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I first met <em>William Atha Gay</em> at Fort McPherson, Georgia in July 1933. I had joined the Army to attend the West Point Preparatory School and Bill, having been at McPherson for the past year, and with a year’s service before that in the famous 29th Infantry at Fort Benning, was an awesome “old timer” to me and the other recruits. When I say “old timer,” I mean it in every sense—we weren’t sure just how old he really was! As a matter of record, Bill’s birthday was 29 July 1912; he must surely have been the oldest member of our class! Although born in Mississippi, the son of Thomas Sephalon Gay and Maddie Woodlief Jamison Gay, Bill considered Memphis, Tennessee his hometown. He attended Lepanto High School in Lepanto, Arkansas, and Arkansas State College before, joining the Army, and his resulting maturity and leadership were manifest to all. Never did I imagine that I would spend the next four-odd years as one of his roommates at West Point.</p>
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Bill was a recipient of a highly competitive Regular Army appointment to West Point. He took to Academy life like a duck to water. In spite of his extensive military experience, as a plebe he was never visibly rattled by the yapping yearlings, still “wet behind their ears.” From the beginning, Bill excelled in both the military and academic aspects of cadet life. Always in the thick of the battle for “stars,” he graduated 18th in the class. Although never having seen a lacrosse game before arriving at the Academy, he turned out to be one of Army’s best lacrosse players. His progress through the ranks up to captain and battalion commander was no surprise to anyone. Now, don’t misunderstand me, Bill was no prude. He enjoyed a good time as well as the next guy, as attested to during yearling winter by his frequent trips across the frozen Hudson River to visit a tavern in Cold Spring!</p>
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Upon graduation, Bill took a lush summer job at Lake George and, being suitably refreshed, on 5 September 1938 in Alexander City, Alabama he married his longtime sweetheart, Eleanor Dark. The officiant at this ceremony was Bill’s uncle, Dr. Atha T. Jamison, who later remarked, “Well, Eleanor, you have had a dark past, now you will have a gay future!” And, as Eleanor recalls, “he was right while it lasted.”</p>
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Bill’s first station was river and harbor duty in Los Angeles and the Santa Ana River Dam in Santa Ana, California. Although scheduled to attend Cornell University upon completion of that tour, in February 1940 he was abruptly ordered to the Philippines, where he was assigned to the 14th Engineers. After several months of real engineer duty and enjoyable tropical life, things changed unexpectedly when, in May 1941, Eleanor was evacuated along with the other dependents. Bill was promoted to captain on 10 October 1941 and to major the following 19 December. Although information about his activities just prior to and immediately after the Japanese invasion is sketchy, citations indicate that he served as assistant to the Luzon Force Engineer from 12 March to 9 April 1942, and made notable and often heroic contributions to the Philippine Defense Campaign by directing and supervising engineer construction and demolition along the entire front, contributing materially to the prolonged defense of Bataan. He later served on the staff of Brigadier General Hugh Casey and, when BG Casey left with General MacArthur, he served on the staff of Major General Edward King. Fortunately, Bill was not a participant in the notorious “death march,” but was evacuated from Bataan with MG King’s staff to Camp O’Donnell. Here Bill, while himself suffering from malnutrition, was cited for volunteering to perform the arduous tasks of securing and distributing food, water, shelter, and medical aid for the columns of prisoners of war as they arrived at Camp O’Donnell. Eventually, Bill reached Cabanatuan POW Camp on Luzon, where he was interned until early December 1944, when he was moved to Billibid Prison Hospital in Manila. During his extended stay in Cabanatuan, Bill learned to speak Spanish in anticipation of someday returning to the Philippines to help the Filipino people, for whom he had developed a deep affection.</p>
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Although his stay in Billibid lasted but a few days, Bill thoughtfully left several beautiful and informative letters, addressed to Eleanor, with another POW patient. Thankfully, these were later delivered to Eleanor by Army Intelligence.</p>
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On 13 December 1944, Bill, along with more than 1600 other POW’s, embarked on the Oryoka Maru, presumably for transfer to Japan. Survivors reported that the POW’s were sardined in the hold of the ship without food or water—conditions horrible beyond belief! The ship, apparently unmarked as to its human cargo, was bombed and sunk by American forces in Subic Bay on 15 December. Approximately 942 POW’s, including Bill Gay, were reported by the Japanese to have lost their lives in the bombing—an ironic twist of fate, with victory and freedom so close at hand. We can only imagine what the future might have held in store for this brilliant, dedicated, and heroic soldier. Perhaps the comic-strip character Pogo expressed it best this past Memorial Day when he observed, “We’ve lost a lot of great men over the years … ‘cept they was only boys at the time.”</p>
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Bill’s decorations included the Legion of Merit, the Bronze Star Medal, and the Purple Heart.</p>
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— <em>Ben Sternberg, roommate, and Eleanor Gay Scarano</em></p>
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