 eorge
H. Gay Jr. '40, the only survivor of Torpedo Squadron 8 (VT-8) in the
Battle of Midway, died of a heart attack in a Marietta, Georgia
hospital on October 21, 1994. His passing marks the loss of
yet another of that star-crossed generation of Aggies of which so
much was asked. Although he would always deny it, Gay
emerged as a hero during the dark days of 1942 when America
desperately needed heroes.
While his numerous combat experiences, including
Guadalcanal, were the things of which legends are made, Gay would
best be known for his role in one of the most crucial naval
battles of World War II. After the war he flew for American
Airlines for over thirty years and was the author of Sole
Survivor, a work detailing his wartime experiences. In
1975, he served s a consultant on the movie "Midway," in
which actor Kevin Dobson played Gay's role in the battle.
Gay was born in Waco in 1917 and attended schools in
Houston and Dallas. He entered Texas A&M in the Fall of
1936, where he was a member of A Company, Cost Artillery. In
the spring of 1939 Gay decided he wanted to fly more than he
wanted to go to school. Rejected by the Army Air Corps
because of a suspected heart defect, he got himself in condition
to pass the Navy physical and graduated from flight school in
September, 1941.
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Ensign Gay joined the newly-formed VT-8
under the command of Lt. Cmdr. John Charles Waldron. By April 1942,
Gay and his torpedo squadron were abroad the USS Hornet, which
was bound for Japan to launch Lt. Col. Jimmy Doolittle's raid on
Tokyo. Gay was much impressed with the Army pilots and felt
envious that he would not get to participate in the "first
installment of the repayment for Pearl Harbor." But, he
would not have to wait long, as the Hornet returned to Pearl
Harbor to join the USS Enterprise and become part of Task Force
16 under Rear Admiral Richard A Spruance, which would fight the battle
for Midway.
Torpedo Squadron 8 was equipped with the already obsolete
Douglas TDB-1 Devastator, a marginal aircraft at best. When the order
came for pilots to man their planes on June 4, 1942, Gay was the first
of his squadron to depart and considered it a good sign that the engine
of the tired old aircraft kept running. Despite withering
anti-aircraft fire, Waldron's squadron of 15 pressed home their
attack. One by one they were shot down.
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