Jap fleet into defeat.

The following day, a PBY patrol plane swooped over the
scene of the action and spotted a lone wounded flier floating in
the oil slicks. He had watched the whole action from start to
finish from beneath the shelter of a black seat cushion, a cushion
held above his head to hide him from Jap strafing planes. They
picked him up and flew him to Midway for hospitalization.

His 29 squadron mates who ‘“‘did not make it back’’ were
listed as ‘‘Missing in Action.”

 

There were 30 empty places at a table in the ward-
room as the officers of the HORNET filed in to
breakfast.

One of the empty places belonged to Ensign John
P. Gray of Houston, Texas.

When he failed to return after being reported
missing in action, his mother wrote a letter to a
high ranking officer in the Navy Department.

«He was a good son, and a gentleman, and I am sure a
fine officer. If we are to see him no more we can remember with

pride that his was a good life, sacrificed for a cause, which I
believe has God’s blessings. I have many happy memories of
his courage and enthusiasm and knowing him as I did and the
things for which he stood, can well believe that his last thought
might have been, ‘I will open up a hole here and someone

else will carry on.’’’

... And they did carry on. Shortly after the
Battle of Midway, a new Torpedo Eight Squadron
came into being. This squadron, under the leader-
ship of Lt. H. H. (Swede) Larsen, flew Grumman
Avengers, aptly named, for they were the newest and
deadliest torpedo planes in the arr.

The Avengers added a new page in the history of
Naval Aviation. The vengeance they exacted was
sure and swift; a vengeance vividly described in a
communique from Vice Admiral John McCain, USN,
at that time Chief of the Bureau of Aeronautics,
sent to the men and women who built the planes.

 

uae

AVENGER TORPEDO PLANES RECENTLY HELPED TO EXACT A LARGE
MEASURE OF REVENGE FOR TORPEDO SQUADRON 8—THE GALLANT
BAND OF NAVY FLIERS WIPED OUT ALMOST TO THE LAST MAN DUR-
ING THE BATTLE OF MIDWAY. IN 14 ACTION PACKED WEEKS, A NEW
GROUP WHICH INHERITED THE SQUADRON’S NAME HAS TAKEN AN