June 7, 1942 marked the end of the Battle of Midway, a victory that reshaped the Pacific War and halted Japan’s advance. A photograph from that same day shows Ensign George H. Gay Jr. recovering at Pearl Harbor, the sole survivor of Torpedo Squadron 8’s doomed attack group. After his aircraft was shot down, Gay drifted in the water for hours, watching the battle’s fiery climax unfold around him—an eyewitness to history in its most harrowing form.
