Gordon Donald Gayle (September 13, 1917 – April 21, 2013) was an American officer in the United States Marine Corps with the rank of brigadier general and historian.

A veteran of World War II and Korea, he distinguished himself as commanding officer, 2nd Battalion, 5th Marines and received Navy Cross, the United States military's second-highest decoration awarded for valor in combat.

Gayle then enrolled the Southern Methodist University in Dallas, but left after one year, when received appointment to the United States Naval Academy at Annapolis, Maryland.

He deployed with his unit to Guantánamo Bay, Cuba and took part in a series of training and landing exercises there and at Vieques, Puerto Rico in early 1941.

The division began training in New River (later named Camp Lejeune), North Carolina, in September 1941 and was promoted to the rank of first lieutenant in November 1941, several weeks before the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.

One month later, in Wellington, the division reloaded its ships for amphibious assault and was then ordered under its commanding officer Major General Alexander A. Vandegrift to Guadalcanal, Solomon Islands, in early August 1942.

[1] Gayle was appointed operations officer of 1st Battalion, 5th Marines and took part in the initial landing on Guadalcanal on August 7 and capture of the Japanese airfield under construction.

Some days later, and after U.S. Navy units had been compelled to withdraw temporarily from the Guadalcanal area, Gayle while on battalion-level reconnaissance outside the Henderson Field perimeter, discovered a powerful working radio that the retreating Japanese had left behind.

Gayle received orders to destroy the radio because of the possibility that it was booby-trapped and because of general revulsion, after the notorious Goettge Patrol incident, among many officers for the taking of Japanese souvenirs.

[2][1][4] Following heavy ship losses during the Battle of Savo Island, Vice Admiral Richmond K. Turner temporarily withdrew naval forces from the immediate Guadalcanal area, including the transports holding key undelivered Marine supplies and equipment.

Gayle was stationed at Camp Balcombe near the town of Mount Martha, Victoria, where he was appointed 5th Marine Regiment Operations officer under Colonel John T. Selden.

[7] In the early morning of September 15, 1944, Gayle and his battalion (2/5) sailed for Peleliu, Palau Islands to capture the large Japanese airfield there, which was seen as a threat to General MacArthur's lines of communication for his upcoming invasion of the Philippines.

[2][1][11] In May 1947, Gayle became military plans and assistant operations officer on the staff of the commander, Amphibious Group One and Transport Squadron One, in San Diego, California, and served in this capacity until December 1948.

The division was sent to western Korea in March 1952, where it took over a sector of the extreme left of the UN line with the responsibility of blocking the historic invasion route to Seoul.

The resulting proposals called for better training and assignment guidelines for recruits, increased use of technology on the battlefield and the acquisition of vertical-takeoff-and-landing jets, which could operate without standard airfields.

[8][1] Following his retirement from the military, Gayle settled in Washington, D.C., and worked for Center for Strategic and International Studies at Georgetown University for several years.