BC- Plato (Aristocles), Athens(?)
1471 Albrecht Dürer Nürnberg Germany, Renaissance painter/print maker
1527 Philip II King of Spain (1556-98) & Portugal (1580-98)
1633 Joseph de La Barre composer
1688 Alexander Pope England, poet (Rape of the Lock)
1780 Elizabeth Fry Quaker minister/prison reformer/nurse
1796 Reverdy Johnson representative (Union), died in 1876
1822 Dabney Herndon Maury Major General (Confederate Army), died in 1900
1822 Mosby Monroe Parsons Brigadier General (Confederate Army) died in 1865
1825 George Lafayette Beal Brevet Major General (Union volunteers)
1835 Newton Martin Curtis Brevet Major General (Union volunteers)
1860 Willam Einthoven Dutch physiologist/inventor (electrocardiograph)
1865 C J Thomsen Denmark, archaeologist, named Stone/Iron/Bronze Ages
1872 Henry Warren Boston MA, inventor (Telechon electric clock)
1878 Glenn Hammond Curtiss US, inventor (hydroplane)
1898 Armand Hammer New York NY, millionaire industrialist (Occidental Petroleum)
1903 Manly Wade Wellman Angola, sci-fi author (After Dark, Devil's Planet)
1904 Fats [Thomas Wright] Waller New York NY, jazz singer/composer (Ain't Misbehavin')
1904 Robert Montgomery Beacon NY, actor/director (Earl of Chicago, Yellow Jack)
1909 Guy de Rothschild French banker
1916 Harold Robbins New York NY, author (Moneychangers, Carpetbaggers, Betsy)
1917 Dennis Day New York NY, Irish tenor/comedian (Jack Benny Show, Danny Boy)
1917 Raymond Burr New Westminster British Columbia Canada, actor (Perry Mason, Ironsides, Godzilla)
1921 Andrei Sakharov Moscow, physicist, human rights worker (Nobel '75)
1935 Terry Lightfoot clarinetist/bandleader (New Orleans Jazzmen)
1941 Anatoli Semyonovich Levchenko USSR, cosmonaut (TM-4)
1941 Ronald Isley Cincinnati OH, singer (Isley Brothers-Twist & Shout)
1942 Robert C Springer St Louis, Colonel USMC/astronaut (STS-29, STS-38)
1943 Hilton Valentine rock guitarist (Animals-House of the Rising Sun)
1944 Mary Robinson President of Republic of Ireland (Labour, 1990- )
1945 Ernst Willi Messerschmid Reutlingen Germany, astronaut (STS 22)
1947 Richard Hatch Santa Monica CA, actor (Battlestar Galactica)
1948 Leo [Gerard] Sayer Shoreham-on-Sea England, singer (When I Need You)
1950 Roger Hodgson London, rocker (Supertramp-The Logical Song)
1951 Al Franken comedian/writer/actor/loser (Saturday Night Live, Stuart Saves His Family, Air America)
1952 Mr T [Lawrence Tero] Chicago IL, actor (A-Team, Rocky III, T & T)
1955 Stan Lynch Gainesville FL, rock drummer (Tommy Petty & Heartbreakers)
1959 Nick Cassavetés actor (Rosemary's Baby, Quiet Cool)
1970 Dorsey Levens NFL running back (Green Bay Packers-Superbowl 31)
1970 Roman Turek Strakonice Czechoslovakia, hockey goalie (Team Czechoslovakia Republic, Olympics-98)
1978 Kandy Marshall Miss Virginia Teen USA (1996)
1985 Frustaci Septuplets California, Patricia Frustaci gives birth to 7

