monday, October 19, 1931
War hero relates Midway battle
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By Tom Shelton
Two sides of World War II hero George H. Gay, the
rambunctious and the reserved, were on display when he
appeared in Lincoln to celebrate the birthday of the U.S.
Navy and attend the UNL NROTC Navy Ball Friday.
Gay, 64, is the sole survivor of torpedo squadron
eight's attack on the Japanese naval carrier fleet at the
Battle of Midway. The battle, fought June 3 through 7,
1942, was one of the most important naval battles of
World War U.
Gay flew one of 15 TBD1 torpedo bombers in the
squadron. The TBDl's were two-man planes, making a
total of 30 men in the squadron.
Gay lost his gunner, who was shot to death by the
Japanese in the battle, as well as his plane.
Gay told students in a Military in American Life class
that he found his part in the battle difficult to believe.
Flying head-on into enemy fire, Gay survived a shot in the
arm, a shot in the finger and was only seconds away from
being engulfed by flames as his fire-ridden torpedo plane
plunged into the sea.
"You could compare my real-life story to a fiction
story, but it's true," he said.
Gay said when he approached a Japanese carrier to
drop a bomb, he knew all his fellow fliers in the squadron
were dead. He was the last of the U.S.S. Hornet's attack
left.
Doesn't know
Gay plunged down towards the carrier, when suddenly
he was shot in the finger of his left hand. Stunned, he
tried to release the bombs, but couldn't because his
electrical system had been shot out.
"1 don't know to this day if I ever managed to drop
one of my torpedoes on that carrier," he said.
Gay had only one alternative left when his torpedoes
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George H. Gay
would not release: he could recklessly dive into the carrier
like a kamikaze.
"At that time I didn't even know what a kamikaze
was," Gay said.
Gay crashed into the ocean to put out his flaming air
plane. He said he managed to make a "controlled crash"
which saved his life.
After checking the body of his gunner, Gay got out of
the plane and bumped into a life raft which he didn't
remember releasing. To camouflage himself from the
Japanese carrier, Gay covered himself with, material to dis
quise himself as a floating black box.
Gay floated for about 30 hours and said he was able to
observe the entire Battle of Midway, all the time knowing
he was subject to capture.
Gay was finally plucked from the ocean by a PB8 fly
ing boat which had spotted him the day before and came
back to pick him up.
Press conference
Later Friday, Gay met in the Nebraska Union with
members of the Lincoln media.
While he said he was awed by the sophistication of to
day's weapons, he said there aren't enough being built.
"There's a complacent attitude that everything's all
right, but it isn't," he said. "When you compare our
military with Russia's, well, it's frightening to me. I'm
petrified about it. The Russians say they're gonna take us,
and I don't know why we don't believe it."
He called President Ronald Reagan's efforts to build up
the military "admirable," and said he wanted the United
States, to take up a policy which amends that of Theodore
Roosevelt's.
"I want the stick I carry to be a club, and I want to be
yelling," he said. "It's obvious we don't have what we're
supposed to have."
Gay said there is still time for the U.S. military to
catch up with the Soviet Union's. "We're not lost, but
we've got to get going," he said.
Gay criticized the U.S. attempt to rescue the hostages
in Iran which resulted in destroyed helicopters and dead
soldiers. "If we can't do it right, we should have sent
Moshe Dayan in to take care of it," he said.
Only minutes after he made this comment, it was
announced that Israel's former defense and foreign affairs
minister had died of a heart attack.
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