Meet the only PBY pilot to be awarded the Medal of Honor

World War II produced numerous airmen awarded the Medal of Honor, the vast majority of whom flew in bombers or fighters. There were, of rare exceptions, of course, and among the rarest was Nathan Green Gordon, the only Medal of Honor recipient to earn it in a Consolidated PBY-5 Catalina flying boat.

Born on Sept. 4, 1916 in Morrilton, Arkansas, Gordon graduated from the Columbia Military Academy, Tennessee as the class salutatorian in 1933. From there he attended the Arkansas Polytechnical College and the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville, graduating from the latter with a juris doctor degree in 1939.

During that time he served in the Arkansas National Guard, while practicing law until May 1941, when he enlisted in the Navy. He trained in Jacksonville, Florida and well remembered that morning of Dec. 7, 1941, when the film he was watching was interrupted with the bulletin, “All Navy personnel report to your base.”

In February 1942, he completed his flight training and was assigned to naval patrol squadron VP-34. Flying large, lumbering but remarkably versatile PBY-5s, VP-34 participated in convoy protection against German submarines over the Caribbean Sea, then was transferred to the other side of the world, in the Solomon Islands.

Lt. Gordon’s wartime climax occurred on Feb. 15, 1944, as his PBY-5, which he dubbed “Arkansas Traveler,” took off from VP-34’s advance base at Samarai Island on a “Dumbo” (search and rescue) mission in support of a Fifth Air Force bombing raid on Japanese naval facilities in Kavieng Harbor, New Britain.

V Fighter Command had dispatched four Republic P-47D Thunderbolt fighters from Finschhafen, Papua New Guinea, to protect the vulnerable flying boat from any Japanese fighters that should turn up — admittedly few left in that area of the Bismarck Sea by that point. On the other hand, the bases the Japanese still occupied held plenty of anti-aircraft guns and they were still taking their toll.

As they took station over Vitu Island, Gordon and his crew found out what they were up against when their radioman got a report of a Douglas A-20G Havoc shot down. They landed at the site, only to find debris in the water and no sign of the crew. They did, however, discover that besides enemy flak, they were operating in less-than-optimum flight conditions, with heavy swells 16 to 18 feet high that stressed their superstructure and burst seams.

There was little time to lament the situation, though, as another report came in of a North American B-25D Mitchell down. Gordon found the ditched bomber and rescued its five crewmen, after which he got some daunting news: another B-25 had been shot down and two of his P-47 escorts were low on fuel and compelled to return home.

The second crew’s rubber raft lay a mile from shore but Gordon, ignoring the anti-aircraft fire, brought his boat down and rescued that crew. Taking off was now a problem — Arkansas Traveler was overloaded in heavy swells and almost no wind.

In spite of that, Gordon and crew managed to take off — and then received another report of a B-25 down 600 yards from another Japanese-held island, with some of its crew injured.

Further, the other two P-47s had to head back, their fuel low. Fortunately for the flying boat crew, some B-25s that had dropped their bomb loads came by to use up the last of their machine gun ammunition strafing the Japanese gunners.

Even so, the odds were now against getting the Catalina back with the nine airmen it had aboard — let alone six more — but Gordon knew what was likely to happen to them in Japanese hands.

Down through the enemy flak went the PBY, to make its fourth landing and hastily hoist the B-25 men aboard. Then, wallowing its way through the heavy swells and windless air, Gordon and crew managed to keep Arkansas Traveler’s nose up and its acceleration raised just enough to lift the PBY out of the water and lumber its way to Langemak Bay, near Finschhafen, where they delivered its 15 passengers to the seaplane tender San Pablo (AVP-30).

In September 1944, the promoted Lt. Gordon was awarded the only Medal of Honor earned in a PBY: “By his exceptional daring, personal valor, and incomparable airmanship under most perilous conditions, Lt. Gordon prevented certain death or capture of our airmen by the Japanese.” Additionally, all eight of his crewmen received Silver Stars.

By the time he was honorably discharged from the Navy in 1945, Gordon added two Distinguished Flying Crosses and six Air Medals to his decorations.

After the war Gordon resumed his law practice, save for a decade involved in state politics. A Democrat, he served 10 terms as lieutenant governor of Arkansas, under four governors, from January 1947 through January 1967. In 1980, the Arkansas Aviation Historical Society selected him as one of the first five inductees to the Arkansas Aviation Hall of Fame.

Nathan Gordon died in the Arkansas Medical Services Center in Little Rock on Sept. 9, 2008, aged 92, and is buried at Elmwood Cemetery in Morrilton.