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Deaths which occurred on May 21:
0987 Louis V last Carlovingians King of France (966-987), dies
1254 Koenraad IV Roman Catholic-German king (1237-54), dies at 26
1481 Christian I king of Denmark/Norway/Sweden, dies
1542 Hernando de Soto dies while searching for gold, near Mississippi River
1650 James G Marquis of Montrose, Scottish general, hanged
1690 John Eliot English missionary in Massachusetts, dies at 85
1810 Charles Chevalier d'Eon de Beaumont French spy, dies at 81
1894 August A Kundt German physicist, (test of Kundt), dies at 54
1924 Bobby Franks killed by Leopold & Loeb, at 14
1935 Jane Addams a founder of ACLU (Nobel 1973), dies at 65
1952 John Garfield actor (Juarez, Air Force), dies at 39
1966 Pat O'Malley silent film actor (Wild One, Quiet Man), dies at 75
1970 Vinton Hayworth actor (General Schaeffer-I Dream of Jeannie), dies at 63
1981 Yuki Shimoda actor (Farewell to Manzanar), dies
1987 Alejandro Rey actor (Moscow on the Hudson), dies at 57
1988 Dino Conte Grandi Italy, delegate to league of nations, dies at 92
1993 John Frost English Lieutenant-Colonel (operation Market Garden 1944), dies at 80
1994 Cliff Wilson snooker player, dies at 60
1995 Les Aspin US Secretary of Defense (1993-95), dies of stroke at 56
1996 Al "Lash" La Rue cowboy actor (Lash of the West), dies at 78

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Reported: MISSING in ACTION

1965 BRACE ERNEST C.
[03/73 RELEASED BY PL,ALIVE AND WELL IN 98]
1966 BUCKLEY LOUIS---DETROIT MI.
1966 THACKERSON WALTER A.---TALLADEGA AL.
1967 SIMPSON WALTER S.---TRENTON NJ.
1967 WROBLESKI WALTER F.---FREEHOLD NJ.
1968 LEMCKE DAVID E.---HILTON NY.
1970 ALBERT KEITH A.---THIBODAUX LA.
[02/12/73 RELEASED BY PRG,ALIVE IN 99]

POW / MIA Data & Bios supplied by
the P.O.W. NETWORK. Skidmore, MO. USA.

