No Gates Open in Lonely Search for WWII Co-Pilot

In a world of fading memories, the quest of Dominique Van Den Brouke is a lonely one.

The 29-year-old Belgian journalist/historian is writing a book about three American warplanes shot down near the Belgian-French border during World War II. After four decades, the Belgians retain their fascination and gratitude for the role the Americans played in liberating them from Nazi occupation.

Van Den Brouke has written 2,500 letters seeking information about the men and their missions--including several to San Diego regarding the late 2nd Lt. Joseph Norman Gates, a 22-year-old San Diegan killed on his first mission when his B-17, the Snoozy II, was shot down on Oct. 9, 1942.

Letters to San Diego City Hall, the Coronado Chamber of Commerce, the governor’s office, the American Red Cross in San Diego, and others, were fruitless. The trail is cold: we have no information; it’s not our area of responsibility, Van Den Brouke is told.

Records at Fort McPherson National Cemetery in Maxwell, Neb., show that Gates’ remains were reburied there on April 30, 1952. His mother, Nanette D. Bailey of San Diego, attended the funeral; his father, Earl F. Gates, of Waveland, Miss., did not.

Nanette Bailey died in 1955. The current homeowners along 4th Avenue in Hillcrest don’t remember her or her son. The city clerk in Waveland, Miss., never heard of Earl Gates.

A fire at the military records center in St. Louis destroyed 80% of the service records of World War II, including that of Gates. A newspaper obituary said only that Gates graduated from high school in San Diego and was going to college when he enlisted; his only listed survivor was his mother.

Albert W. Lachasse, 72, a retired real estate agent in Glendale, was the bombardier on the Snoozy II and remembers Gates, the co-pilot, as lean and studious. He has had lengthy correspondence with Van Den Brouke.

“Gates was more serious than the other guys,” Lachasse said. “Most of us, when we were in England, were just interested in getting a drink and finding a nice English girl. My last memory of Gates is him trying desperately to put out the fire in the cockpit from the flak hits as we were going down.”

Although Lachasse has vivid wartime memories of Gates, he says he knows little of what Gates was really like, what his dreams were.

“Guys didn’t talk about things like that,” Lachasse said. “It was considered bad luck. All our bombing was being done in daylight and we knew one of two things would probably happen to us: shot down and killed, or shot down and injured.”

Van Den Brouke says he will continue his search for information.

“The people in my region hated the occupation . . . . There is still a strong memory of the time,” he said. “I have spoken to many members of the Belgian and French resistance and they are excited that I am writing this book.”

Making the Grade

Of new undergraduates admitted to UC San Diego last fall, a third had grade-point averages in high school of 3.6 to 3.9, and a third had 3.9 and above. Straight-A’s is 4.0, but because some honors courses yield premium points, many students exceed that.

And they show no sign of slowing down once they hit the campus in La Jolla. The top five majors (in order) are general biology, applied mechanics and engineering science, psychology, political science, and biochemistry/cell biology.

A Man for All Seasons

How’s this for a resume? Congressman, television anchorman, educator, columnist, communications consultant, newspaper reporter, avid golfer, would-be comedian, and avocado grower.

It fits Lionel Van Deerlin, 74, a former congressman who will be the subject of a dinner and dancing tribute Feb. 8 at the Hotel del Coronado. Tickets are $75, with profits going to the San Diego State University Foundation.