Gordon Eugene Thompson
Second Lieutenant Gordon “Tommy” Thompson was a Marine fighter pilot with VMF-224.
He failed to return from a combat mission over Guadalcanal on 31 August 1942.
Branch
Marine Corps Reserve
Service Number O-9742
Current Status
Accounted For
as of 13 July 2022
Recovery Organization
Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency
Read Press Release
History
“Tommy” Thompson graduated from Moccasin High School in 1937 – he was the valedictorian of his class of nine pupils – and went on to attend Montana State College. He was an avid farmer and graduated in 1941 with a degree in agriculture. Classmates called him “ready and willing to do anything to help.” In addition to his studies and managing the football team, Thompson developed an interest in aviation and earned his civilian pilot’s license while at MSC.
Instead of returning to the family farm, Tommy decided to chase his dreams of flight. He enlisted in the Navy’s flight training program on 19 August 1941, and was sent to Miami, Florida for qualifications. The attack on Pearl Harbor increased the stakes dramatically, and as one of the top cadets in his class, Thompson was offered a Marine Corps commission. He became Second Lieutenant Thompson on 11 April 1942 and flew across the country to San Diego for advanced training – including carrier qualifications in a fighter plane.
On 5 July 1942, Thompson was assigned to a brand-new combat squadron: VMF-224. The young pilots learned to fly and fight together on tactical and gunnery flights at Barber’s Point, Hawaii until 14 August 1942, when they received orders to deploy to the Solomon Islands. They sailed for Efate aboard the transport USS Kitty Hawk, with their Wildcat fighters stowed below decks. Thompson arrived at Efate on 28 August, but had no time to see the sights: his fighter was craned over to the carrier USS Long Island, and the next morning he was rolling down the deck and into the air. “Flew 3 miles over to field,” he wrote in his diary. “Will go to Guadalcanal tomorrow.”
On August 29, Thompson wrote a final entry.
“Flew 140 miles from Efate to Espirto Santos [sic] with belly tanks, remained there tonight. Picked tangerines, took pictures of cannibal natives working on the runway. Moving up to front tomorrow wonder if I’ll come back.”
The flight echelon of VMF-224 arrived at Guadalcanal’s Henderson Field on schedule, and spent the balance of their day exploring their new home and watching seasoned pilots take off for raids, patrols, and fighter strikes. The “Bengals” were scheduled to start combat operations the following day, 31 August 1942.
The 1100 alert took off without incident. Nearly thirty Wildcat fighters – seventeen “Bengals” of VMF-224, plus veteran “Bulldogs” of VMF-223 – bumped down the rough strip of Henderson Field and lifted into the air, forming up for a combat patrol over enemy territory. It was the first opportunity for the “Cactus Air Force” to engage the enemy on anything approaching even odds.
An anticipated Japanese raid failed to materialize, and the Marines headed back to Henderson Field. Upon landing, the Bengals were shocked to find that three of their number – Second Lieutenants Thompson, Charles E. Bryans, and Richard Amerine – were missing. Speculation ran rife among the pilots – enemy action, disorientation, engine failure – but veterans blamed the notorious oxygen system of the Wildcat itself. The three young officers were listed as missing in action that afternoon.
Seven days later, an exhausted and emaciated Lieutenant Amerine appeared at a Marine outpost. At the Division hospital, he told the tale of an incredible escape. As predicted, his oxygen system had failed, and while struggling to stay conscious, his engine quit as well. Amerine bailed out into the water; after swimming several miles to shore, he made a fifty-mile hike back to safety, eating insects and coconuts, and killing no less than four Japanese soldiers who crossed his path. After Amerine’s report, the loss of the other two pilots was chalked up to the oxygen system.
“It was so senseless,” said Bengal pilot Stanley Nicolay. “I remember thinking that after all their training and effort, neither one of them ever fired a shot in anger. They had no chance. The oxygen system was just a tiny, white triangular mask that fitted over the nose and mouth. You turned on the bottle, and that was it. No pressure system, nothing.”
