Meet the only PBY pilot to be awarded the Medal of Honor
By Jon Guttman
Friday, Aug 29, 2025
Gordon was awarded the Medal of Honor for "extraordinary heroism" while serving as commander of a Catalina Patrol Plane that rescued 15 United States Army Fifth Air Force service members shot down in combat. (Naval History and Heritage Command)
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.”
https://www.militarytimes.com/veterans/military-history/2025/08/29/meet-the-only-pby-pilot-to-be-awarded-the-medal-of-honor/
