Ensign Gay was in Torpedo Squadron 8 and he was not the sole survivor. Before the battle of Midway Torpedo 8 started to transistion over to Avengers. Six pilots and crewmen trained on the Avenger but they were to late to go aboard the carrier so they...

Ensign Gay was in Torpedo Squadron 8 and he was not the sole survivor. Before the battle of Midway Torpedo 8 started to transistion over to Avengers. Six pilots and crewmen trained on the Avenger but they were to late to go aboard the carrier so they flew to Midway Island where they took part in the battle. I believe they actually attacked the Japanese before their squadron mates. Five of the Avengers were shot down with the loss of all 15 crewmen. One Avenger made it back to Midway with a dead gunner aboard and the pilot and the other gunner wounded. Ensign Bert Earnest was the pilot. So there were actually three survivors from Torpedo 8. But for whatever reason, Gay got all the publicity.

With the exception of Ensign Gay, the entire squadron was shot down and all killed at Midway, June, 1942