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On this day...
0143 Earliest known date in America-pre Mayan king Harvest-Bergvorst installed
0685 Battle at Nechtansmere: Picts beat Northumbrians
0996 Pope Gregory V crowns his cousin Otto III German emperor
1420 Treaty of Troyes-French King Charles VI gives France to English
1502 Portuguese Admiral Da Nova discovers St Helena
1602 Martha's Vineyard 1st sighted (Captain Bartholomew Gosnold)
1674 General John Sobieski chosen King of Poland
1804 Lewis & Clark Expedition begins
1819 1st bicycles (swift walkers) in US introduced in NYC
1832 1st Democratic National Convention (Baltimore)
1846 1st steamship arrives in Hawaii
1856 Lawrence KS captured, sacked by pro-slavery forces
1861 North Carolina is 10th state to secede from Union
1861 Richmond VA is designated Confederate Capital
1863 Siege on Port Hudson, Louisiana begins
1864 Gen. David Hunter takes command of Department of West Virginia
1871 French regular troops attack Commune of Paris; 17,000 die
1881 American Red Cross founded by Clara Barton
1891 Boxers Peter Jackson & Jim Corbett fight to a draw in 61 rounds
1897 Yerkes Observatory 40" (1 meter) refractor used for 1st time
1904 Federation Internationale de Football Association (Soccer) forms in Paris France
1906 Louis H Perlman patents a demountable tire carrying rim for cars
1908 1st horror movie (Dr Jekyll & Mr Hyde) premieres in Chicago
1914 Greyhound Bus Company begins in Minnesota
1916 Britain begins "Summer Time" (Daylight Savings Time)
1917 Leo Pinckney, 1st American drafted during WWI
1918 House of Representatives passes amendment allowing women to vote
1921 Oldest radio station west of Mississippi River licensed in Greeley CO
1924 Leopold and Loeb kidnap Bobby Franks for fun
1925 Canadians allow to beer sales
1925 Roald Amundsun leaves Spitsbergen with 2 seaplanes to North Pole
1926 White Sox Earl Sheely hits a record 6th consecutive double
1927 Lindbergh lands in Paris France, after 1st solo air crossing of Atlantic
1929 Automatic electric stock quotation board installed, NYC
1929 Sergei Prokoviev's ballet "Prodigal Son" premieres in Paris France
1930 Max Bishop draws 8 walks in a doubleheader
1930 New York Yankee Babe Ruth hits 3 consecutive homers
1932 1st transatlantic solo flight by a woman (Amelia Earhart) lands
1933 Mount Davidson Cross lit by FDR via telegraph
1934 Oskaloosa IA, becomes 1st US city to fingerprint its citizens
1940 AVRO-chairman Willem Vogt fires all Jewish employees
1940 Reynaud forms French Government
1941 1st US ship sunk by a U-boat (SS Robin Moore)
1941 Singer Johan Heesters visits Dachau concentration camp
1943 Fastest 9 inning American League baseball game (89 minutes), White Sox beat Senators
1945 German war criminal Heinrich Himmler captured
1945 Lauren Bacall & Humphrey Bogart wed
1948 New York Yankee Joe Dimaggio hits for the cycle (single, double, triple, homerun)
1950 Vietnamese troops of Ho Chi-Minh attack Cambodia
1954 Amendment to give 18-year-olds right to vote is defeated
1955 1st transcontinental round-trip solo flight-sunrise to sunset
1956 US explodes 1st airborne hydrogen bomb over Bikini Atoll
1959 Cleveland Metroparks Zoo Children's Petting Farm opens
1961 Governor Patterson declares martial law in Montgomery
1964 1st nuclear-powered lighthouse begins operations (Chesapeake Bay)
1964 US begin intelligence flights above Laos
1966 "Downtown" by Mrs Miller hits #82
1966 "Louie Louie" by The Kingsmen reentered the chart & hits #97
1966 Muhammad Ali (Cassius Clay) TKOs Henry Cooper in 6 for heavyweight boxing title in London
1968 Cubs Billy Williams sets outfielder record of 695 straight game
1968 US nuclear-powered sub (Scorpion), with 99 men, reported missing & is later found at the bottom of the ocean off Azores
1969 After 9,015 at bats Hank Aaron is lifted for a pinch hitter, Mike Lum, who doubled in a 15-3 victory over the New York Mets
1969 Robert Kennedy's murderer Sirhan Sirhan sentenced to death
1970 National Guard mobilized to quell disturbances at Ohio State University
1971 National Guard mobilized to quell riot in Chattanooga TN
1975 Trial against Baader-Meinhof-group begins in Stuttgart
1979 Dan White convicted of manslaughter death of San Fransisco mayor Moscone
1980 "Empire Strikes Back" premeires
1980 Ensign Jean Marie Butler is 1st woman to graduate from US service academy
1981 François Mitterrand becomes President of France
1981 Kim Seelbrede, (Ohio), crowned 30th Miss USA
1987 Military coup in Fiji Islands under Lieutenant Colonel Sitivani Rabuka
1988 "Fat" by Weird Al Yankovic hits #99
1990 Last episode of "Newhart" airs on CBS-TV; It was all a dream
1991 Ethiopia's Marxist president (Mengistu Haile Mariam) resigns
1992 New Jersey senate overrides Governor Florio's veto & lowers sales tax to 6%
1993 Opposition leader Xanana Gusmao of East-Timor sentenced to life
1994 South Yemen secedes from Yemen
1996 Ken Griffey Jr, 26, is 8th youngest to hits 200 homeruns
1996 Red Sox pitcher Roger Clemens beats Yankees for his 200th win
1998 Weeks of demonstrations led to the resignation of autocratic Indonesian President Suharto.
2001 The Supreme Court ruled, six-to-three, that a radio host cannot be sued for airing a phone conversation taped illegally by a third party.

