S1C Donald Averill lost 25 Oct 1944 in the sinking of the USS Gambier Bay Aircraft Carrier

This story appeared in The Harvard Courier 75 years ago describing to the Averill family that the navy had no hope of locating their son missing in the sinking of the aircraft carrier the USS Gambier Bay.

Donald Edward Averill (1925-1944)

Richard C. Moore painted this lithograph titled “Freedom’s Cost” commissioned by the USS Gambier Bay Association. Nineteen-year-old Seaman 1^st Class Donald Averill of Harvard was among the 138 men lost when the aircraft carrier was sunk by Japanese gunfire on the morning of October 25, 1944. Donald Averill was a graduate of the Harvard High School Class of 1943.

Link to the Gambier Bay Association