1/Lt. McGowan was Killed In Action (KIA). He was a flying co-pilot with the Wallace Malone crew. Due to mechanical problems, B-24J - S/N 42-50491 had to ditch in the North Sea (notified RAF Air-Sea Rescue). The plane broke in half upon landing on the water. Seven of the crew were KIA and three were rescued. Thomas Strohaker (the ball turret gunner), Wallace Malone (the pilot) and Jack Heuser (the bombardier) were rescued.



Gale McGowan graduated high school Leadville Colorado in 1936 and then went to work in construction on the Seminoe Dam. Whilst there he made a new friend who had a sister Peggy - the future Mrs. McGowan. With the completion of the dam and the wartime boom in shipbuilding McGowan moved to Portland to work in the shipyards. Once settled he and Peggy were married in June 1941.



In 1942 Gale was in the Army, his first training in tank maintenance but at some point he managed a transfer to the Army Air Corps and qualified for pilot training. He was commissioned in January 1944 and eventually arrived at the B-24 training base in Tonopah Nevada, assigned to 422nd Base Unit, the centre for replacement crews. His wife Peggy with their baby son and her sister Bonnie made the 700 mile trip by Greyhound bus to visit him. The small mining town was packed with the families of servicemen scheduled for overseas and all they could find in the way of accommodation was a room over a bar. Interestingly it was the room where the 'going away party' was held and where officers and men - officially not supposed to fraternize - got together. At the party Bonnie met Andrew 'Jack' Maynard whom she was to marry in 1946.



McGowan co-pilot in the Bingham crew arrived at Flixton AFB 3rd August 1944 assigned to the 707th Squadron, 446th BG. He then flew thirty three missions- and was already flying extra missions due to a shortage of co-pilots- when he was allocated to a B-24 of 705th Sqdn whose co-pilot had gone sick. Taxiing for take-off there was a hydraulic problem and the plane was delayed by an hour. When trying to catch up with the main force over the Channel an engine failed and the pilot decided to abort the mission. There was a further loss of power, the plane lost altitude, flying too low for the crew to bail out and finally, unable to reach RAF Manston, ditched into the sea. Air Sea Rescue recovered three of the crew from a raft, seven men were lost in the freezing water; among them 1st Lt Gale McGowan. Their names are inscribed on the Memorial Wall at the American Cemetery Madingley.