---

Holidays
Note: Some Holidays are only applicable on a given "day of the week"

Ancient Rome : Agonalia
Chile : Battle of Inquique/Navy Day (1879)
Macedonia, Greece : Anastenarides Feast-dance barefoot on hot coals
Yugoslav Air Force Day.
New York : Armed Forces Day
US : Lindbergh Flight Day (1927)
National Pickle Week (Day 6)
Revise Your Work Schedule Month

---

Religious Observances
Orthodox : Feast of SS Constantine & Helen
Lutheran : Commemoration of John Eliot, missionary to the Indians
Jewish : Shavuot (celebration of 10 commandments) (Sivan 6, 5759 AM)

---

Religious History
1536 The General Assembly of Geneva, Switzerland officially embraced Protestantism by accepting the evangelical faith of the Swiss reformers.
1739 Methodist hymnwriter Charles Wesley, 31, on the first anniversary of his religious conversion, penned the hymn, "O For a Thousand Tongues."
1740 English revivalist George Whitefield wrote in a letter regarding Jesus' character; 'He was God and man in one person, that God and man might be happy together again.'
1864 Belgian missionary priest Father Damien, 24, was ordained on the Island of Hawaii. Born Joseph de Veuster, the Picpus Father began a work among the lepers on the island of Molokai in 1873. Contracting the disease in 1884, Father Damien succumbed to it five years later.
1944 German Lutheran theologian and Nazi martyr Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote in a letter from prison: 'God alone protects; otherwise there is nothing.'

Source: William D. Blake. ALMANAC OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. Minneapolis: Bethany House, 1987.

---

Thought for the day :
"Obviously crime pays, or there'd be no crime."

---

Actual Newspaper Headlines...
Cold Wave Linked to Temperatures

---

Why did the Chicken cross the Road...
Senator Edward Moore "Teddy" Kennedy:
I panicked

---

Dumb Laws
Baltimore Maryland:
It is not legal to take a lion to the movies.

---

What an employee Really Means...
"MY PERTINENT WORK EXPERIENCE INCLUDES:"
I hope you don't ask me about all the McJobs I've had.

[SAMWolf]

Good Morning Bandleader.

Midway had to be a miracle, so many things had to "come together" at just the right time for us to pull a major victory from that battle.

[skeeter]

Those guys had balls-I mean big brass ones hanging down past their knees-to fly Devastators aginst Japanese carriers at that stage of the war.

I'll say. The navy took all of the remaining ones off the line immediately after Midway & never used them again.

[SAMWolf]

1993 John Frost English Lieutenant-Colonel (operation Market Garden 1944), dies at 80

Arnhem. John Frost Bridge.

The majority of the 2nd Parachute Battalion under command of Lieutenant-Colonel John Frost managed to reach the Arnhem Bridge in the evening of 17th September by way of the most southern route from the dropping zone. The 600 odd men entrenched themselves around the northern ramp of the bridge. Awaiting for the 30 Corps they managed to hold the bridge for seven days. At the end there was a great shortage of ammunition, food and water. The number of casualties were numerous and finally the bridge was "A bridge too far".

On the bridge one can find a plaque which commemorates the actions of 2nd Parachute Battalion.

It contains the following description:

This is the bridge for which JOHN D. FROST fought
leading his soldiers persistent and brave
went a bridge too far which they tried to save
the bridge is now with his name proudly wrought.

[SAMWolf]

Morning Skeeter.

[snopercod]

No. It looks like it was onboard a carrier. If so, it would have had to have been on of the ones mentioned in my dad's diary. USS Antietam or perhaps the Bennington?

[Samwise]

You're early today.

The house was empty. I needed company. I had trouble sleeping last night. It's the first time I've been alone all night since the hobbit lass was born. :^( But I'm OK now; she's home, and she and the dog are making all kinds of noise. :^)

[ken5050]

Mornin' Sam....Have you ever considered doing a thread about the Submarine Memorial at Pearl Harbor?..It's a little known, little publicizes, andsadly, little visited memorial..there's a WW II fleet sub at anchor, and next to it, on a small point of land, a stone monument for each of the 52 ( I think) subs and crew still "on eternal patrol".

