Flying Jacket

Ensign George H. Gay, Jr. of Waco, Texas was the pilot of a Douglas TBD Devastator torpedo bomber assigned to Torpedo Squadron Eight (VT-8) aboard the carrier USS Hornet (CV-8). On June 4, 1942, Gay, his rear gunner/radioman, Aviation Radioman Third Class Robert K. Huntington of Los Angeles, California, and fourteen other aircraft of his squadron took off to attack the Imperial Japanese Navy carrier battle group attacking Midway Island. This was the squadron’s first combat mission and the first time the men ever carried torpedoes.

When the squadron located the enemy carriers, Japanese Zero fighter planes swarmed over the slow, cumbersome torpedo bombers. The fighters shot down and killed all of Gay’s and fatally wounded Huntington. Alone, Gay managed to launch his torpedo against the Japanese carrier Sōryū but the torpedo failed to hit the carrier and Gay was subsequently shot down, receiving bullet wounds in the left arm, left hand, and flash burns on his left leg. Of the 30 aircrew of Torpedo Squadron Eight, Gay was the sole survivor. Gay’s khaki flight jacket he wore on this mission is on display in the exhibit “Price of Freedom: Americans at War” in 3 East. The left sleeve near the elbow has a tear where the machine gun bullet struck him.

While adrift amidst the Japanese carriers Gay witnessed three squadrons of American dive bombers from the carriers Enterprise (CV-6) and Yorktown (CV-5) strike fatal blows to the Japanese carriers Kaga, Akagi, and Sōryū. After floating alone for over 30 hours, a Navy flying boat spotted and rescued Gay on the afternoon of June 5. For their collective valor, President Franklin D. Roosevelt decorated the men of VT-8 with the Presidential Unit Citation. The Navy awarded all the pilots of VT-8 the Navy Cross and the radiomen/rear gunners the Distinguished Flying Cross. Every aircrew member received the Purple Heart. After his death on October 21, 1994, the Navy scattered Gay’s cremains at sea by the Midway battle site to join his lost comrades of 52 years prior.

Although the American torpedo bombers failed to strike a blow, the squadron’s brazen attack upset the delicate operations of the Japanese carrier battle group and its commander, Admiral Chūichi Nagumo. In order to dodge the American torpedoes, Nagumo’s carriers maneuvered and reversed course out of the wind, preventing the Japanese from launching additional aircraft. Further defensive actions resulted in flight decks loaded with fighter rather than strike aircraft to confront the torpedo bomber attacks, thereby delaying critical Japanese spotting operations to locate the American carriers. Torpedo Squadron Eight’s actions cost the Japanese roughly an hour of invaluable time with which to strike the American carrier force, time that arguably decided the outcome of the battle.