Thompson and Bryans remained on the list of missing until January 1946 – only then were the two pilots officially declared dead. A Purple Heart and other medals were sent to Lachlan and Ita back in Moccasin; they were also informed of their son’s posthumous promotion to the rank of first lieutenant. Despite repeated inquiries, the Thompsons were unable to learn any more about Tommy’s death. At last, the family concluded that his body was lost at sea.
Postwar searches for Thompson’s Wildcat were also unsuccessful. Somewhat bizarrely, the Quartermaster Graves Registration Service was told that Lieutenant Bryans was piloting a Wildcat with Lieutenant Thompson as “radio-gunner.” The soldiers would have realized this error – the well-known Wildcat was a one-man plane – but had little other information to conduct an effective search for “Case 760.” In 1949, the two lieutenants were declared permanently non-recoverable.
Almost eighty years later, Mr. Celestine Baba contacted a DPAA team and handed over a Marine identification tag dug from his garden. The tag belonged to Gordon Tompson. In the summer of 2018, a team visited Mr. Baba’s residence in Gilbert Camp and located aircraft wreckage in a small valley nearby. The site was associated with Wildcat #2104 – and, with the additional provenance of the ID tag, experts were able to focus their efforts on Case 760. Human remains were recovered from the site, and subsequent DNA testing confirmed Gordon Eugene Thompson’s identity. He was officially accounted for on 13 July 2022.
Thompson is memorialized at the Manila American Cemetery and Memorial. On June 22, 2023, he was laid to rest in the family plot in Moccasin, Montana.
Statement from the Thompson family.
USMC 1st Lt. Gordon E. Thompson was reported as Accounted For by the Defense POW/MIA accounting agency on 13 July 2022. His remains were discovered and identified on Guadalcanal nearly 80 years after being reported as Missing in Action on 31 August 1942.
Lt. Thompson’s remains were placed in a casket and covered with USMC Dress Blues, repatriated and interred next to his parents and maternal grandparents at the Moccasin Montana Cemetery on Wednesday, 7 June 2023. The perfectly folded United States Flag was presented by the USMC to his sister, Jeanne Thompson Lambley.
Lt. Thompson was flying a Grumman F4F Wildcat on patrol with the newly formed VMF-224 Bengals Squadron from Henderson Field on Guadalcanal when he was reported as MIA.
Four USMC F/A-18 Hornet Fighters from VMF-224 Bengals based at the Marine Corps Air Station in Beaufort, South Carolina, honored and welcomed one of their own home with a Missing Man fly-by above the graveside ceremony.
Eternal thanks to the USMC, the DPAA, and all others who dedicated their time and energy providing closure for Lt. Thompson’s family.
Decorations
Purple Heart
For wounds resulting in his death, 22 November 1943.
Next Of Kin Address
Address of mother, Mrs. Ita Thompson.
Location Of Loss
Thompson was last seen departing from Henderson Field, Guadalcanal. The location of his crash is not known.
Gordon was my namesake Uncle, my dad’s younger brother.
Lt. Treptow’s pic with VMF224 is wrongly identified as my Uncle in the same photo in the book “Time of the Aces”.
Glad to see this finally clarified.
Gordon H. Thompson
This was an amazing story about Gordon H Thompson
Thank you for the story.
Cindy Gay Archey
Thank you, Gordon, for the referring me to this article concerning your Uncle Gordon. Amazing young man. And it was so unnecessary that he was lost at sea after all of his accomplishments. I am glad to see that he is being recognized in memoriam.
And I can see the resemblance!
From all the Bengals of now VMFA(AW)-224:
Fair winds and following seas, Tommy.
Semper Fidelis,
LtCol John J. Schranz
Commanding Officer
VMFA(AW)-224
“Fighting Bengals”
Thank you LtCol Schranz and the Bengals for the Missing Man flyby….there was not a dry eye in the crowd when those Hornets from his Squadron VMF-224 flew over the cemetery in honor of bringing one of their own home after nearly 81 years.