HomeMy WebLinkAboutJim Gordon, Brazos Valley Heroes ". a
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. Jim Gordon, who grew up in Gilmer, Texas, was off target, the pilot always asked for an oxygen check.
,' able and was allowed to graduate from high school in When I didn't answer, they came to check on me and <
January, 1943, before the rest of his class, so he could found that I had been wounded. I knew I had been hit, 's
attend A &M and enroll in the flight program. I just didn't know how bad. When they pulled me from
"I wanted to fly and I thought that would speed the turret, I could see my left ear, hanging against my
up the process. After I got to A &M, I couldn't get into face out of the corner of my eye. When we landed I was Iiiii
the program then, so I went to Houston and joined the taken to tl hospital where the chief surgeon told me
7 Air Force. I was told I would get a call soon." they would probably have to amputate my left ear. I
By January of 1944, Gordon was on his way to remember thinking, Not mine, you're not'. There was
San Antonio for an induction physical and shots and a captain there who asked if he could try to save the
then on to Sheppard Field in Wichita Falls, Texas. From ear, which he was allowed to do. He strapped my ear
' , there he was sent to Laredo for gunnery school and back against my head and used a new drug called peni-
then on to Lincoln, Nebraska, to meet and train with his cillin. Within 20 days I was able to get out of the hos-
- crew. p w my ear, and back on flight status."
"There were 10 of us in the crew and we soon At that time during the war, when a crew reached
became close, as a crew. Three of the crew are still 35 missions, they were allowed to return home. The z
ri alive and I get together with one of the crew, Dan Fralie, remainder of Gordon's crew had continued to fly mis-
z who lives in Houston, all the time." sions and would soon reach 35 missions.
Gordon and crew mates were loaded onto ships "I began to volunteer to fly missions with other
at Camp Patrick, Virginia, and sailed in a 172 -ship con- crews so I could catch up with the number of missions
. voy to Sicily, finally docking in Naples, Italy. my crew had flown. On April 18, 1945, I completed my
We caught a train to an air base at Panatella, thirty -fifth mission and was allowed to rejoin my crew
Italy, where we became part of the 15th Air Force. which had already been shipped to Naples, Italy, to
When we got there, they made the pilot and co- return home. Our goal, when we were first formed as a
» pilot go on a familiarization flight as a member of crew, was to leave together, do our job to the best of
another flight crew so I decided to do the same. I vol- our ability and come home together. And we did."
unteered to go as the nose gunner on a mission with Upon their return to the U.S., Gordon and his
v another crew. We left early in the morning on October crew mates were assigned to Ellington Field in Houston
26, 1944, one day before my nineteenth birthday. We and were discharged from there when the war ended.
were flying to Vienna, Austria, and it was a beautiful "After war, I first entered the 20/20 program
day. I remember thinking, if this is combat, this is not which was a program to help you find a job. After that, <.
a bad deal. The flight commander ordered us into an I enrolled in pharmacy school at the University of Texas
attack formation and the pilot of our plane had just got- under the G.I. Bit."
:, ten us into formation when we were hit in the #3 Upon graduation, Gordon worked as a pharma-
a '' engine. We managed to get back to our base but my cist in drug stores, including some he owned in various
attitude about combat changed drastically." parts of the states, until retiring from Skaggs in College
Gordon and his crew flew missions all over the Station in 1997.
r4i German -held territories to include bombing raids over Jim Gordon's name can be found on the Brazos
Berlin. On a mission to bomb a marshalling yard out- Valley Veterans Memorial. For more information, to fa
rt side Lenz, Austria, the crew received its first casualty make a contribution, or if you know a World War I I vet -
and Gordon became recipient of the Purple Heart eran whose story needs to be told, contact the BVVM
k' award. at www.veterans- memoria/.org, or Bill Youngkin at
"It occurred on January 20, 1945. We were flying 979 - 260 -7030.
?, at 28,000 feet and the temperature was well below