Background

Damon Gause was born on June 17, 1915, in Fort Valley, Georgia. He was the son of Duff Adolph and Jescyne Gause.

Education

Damon Gause graduated from the Martin Institute High School and attended the University of Georgia. After one year of college, he dropped out and enlisted in the United States Coast Guard.

Career

Damon Gause graduated from the Martin Institute High School and attended the University of Georgia. Finding college studies dreary, he liked to spend his afternoons at the local airfield, where he began to take flying lessons. After one year of college, Damon dropped out and enlisted in the United States Coast Guard, serving as a Radioman on the United States Coast Guard Cutter Argo. After three years, he enlisted in the United States Army Air Corps, where he served in Panama. Three years later, Damon left the Army to work for the Texaco Oil Company in its oil fields in Columbia, until 1939 when he returned to Georgia.

In early 1941, Damon Gause enlisted again in the Army Air Corps (which became the Army Air Forces on 20 June 1941), this time qualifying for flight training. He received his wings as a pilot and was commissioned a Second Lieutenant at Kelly Field, and assigned to the 27th Bombardment Group in Savannah, where he trained on A-24 dive-bombers.

In late November 1941, the 27th Bomb Group was reassigned to the Philippine Islands, arriving just before the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on 7 December. When American forces abandoned Manila, Damon Gause went with them to Bataan. Lacking aircraft, he received command of a machine gun company. When Bataan surrendered, Damon was taken to a prisoner-of-war camp, where he escaped after killing a guard, and swam to the American-held island of Corregidor. When Corregidor fell to the Japanese on 6 May 1942, Damon and a fellow Filipino pilot swam for the Luzon shore, six miles away.

Only Damon Gause made it, and, with the aid of Filipino natives, he continued his escape. Joining another American, Captain William Lloyd Osborne, the two men stole a boat from the Japanese and sailed 3,200 miles to Australia. After a year of promoting war bonds and being hailed as a hero, Damon volunteered to return to active service at the front lines. In 1943, he was assigned to the 365th Fighter Group and shipped to England. Given P-47 Thunderbolt fighters, they trained for low altitude dive-bombing missions in preparation for the upcoming Normandy Invasion. On 9 March 1944, Damon was killed while test-flying a modified P-47 south of London near the Isle of Wright. He was testing the plane for its future mission in close air support for the Allied Invasion of Normandy.

Damon Gause kept a journal, where he described his life and significant moments in it. The journal was found in a footlocker by Damon's son, Damon Lance Gause, and was published on Veteran's Day, 1999. The War Journal presents that story in Major Damon's own words as he wrote it shortly after he returned to the United States. The tale has the feel of that moment when America was desperate for heroes and reading it is as much a trip back in time as it is a journey across the dark Sulu sea.

Achievements

• Damon Gause was well known as the pilot, the military, who was captured by the Japanese, escaped from the prisoner-of-war camp, with a fellow soldier, Captain William Lloyd Osborne. The personal courage and zealous devotion to duty displayed by Damon Gause have upheld the highest traditions of the military service and reflected great credit upon the Far East Air Force and the United States Army Air Forces. Damon Gause was a holder of several awards, such as Distinguished Service Cross, Air Medal, American Campaign Medal, Asiatic Pacific Campaign Medal, European-African-Middle Eastern Campaign Medal, and World War II Victory Medal.

Works

More photos

• book

  • War Journal of Major Damon "Rocky" Gause

    (The book was published on Veteran's Day in 1999 after Dam...)

    1999

Personality

Damon Gause's colleagues and friends considered him a warm, caring person with a good sense of humor, quick to accept a challenge, and one who championed an underdog.

Quotes from others about the person

• Christopher Dickey: "He'd be just the kind of man you'd want around if you were hoping to try a great escape."

Connections

Damon Gause married Lillian Ruth Evans Carter on 11 October 1941. They had a son, Damon Lance Gause.

Father:

Duff Adolph Gause

Mother:

Jescyne W. Gause

Brother:

Wilson A. Gause

Brother:

John Winston Gause

Wife:

Lillian Ruth Evans Carter

Son:

Damon Lance Gause

colleague:

William Lloyd Osborne

Captain William Lloyd Osborne was an American commander of a Filipino infantry company.