Little realized factoid... The submarine service suffered the highest % of KIA of any unit of the US military in WW II. Second was the 8th AF bomber command...

[snippy_about_it]

All's forgiven. Sam and I are a team and we answer each other's posts, sometimes with a similar answer. LOL.

This was really long and I held off finalizing it with the pictures but I couldn't find anyway to make it shorter and wanted to tell the story for the very reasons you say. These guys were something else. They were bold, brave and understood the mission. Our troops are today too I think. The difference is in WWII they weren't held back when it came to attacking the enemy and winning the war.

The next couple of weeks the History Channel is running good shows, the first five about the Western Front in Europe up to the D-Day Special on the 1st of June through the 6th. They covered some of the D-Day landing and also Monte Cassino last night. One of the American soldiers who had moved on past the beaches said "We didn't take prisoners, I mean even if they surrendered, we shot them. We were upset about what had happened on the beaches."

It's going to be a great couple weeks on the tv!

[snippy_about_it]

P.S. You were the first in again!

[snippy_about_it]

Good morning Aeronaut.

[snippy_about_it]

Good morning EGC.

[snippy_about_it]

One biscuit and a cup of joe. MMMMMM. Hits the spot. Good morning Gail.

[snippy_about_it]

Thanks snopercod for sharing the picture of you dad with us. That's a great photo.

[snippy_about_it]

"W" Flag-o-gram!

Thanks PE. How's the PE household doing?

[snippy_about_it]

Morning Samwise. You're in early or I'm really late. LOL.

[snippy_about_it]

Good morning feather.

[SAMWolf]

Thanks Snopercod. Looks like a carrier deck and an Avenger.

[SAMWolf]

she and the dog are making all kinds of noise. :^)

AHHH! Normalcy returns ;-)

[SAMWolf]

Thanks Ken5050.

Heads up Snippy! Thread idea.

[colorado tanker]

Thanks, Snippy. Just finished reading "Miracle at Midway" and I've always wondered what happened to Mr. Gay. He sounds like a wonderful, level headed guy, like so many WWII vets. He could have gotten a bad case of the "why me's" but didn't.

I know we were very lucky at Midway, but I do think some of that luck was earned. Like Commander Waldron, Adm. Nimitz had a pretty good idea of where the Japanese carriers would be and placed our forces perfectly. Also, I didn't realize just how much bad luck we had before the dive bomber attack that worked. There were repeated land based attacks on the Japanese landing fleet and repeated torpedo attacks on the carriers that all misfired before we finally got lucky and caught them refueling and rearming with our dive bombers. We were due!

We also benefited from the Japanese characteristic of dividing their forces in overly complex plans. Two of the six Pearl Harbor carriers were up in the Aleutians carrying on the "diversion" that fooled nobody. The main surface fleet under Yamamoto on board the Yamato was days behind the carriers and the invasion fleet. Had Yamamoto been up with his carriers he could have done some damage since we had so few escorts and had lost Yorktown.

Heck, if the Japanese had wanted to, they could have landed and taken Midway if they had the surface fleet to chase our carriers away, but they didn't and also didn't realize how badly they had beat up our land based aircraft.

[an amused spectator]

Those guys had balls-I mean big brass ones hanging down past their knees-to fly Devastators aginst Japanese carriers at that stage of the war.

I read a couple of things about Torpedo 8's John C. Waldron (I believe it was in Incredible Victory, by Walter Lord).

“Waldron proudly claimed to be one-eighth Sioux. Whenever he solved a problem by a flash of intuition, he attributed it to his Indian blood." Some have said that this is how he sniffed out the Japanese carriers.

There's another story about the brashness of Waldron: Asked about what his squadron would do if they ran low on gas while looking for the Japanese, Waldron is said to have replied - 'If we run out of gas, we'll p*ss in the tanks'.

Salty, but my kind of guy. :-)

Great post, snippy! Thanx!

[GailA]

One of my favorite breakfast.

We are scooting out the door when DK gets home for the camp grounds.