04 Apr 2016 Conway County Library to honor local war hero

As part of its year-long Centennial Celebration, and to honor one of Morrilton’s most prominent war heroes, the Conway County Library will display Nathan Gordon’s Medal of Honor and some of his memorabilia at noon Wednesday, April 13, during its April Lunch & Learn.

The items will be on display all day and are loan from the MacArthur Museum of Arkansas Military History.

“We wish to thank Allen and Phyllis Gordon and museum director Stephen McAteer for their assistance in making this possible,” said library director Jay Carter. “This is a rare opportunity for the community to view firsthand a treasured piece of Arkansas history. While you are here, make sure to see the library’s monument to Nathan Gordon, which was dedicated in April 2006, with Nathan himself in the audience.”

Nathan, a life-long resident of Morrilton, won his medal when his plane, a PBY-5 Catalina, was assigned to air-sea rescue duty in February 1944. He was called to respond to rescue the crew of a B-25 Mitchell bomber that had been shot down by anti-aircraft fire, and according to his Medal of Honor Citation, “defying close-range fire from enemy shore guns to make three separate landings in full of the Japanese and pick up nine men, several of them injured. With his cumbersome flying boat dangerously overloaded, he made a brilliant takeoff despite heavy swells and almost total absence wind and set a course for base, only to receive the report of another group stranded in a rubber life raft 600 yards from the enemy shore.”

He then “took aboard six more survivors” before “coolly making his fourth dexterous takeoff with 15 rescued officers and men.”

Nathan was one of only six naval airmen to receive the Medal of Honor during the war. “It is with the greatest respect and admiration that we will proudly host his medal here at the library.”