Samuel Thomas Gillespie

Second Lieutenant Samuel “Tom” Gillespie earned his wings at NATC Corpus Christi in the summer of 1942, and was quickly deployed to the South Pacific. His first combat assignment was VMSB-141, a Marine scout-bombing squadron then operation out of Guadalcanal’s Henderson Field. Gillespie arrived on 10 October 1942, and was soon flying patrol missions and combat sorties.

On 17 October 1942, Gillespie took part in a pre-dawn strike against Japanese ground installations at Kokumbona. He landed back at Henderson to refuel, rearm, and possibly grab some coffee before his second task of the day: a routine anti-sub patrol in SBD-3 #03310. Gillespie and PFC Stuart F. Smith, Jr. departed for their assigned station – and were never seen again.

The exact cause of Gillespie and Smith’s loss was never determined. A Japanese air raid at 0720 resulted in a lopsided American victory; it is possible that Gillespie’s Dauntless was spotted and shot down by a Japanese pilot during the engagement. Without direct eyewitness reports, however, the final moments of the two Marines in #03310 will remain a mystery. Both were declared dead on 19 February 1945; Gillespie was posthumously promoted to the rank of captain.

The air raid caused the loss of Gillespie’s fellow “Aggie,” 2Lt. Wiley H. Craft, of VMF-121.