John Elwood Gay Full Narrative

John Elwood Gay was born on March 22, 1915, in Spokane, Washington. He graduated from Lewis and Clark High School in Spokane in 1933. He likely began his college career at Whitworth College, before transferring to Washington State College (WSC) in 1937. He was a Business Administration major who was involved in extracurricular activities such as Band and the Phi Delta Theta fraternity. During his senior year, he joined Alpha Kapp Psi. Gay excelled at Riflery and was a key part of the WSC Rifle Team. He was awarded the Commandant's Medal two years in a row, given to the best marksman on the team. He graduated from WSC in 1939. Gay joined the Army Air Corps and for a while worked as a Civil Aeronautics Authority instructor at the Moscow-Pullman Airport. He married Dorothy Jean Paine, a fellow WSC graduate, on August 3, 1941. They had two daughters together; Marijean and Jonny Joynce. By the time the US entered World War II, Gay was a Lieutenant in the Air Corps. Gay reached the rank of Major, and he was a Squadron Operations Officer for the 883rd Bombardment Squadron, 500th Bomb Group. On March 7, 1945, Gay was a co-pilot on a mission in which fuel consumption became an issue as the plane flew at high altitudes and into the headwind of a jet stream. Rather than veering from the procedure, the aircraft crashed into the Pacific, with only six of the crew surviving. Major Gay was pulled from the water and given artificial respiration for four hours before being pronounced dead on March 8, 1945. He is buried at the Greenwood Cemetery in Spokane.