Ens. George Gay had balls of steel....
“Ensign GEORGE GAY was thrust into a very unusual niche in history when, during the Battle of Midway, his squadron of torpedo bombers attacked the Japanese fleet *without fighter cover*. Every one of their fifteen aircraft were destroyed and twenty-nine of their thirty men were lost. GEORGE GAY was the sole survivor of Torpedo Squadron 8.”
It was reported that “He flew right along the flight deck of the carrier AKAGI so the Japanese gunners couldn’t shoot at him, then ditched his shot-up plane in the ocean nearby. He watched the Battle of Midway while bobbing around in the water.” He was later picked up and survived the remainder of the war.
Save for him, all of his unit was killed. And thier sacrafice allowed the dive bombers of Hornet and Enterprise to strike and defeat the Jap fleet. One of those “HIstory changed this day” moments.
I could not any additional data on the Lt John Gay and any possible relation between the families of Ens Gay and Lt Gay. The Fleet bio on Lt John Gay is blank.
Understatement of the year ... he was returned to duty, served both in combat and a tour as a flight instructor (nothing like a teacher who's been there and done that), and made a career of naval and then commercial aviation. I wasn't able to find anything about descendants.
The sacrafice of the torpedo squadrons from Enterprise, Hornet, and Yorktown is one of the great stories of World War II. Wonder what Nacy Pelosi would have said about it before the dive bombers caught all four Japanese carriers uncovered and changed the course of the war in 15 minutes?