BRUNO PETER GAIDO

USS Enterprise 1942

 KILLED IN ACTION--USS ENTERPRISE CV-6; THROWN OVERBOARD WHILE BOUND BY JAPANESE ON  6/15/1942

SIGNIFICANT DUTY STATIONS

SCOUTING SQUADRON SIX (VS-6); USS ENTERPRISE CV-6  

SIGNIFICANT AWARDS

DISTINGUISHED FLYING CROSS 

PURPLE HEART 

PRESIDENTIAL UNIT CITATION 

POW MEDAL 

AMERICAN DEFENSE SERVICE MEDAL 

AMERICAN CAMPAIGN MEDAL 

ASIATIC PACIFIC CAMPAIGN MEDAL W/ STAR 

     THE ATTACK BEGINS

On February 1, 1942, in the Central Pacific near the Marshall Islands, five Japanese bombers attacked the USS Enterprise. After dropping their bombs, four of the bombers sped away, but the last bomber, damaged by guns of the CAP, suddenly dropped out of formation, and sweeping around in a full circle commenced an obvious attempt to crash into the carrier.  Every gun that they had concentrated on the single attacker, and although it was hit repeatedly, the plane maneuvered desperately toward the ship with its guns firing.  Bruno Peter Gaido, then Aviation Machinist Mate Second Class, saw the enemy pilot from his catwalk battle station as he attempted to crash into the ship.  Bruno was seen to dart across the open deck and scramble into the rear seat of the sternmost Douglas SBD Dauntless dive bomber.  Then, from the parked dive bomber, Gaido manned the .30 caliber machine guns in the rear seat and relentlessly poured tracers toward the oncoming plane.  Witnesses said it seemed as though the action had become a personal duel between the Japanese pilot and Gaido as they each continuously fired toward each other.  In its final right turn, the enemy pilot tried for a deck crash. His right wing tip sliced through Gaido’s SBD, shearing its tail off three feet from where Gaido furiously kept up his fire.  The right wing separated from the fuselage and skidded into the port catwalk. The fuel from its ruptured tanks drenched the ship forward towards the island and up into the superstructure.  The broken Dauntless was knocked to the extreme aft edge of the flight deck.  In its rear seat, Gaido stood to depress his guns, firing into the wreckage of the Japanese bomber as it settled into the sea astern.  The entire action was witnessed from the bridge by the Admiral in command, who upon learning Gaido’s identity, immediately ordered that he be promoted.  That afternoon Gaido became an Aviation Machinist Mate First Class. 

The Battle of Midway is considered by many to be the most important naval battle of the Pacific Campaign during World War II. The battle began the morning of June 4, 1942, and AMM1 Gaido was the radio-gunner in an SBD from Scouting Squadron Six (VS-6) piloted by Ensign Frank W. O’Flaherty, which flew from the Enterprise to attack the Japanese fleet.  The SBD dive bombers were instrumental in the attacks which destroyed the Japanese carriers Akagi and Kaga. Following their successful attack, six SBDs formed an arc formation as they sped away from the Japanese fleet.  However, as they departed, the formation was repeatedly attacked by Japanese Zero fighters.  Skillful management of the formation kept the Zeros from inflicting serious damage to five of the American planes.  Unfortunately, the SBD of O’Flaherty and Guido received significant damage to the fuel tanks and soon the tanks ran dry forcing it to ditch in the sea.  As the remainder of the formation was forced to leave the area because of continued attacks by the Zeros, O’Flaherty and Guido were last seen scrambling aboard their life raft.  

The countless atrocities committed by the Japanese Imperial Army during World War II are reasonably well known.  What is less well known is the dark war record of the Imperial Japanese Navy.  Following the close of World War II, when the U.S. Navy gained access to the Japanese Battle of Midway Action Report, it was revealed that Ensign O’Flaherty and AMM1 Gaido had been plucked from the sea by the Japanese destroyer Makigumo.  The circumstances of their deaths were investigated as a war crime.  The investigation confirmed that after their capture they were intensely interrogated, and when they were considered of no further value, on June 15, 1942, they were bound with ropes, tied to weighted fuel cans and thrown overboard to drown.  This war crime was never prosecuted as most of the Japanese involved in their deaths perished later in the war and so building a case was impossible. 

In 1996, an Enlisted Combat Aircrew Roll of Honor was established aboard the USS Yorktown Museum in Charleston, South Carolina.  AMM1 Gaido was honored as the first inductee.

Submitted by CDR Roy A. Mosteller, USNR (Retired)