Life-time Modoc resident Gordon Leland Doss passed away August 24, 2003 in Alturas, CA. Mr. Doss would have been 87 today, September 11.
He served his community well and contributed greatly to the safety of his country as a pilot during war time.
Mr. Doss was recognized for "perfect service, dedication and pride" as a Star Route Carrier with the U.S. Postal Service for 50 years. Postmasters from as far back as World War II, supervisors, directors and the Postmaster from Reno honored Gordon by attending his retirement dinner in Fort Bidwell July 30, 1988.
Gordon Leland Doss was born the eldest of three children on Sept. 11, 1916 in Reno, Nev., while his father Leland, was working the SP railroad shops.
The family returned to their Ft. Bidwell home, where Gordon was reared and graduated from Ft. Bidwell High School. His mother, the former Verda Lunsford, was from a Modoc pioneer family. Gordon met his wife Fern Ash, the first day back to school in Fort Bidwell in the seventh grade and vowed she was the one he'd marry.
He and Fern were married in Reno on June 7, 1936.
For a time, Gordon tried his hand at selling used cars in Alturas, driving a gas truck hauling from Bieber and in 1938, he went back to work for his father and also landed a mail contract of his own. He drove the Eagleville-Ft. Bidwell route, with 16 hour days, six days a week and Sundays spent working on keeping the equipment going. The route was switched in 1946, to the Fort Bidwell to Nubieber route, for which Gordon was responsible for 22 years. His last 22 years were doing the Fort Bidwell to Tulelake route.
When a Civil Pilot Training course was offered in Alturas, Gordon enrolled and attended the ground school classes for two to three hours a night, making for long work days. In 1942, he had completed the training with 75 hours of flying and wanted to be a fighter pilot. He hitchhiked to McClellan Field in Sacramento to take and pass a flight officer training test and returned to Alturas to volunteer for the draft. He was sent to Maxwell Field, Alabama and later Georgia where he hoped to become a P-38 fighter pilot with the Army Air Corps. Because of his height, he was too tall to fit into the cockpit and was sent to bomber school. Commissioned a 1st Lt. he flew in the left pilot's seat. His crew called him "Pappy" as the eldest, at 26, as well as the tallest.
Gordon was assigned to the 8th Air Force (490th Bomber Group, 849th Squadron, which also had the highest number of casualties during the war) and headed for England by way of Brazil and North Africa. His squadron was based at Eye Field, England and he landed there April 1, 1944. Thirty days later, he was on his first of 25 bombing missions.
While assigned to the Air Transport Command at Palm Springs when he returned, Gordon had the distinction of bringing the largest airplane to ever land on the tiny Alturas municipal airstrip --a C-47, on June 6, 1944, when his father was ill and his family called him to come home.
His last mission was in a new B-17 on Sept. 25, 1944, somewhere over Germany, when flak repeatedly hit the plane, knocking out all the controls, except the rudder. Gordon told the Record in a 1981 story, he made it back "in a kind of glide all the way to England and when he landed, the whole airplane just about fell apart."
While Gordon was a bomber pilot for three years, his wife Fern operated the freight and carrier route business. He was a hero to his younger brother Mick, who was 17 years Gordon's junior.
From the time he was a young man, Gordon loved history and seeking out artifacts. He had always enjoyed restoring antiques, such as gas lamps and had quite a collection of rare items, he'd collected over the years. He also enjoyed hunting and was a lifetime member of the Veterans of Foreign Wars Post.
He is survived by his brother Mick and wife Joanne Doss of Alturas, CA; sister Dixie Peterson of Klamath Falls, OR; sister-in-law Jane Stevens of Alturas, CA. and numerous nieces and nephews. He was preceded in death by his wife Fern and brother-in-law Charles Stevens and his parents.
A private inturnment was held at the Ft. Bidwell Cemetery.
Memorials may be made to the Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 3327 in Alturas.
Kerr Mortuary in Alturas was in charge of arrangements.
