NAKAGAWA, GORDON R.
DECEASED
Name: Gordon R. Nakagawa
Rank/Branch: O5/United States Navy, pilot
Unit: Attack Squadron 196
Date of Birth:
Home City of Record: New Castle CA
Date of Loss: 21 December 1972
Country of Loss: North Vietnam
Loss Coordinates: 204900 North 1063800 East
Status (in 1973): Returnee
Category:
Aircraft/Vehicle/Ground: A6A
Other Personnel in Incident: Kenneth Higdon, returnee
Source: Compiled by P.O.W. NETWORK from one or more of the following: raw
data from U.S. Government agency sources, correspondence with POW/MIA
families, published sources, interviews. 2023
REMARKS: 730329 RELEASED BY DRV
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Gordon Nakagawa retired from the United States Navy as a Captain. He and his
wife Jeanne lived in California until his death in August 2011. He had been ill.
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As most of you know, Gordon lost his battle with
cancer. He was 76. Today was his Celebration of Life. It was held at
the Fort Ord chapel, with the reception at the hall of the Naval
Postgraduate School in Monterey, which was his last assignment as a
professor. His was an interesting life of service to his country, his
family and to his community. He gave the Navy 32 years of active
service.
He was born in Auburn, CA and at age six when World
War II broke out, his family, like so many other Japanese-American
families were rounded up and shipped to the remote, wind swept lands
of Tule Lake, CA to live in an internment camp. They soon were
relocated to a farm labor camp in Caldwell, Idaho. He excelled at
school, graduating tops in his class. He met his wife to be, Jeanne.
in grade school. He entered the University of California at
Berkeley and became the Battalion Commander of the Naval ROTC
class. He was commissioned as an Ensign in 1958 and became a Naval
Aviator in 1959, earning his gold wings. He had many assignments in
the navy, but when the war broke out in Vietnam, he was to fly the
A-6 intruder. Flying off aircraft carriers, he was shot down on his
185th mission, captured and imprisoned at the Hoa Loa prison in
Hanoi, known to all as the Hanoi Hilton. He was freed in 1973 and
soon regained his flight status. He returned to Vietnam flying
protective cover for the evacuation of Saigon in 1975.
In his program are two quotes that meant a great deal
to him.. the first by John F. Kennedy speaking at the US Naval
Academy, "...any man who may be asked in this century what he did to
make his life worthwhile, I think can respond with a good deal of
pride and satisfaction: 'I served in the United States Navy.' "
Another he remembered scratched on a wall in the Hoa
Loa prison by an unknown POW, "Freedom has a taste to those who
fight and almost die for it that the protected shall never know."
His son, Steven Nakagawa is now a Captain in the Navy
and also flew the A-6. He told an interesting story. He went through
the tail numbers of all the A-6s still flying some years ago and
discovered eleven that both he and his father had flown. Then he
told of touring the 'boneyard' of aircraft stored in the dry desert
of Davis-Monthan Air Force Base in Tucson, AZ. Walking through the
A-6s there, he found the one he was looking for. A generation
apart, both had flown her. Said he, "Good old girl, you served two
generations of Nakagawas".
Steven had arranged a special event for those in
attendance. The squadron at Lemoore Naval Air Station had just
returned from deployment in the sand box and the mechanics gave up
their Saturday with their families to ready two for a flyover. At
precisely 3:30 PM, two FA-18s flew over the crowd in a salute to
Gordon. They set off about a hundred car alarms. It was awesome.
Harold K. Strunk, Captain
United States Navy Retired
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