George gay

He enlisted in the Texas National Guard on July 1, 1935, and received an honorable discharge on October 5, 1935.

Mr. Gay was a personal friend of the late Wilbur and Orville Wright and took part in many pioneering dirigible Balloon flights with Frank Goodale from Palisades, N. J., in the early days of aviation. Although shot down while retiring from the torpedo attack, Ensign Gay, by his courage, skill and resourcefulness, survived and was subsequently able to provide valuable information concerning the action.

m. After returning to the U.S. and recuperating from his injuries, LT Gay joined VT-11 in October 1942 and flew combat at Guadalcanal in 1943. He lived at 44 Goerge Street, Manhasset, L. I. He underwent an operation Friday for a lung congestion following an attack of pneumonia.
During the last two years Mr.

Gay usually was the first government official to reach the scene of a major air crash. His unflinching and conscientious devotion to the fulfillment of his mission was a determining factor in the defeat of the enemy forces and was in keeping with the highest traditions of the United States Naval Service.

His final active duty assignment was as an instructor pilot at NAS Miami, Florida, until he left active duty and joined the Naval Reserve on August 21, 1945.

He was on twenty-four-hour call and when news of an air accident reached him he would seize a brief case, camera and steel measuring tape and proceed by the fastest travel means available to conduct an investigation.
He and several colleagues hiked over some of the roughest terrain in North America to make the initial inspection of the crash which killed thirty-nine persons in October, 1946, near Stephenville, Newfoundland.

Grimly aware of the hazardous consequences of flying without fighter protection, and with insufficient fuel to return to his carrier, Ensign Gay, resolutely, and with no thought of his own life, delivered an effective torpedo attached against violent assaults of enemy Japanese aircraft and against an almost solid barrage of anti-aircraft fire.

George Gay, fifty-six, pioneer aviator and chief of the New York-Middle Atlantic States region of the Safety Bureau, Civil Aeronautics Board, died Friday night at the Bronx Veterans Administration Hospital, 120 Kingsbridge Road, the Bronx. He died on October 21, 1994, and was cremated, having his ashes scattered at sea in the Pacific Ocean where his squadron launched its attack during the Battle of Midway.

His Navy Cross Citation reads:

For extraordinary heroism and distinguished service beyond the call of duty as a pilot of Torpedo Squadron EIGHT in the "Air Battle of Midway," against enemy Japanese forces on June 4, 1942.

Mr. Gay became a heavier-than-air pilot in 1910 and was a veteran of both the Army Air Corps and the Navy Air Arm.
During World War I he was among the first group of exhibition pilots to join the Air Corps. HORNET (CV-8), during the “Air Battle of Midway,” against enemy Japanese forces on 4 June 1942.

He served with the navy in the Pacific during World War II as a commanding officer of a carrier air-support unit, with the rank of lieutenant commander. His courageous action, carried out with a gallant spirit of self-sacrifice and a conscientious devotion to the fulfillment of his mission, was a determining factor in the defeat of the enemy forces and was in keeping with the highest traditions of the United States Naval Service.

George Gay was born on March 8, 1917, in Marietta, Georgia.

Burial will be in Pine Lawn Cemetery,

The President of the United States of America takes pleasure in presenting the Navy Cross to Ensign George Henry Gay, Jr., United States Naval Reserve, for extraordinary heroism in operations against the enemy while serving as Pilot of a carrier-based Navy Torpedo Plane of Torpedo Squadron EIGHT (VT-8), attached to the U.S.S.

Previously in 1927 and 1928, he had been on active duty with the navy Bureau of Aeronautics.
Mr. Gay also was a flying revenue officer for the Bureau of Internal Revenue in 1926 and was an air safety investigator for the independent Air Safety Board and for the Department of Commerce for more than ten years.
Among the organizations to which Mr.

Gay belonged are the Quiet Birdmen, the Early Birds and the Wings Club.
Surviving are his wife, Mrs. Dorothy Dowsey Gay, and four children by a previous marriage; First Lieutenant Greenwood Gay, of San Antonio, Tex.; Kenneth Gay, Miss Barbara Gay and Mrs. John Frosio, of Pensacola, Fla.
Funeral services for Mr.

Gay will be held a 1 p. LCDR Gay left the reserves on July 15, 1954, and flew for Trans-World Airlines for 30 years. Grimly aware of the hazardous consequences of flying without fighter protection, and with insufficient fuel to return to his carrier, Ensign Gay, resolutely, and with no thought of his own life, delivered an effective torpedo attack against violent assaults of enemy Japanese aircraft and against an almost solid barrage of anti-aircraft fire.

tomorrow in the Chapel of the Bronx Veteran's Administration Hospital. His first assignment was as a TBD Devastator torpedo bomber pilot with VT-8 aboard the aircraft carrier USS Hornet (CV-8) from October 1941 until he was injured during the Battle of Midway in June 1942. Gay then enlisted in the Aviation Cadet Program of the U.S. Navy on February 12, 1941, receiving his commission as an Ensign and designation as a Naval Aviator in September 1941.