#VeteranOfTheDay Navy Veteran Bruno Gaido

Bruno Peter Gaido was born in 1916 in Staunton, Illinois, just two years after his parents John and Clementina Gaido immigrated from Italy. Upon graduation from Lincoln High School in June 1934 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, he attempted to enlist in the Navy. While his father initially refuted, the young Gaido received permission six years later in October 1940. He began his service in the Navy as an apprentice seaman and was sent to the Naval Training Station in Great Lakes, Illinois, for basic training, before being sent to the Naval Air Station at Pearl Harbor.

In July and September of 1941, Gaido was temporarily assigned to Scouting Squadron Six (VS-6), where he was provided with training until being permanently assigned to VS-6 as an Aviation Mechanists Mate and an eventual promotion to Aviation Machinist Mate Third Class. VS-6 was attached to the aircraft carrier USS Enterprise (CV-6). On Feb. 1, 1942, shortly after the Enterprise attacked the Japan-held Marshall and Gilbert Islands, it was struck by five bomber aircraft. While four of the planes missed, one damaged aircraft maintained its course toward Enterprise to crash into the carrier.

Realizing the bomber’s impending suicidal crash, Gaido climbed into a parked Dauntless dive bomber, opening fire with the aircraft’s thirty caliber machine gun. The crashing bomber clipped Gaido’s plane and fell into the sea, barely missing the carrier. Fearing punishment for leaving his watch station, Gaido left the scene and hid on the ship. Upon locating Gaido, Vice Admiral William F. Halsey promoted him to Aviation Machinist First Class and he was awarded a SECNAV letter of commendation.

During the Battle of Midway on June 4, 1942, Gaido served as the radioman and gunner for VS-6. The VS-6 attacked an Imperial Japanese Navy aircraft carrier, but tragedy struck upon return home when it ran out of fuel and crashed into the sea, its occupants presumed dead on June 5, 1943. However, American intelligence officers learned through post-war interviews that Gaido and his pilot Frank Woodrow O’Flaherty successfully ditched their plane and were captured. Gaido and O’Flaherty were interrogated for information and were subsequently bound with weights to fall overboard with “stoic and dignified defiance.”

Gaido was posthumously awarded a Distinguished Flying Cross for his “heroic and meritorious devotion to duty” in “the face of furious and repeated attacks.” He also received a Purple Heart Medal, an American Campaign Medal, an Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal with two Bronze Stars, a Presidential Commemoration from President Franklin D. Roosevelt and other commendations for his service. His military service is depicted in the television series “Battle 360” and in the film “Midway.” Gaido is enshrined in the Carrier Hall of Fame on board the USS Yorktown memorial at Patriots Point located in Mount Pleasant, South Carolina.

We honor his service.

America250

VA is highlighting 250 Veterans leading up to July 4, 2026, which marks 250 years of independence. Learn more about the count down to 250 years of the American spirit at the America 250 web page.

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Writer: Mary Margaret Brennan

Editors: Jessica Waldon, Ashley Shaut

Researcher: Christopher Rosenquist

Graphic Designer: Kaylah Haywood, Kiki Kelly