Contributed by Bill Gransee
Published by Modoc County Record on 11 September 2003
Life-time Modoc resident Gordon Leland Doss passed away August 24, 2003 in Alturas, CA. Mr. Doss would have been 87 today, September 11.
He served his community well and contributed greatly to the safety of his country as a pilot during war time.
Mr. Doss was recognized for "perfect service, dedication and pride" as a Star Route Carrier with the U.S. Postal Service for 50 years. Postmasters from as far back as World War II, supervisors, directors and the Postmaster from Reno honored Gordon by attending his retirement dinner in Fort Bidwell July 30, 1988.
Gordon Leland Doss was born the eldest of three children on Sept. 11, 1916 in Reno, Nev., while his father Leland, was working the SP railroad shops.
The family returned to their Ft. Bidwell home, where Gordon was reared and graduated from Ft. Bidwell High School. His mother, the former Verda Lunsford, was from a Modoc pioneer family. Gordon met his wife Fern Ash, the first day back to school in Fort Bidwell in the seventh grade and vowed she was the one he'd marry.
He and Fern were married in Reno on June 7, 1936.
For a time, Gordon tried his hand at selling used cars in Alturas, driving a gas truck hauling from Bieber and in 1938, he went back to work for his father and also landed a mail contract of his own. He drove the Eagleville-Ft. Bidwell route, with 16 hour days, six days a week and Sundays spent working on keeping the equipment going. The route was switched in 1946, to the Fort Bidwell to Nubieber route, for which Gordon was responsible for 22 years. His last 22 years were doing the Fort Bidwell to Tulelake route.
When a Civil Pilot Training course was offered in Alturas, Gordon enrolled and attended the ground school classes for two to three hours a night, making for long work days. In 1942, he had completed the training with 75 hours of flying and wanted to be a fighter pilot. He hitchhiked to McClellan Field in Sacramento to take and pass a flight officer training test and returned to Alturas to volunteer for the draft. He was sent to Maxwell Field, Alabama and later Georgia where he hoped to become a P-38 fighter pilot with the Army Air Corps. Because of his height, he was too tall to fit into the cockpit and was sent to bomber school. Commissioned a 1st Lt. he flew in the left pilot's seat. His crew called him "Pappy" as the eldest, at 26, as well as the tallest.
Gordon was assigned to the 8th Air Force (490th Bomber Group, 849th Squadron, which also had the highest number of casualties during the war) and headed for England by way of Brazil and North Africa. His squadron was based at Eye Field, England and he landed there April 1, 1944. Thirty days later, he was on his first of 25 bombing missions.
While assigned to the Air Transport Command at Palm Springs when he returned, Gordon had the distinction of bringing the largest airplane to ever land on the tiny Alturas municipal airstrip --a C-47, on June 6, 1944, when his father was ill and his family called him to come home.
His last mission was in a new B-17 on Sept. 25, 1944, somewhere over Germany, when flak repeatedly hit the plane, knocking out all the controls, except the rudder. Gordon told the Record in a 1981 story, he made it back "in a kind of glide all the way to England and when he landed, the whole airplane just about fell apart."
While Gordon was a bomber pilot for three years, his wife Fern operated the freight and carrier route business. He was a hero to his younger brother Mick, who was 17 years Gordon's junior.
From the time he was a young man, Gordon loved history and seeking out artifacts. He had always enjoyed restoring antiques, such as gas lamps and had quite a collection of rare items, he'd collected over the years. He also enjoyed hunting and was a lifetime member of the Veterans of Foreign Wars Post.
He is survived by his brother Mick and wife Joanne Doss of Alturas, CA; sister Dixie Peterson of Klamath Falls, OR; sister-in-law Jane Stevens of Alturas, CA. and numerous nieces and nephews. He was preceded in death by his wife Fern and brother-in-law Charles Stevens and his parents.
A private inturnment was held at the Ft. Bidwell Cemetery.
Memorials may be made to the Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 3327 in Alturas.
Kerr Mortuary in Alturas was in charge of arrangements.
Contributed by Bill Gransee
Published by Modoc County Record on 11 September 2003
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