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NAME Lewis Gordon |
NICKNAME — |
SERVICE NUMBER O-7069 |
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| UNIT VMF-121 Pilot |
HOME OF RECORD Little River Station Miami, FL |
NEXT OF KIN Parents, Hugh Jr & Nanette Gordon |
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| DATE OF BIRTH October 31, 1917 at Athens, GA |
ENTERED SERVICE August 11, 1941 (commissioned) |
DATE OF LOSS June 30, 1943 |
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| REGION Solomon Islands |
CAMPAIGN / AREA Rendova |
CASUALTY TYPE Missing In Action Declared Dead July 1, 1945 |
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| CIRCUMSTANCES OF LOSS Captain Lewis Gordon was a pilot assigned to VMF-121, a Marine fighter squadron based at Banika in the Russell Islands. On 30 June 1943, VMF-121 was assigned the task of providing air cover for an amphibious landing on Rendova Island, in the Western Solomons near New Georgia. Captain Gordon flew two sorties that day. His first returned with no contact, but on the second the Marines encountered a force of about twenty Zeros at high altitude. Gordon’s wingman, 1Lt. Caruth A. Barker, saw a Zero shoot up Gordon’s F4U-1 #02628; the smoking Corsair vanished into a cloud. Moments later, Barker witnessed a pilot bailing out of an F4U as it emerged from the cloud – however, he was not sure if the pilot was Gordon. Captain R. Bruce Porter saw a downed American pilot, apparently dead, near Munda airstrip and believed it was Gordon. Lewis Gordon was reported as missing in action following the mission to Rendova, and declared dead on 1 July 1945. |
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| INDIVIDUAL DECORATIONS Air Medal, Purple Heart |
LAST KNOWN RANK Captain (posthumous Major) |
STATUS OF REMAINS Missing In Action |
MEMORIALS Oconee Hill Cemetery, Athens, GA Manila American Cemetery |
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Biography:
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The first individual Japanese warplane I focused on was a Zero, which was passing a dozen feet below my nose at high speed from left to right. He was smack on the tail of a smoking Corsair. I instinctively yanked around sharply to my right to try to get on the assailant’s tail, at least to scare him off my damaged fellow Marine….
“Was that Gordon’s Corsair we saw smoking back there?” I was very worried. Of all the friends I had made at flight school, only Jeff Poindexter and [Lewis] Gordon were still with me.
Phil [Leeds] told me he was not sure who it had been but he reported that he thought he had seen the pilot bail out over the beach at Munda Point.
“Well, let’s take a run over Munda to see if the pilot is down and got out of his chute okay.”
I saw the spilled chute right up against the beach beside the runway. A khaki coverall-clad body was gently rocking in the surf. I saw no sign of blood or any movement as I rocketed past. Another pass would have been foolhardy; we had beaten Japanese antiaircraft gunners once, and that was as much as we could expect.
My feeling of remorse was total.
“Pluto from Black One. Reporting a downed Corsair pilot on the beach near Munda airstrip.”
I realized that the tactical channel was clogged with hoots and hollers and warnings and curses from temporarily unhinged young pilots in combat. I received no acknowledgment, tried again with no success, and gave up.
– from Ace! A Marine Night-Fighter Pilot in World War II by R. Bruce Porter.
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