My wife was not thrilled that I gave it away after all that work!
Here's what it looked like back then:
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Posted on 02/26/2017 5:13:18 PM PST by Jeff Head
It was a great feat of daring, and besides forcing the Japanese to reassess their defense provisions for the home islands, it boosted American morale.
I don't recall the title, but when I was a child, I read a book about that subject too. Also one of my aunts was working in the lunchroom at the West Columbia base (South Carolina) when the Doolittle Raiders were training there. Of course, she wouldn't have known what they were training for at the time.
"...in the spring of 1942...The 17th BG [Bomb Group], then flying antisubmarine patrols from Pendleton, Oregon, was immediately moved cross-country to Lexington County Army Air Base at West Columbia, South Carolina and Columbia Army Air Base at Columbia, South Carolina, ostensibly to fly similar patrols off the east coast of the United States but in actuality to prepare for the mission against Japan." [Wikipedia]
That is awesome! I feel so bad because i bought dozens of kits, the big stuff, the Big E, a german railway gun, many unopened kits from about 10 years ago, have not worked on any.
Maybe if i move to a new home I’ll get back into it.
later
You are welcome!
Dolittles raid...
Great Read
Thanks.
> “Very few people appreciate how hard fought the war in the Pacific was...”
I probably wouldn’t either except that my father died on Guam. I was just a toddler at the time, but later read his and my mother’s letters, leading up to the telegram from the Adjutant General informing her that he’d been killed in action — there had been a delay of several weeks in which she desperately wrote him, begging him to write and reassure her that he was ok — “The Secretary of War desires me to express their regret that your husband [name] was killed in action on Thursday six July in Guam...” Many spouses received a message like that. There were 416,800 American military deaths in World War II.
I did the same...had a big “stash” figuring I would do them when I retired.
Then I got cancer in 2009.
We were very blessed after some very serious surgeries and radiation for six or seven months down in Texas at MD Anderson in 2010 which completely removed my sacrum (the lower, fused five vertebrae in your back and all of the nerve roots with them) that turned out better than expected.
but it left me disabled...but at least I could walk.
So my wife talked me into starting then.
Then last year the cancer came back with a vengence and I had more surger, radiation, etc. Now it is in my liver.
But the Lord has blessed me and these models have been therapeutic for me...and many prayers have been answered and the tumors in the liver are growing much slower so far than they feared.
Anyhow, take a look at this site to see all that I have built in the last six years:
Heff Head’s Model Shop
http://www.jeffhead.com/modelbuilds/
Especially check out the Ronald Regan, the Enterprise, the Iwo Jima and the B-36...and all of the other carriers and all of their escorts.
God has been kind to me...I would recommend getting started now. I started just spending a couple of hours per evening three or four days a week.
God’s speed.
I did the same...had a big “stash” figuring I would do them when I retired.
Then I got cancer in 2009.
We were very blessed after some very serious surgeries and radiation for six or seven months down in Texas at MD Anderson in 2010 which completely removed my sacrum (the lower, fused five vertebrae in your back and all of the nerve roots with them) that turned out better than expected.
but it left me disabled...but at least I could walk.
So my wife talked me into starting then.
Then last year the cancer came back with a vengence and I had more surger, radiation, etc. Now it is in my liver.
But the Lord has blessed me and these models have been therapeutic for me...and many prayers have been answered and the tumors in the liver are growing much slower so far than they feared.
Anyhow, take a look at this site to see all that I have built in the last six years:
Heff Head’s Model Shop
http://www.jeffhead.com/modelbuilds/
Especially check out the Ronald Regan, the Enterprise, the Iwo Jima and the B-36...and all of the other carriers and all of their escorts.
God has been kind to me...I would recommend getting started now. I started just spending a couple of hours per evening three or four days a week.
God’s speed.
Outstanding Sir!
Wow! Thanks Jeff!
One of my favorite stories from WW2 and like someone else stated I read and still own the book “Thirty Seconds over Tokyo”.
Glad to see a thread started by you, I hope you are doing OK.
God rest their souls and thank you Jeff Head for this stirring remembrance. I kept seeing Spencer Tracy and Van Johnson who played in the movie about the raid. We Americans are a great people because we share one important ideal in common: freedom. Our Founders began the Nation with a pledge of honor and loyalty to this cause of freedom, the most fragile thing ever created by man.
I appreciate your information about the Doolittle Raiders and your models. Sorry to hear that you’re having to contend with cancer. I wish you the best.
My grandfather was First Lieutenant and Damage Control Officer on the Bunker Hill. He and the engineering officer ran drills time and time again getting the men ready.
Wow. What an interesting post.
My great-uncles were WWII pilots. The last one passed away in December, he was 103. C-47 pilot. He was shot down in the English Channel on D-Day, strafed in Italy, participated in the Berlin Airlift, and evacuated the hospitals/wounded soldiers from Europe after the war. He gardened until the last season of his life. He was My Hero.
God Bless them all. God Bless you for putting together such an awesome post, reminding us of the true meaning of courage.
You are welcome.
And thank you and your family for their service.
My father was in the PTO, a US Navy combat officer commanding an LCI.
Several of his uncles on that side also fought.
My mother’s oldest brother was in a B-17 crew and was killed over Belgium in 1944. HIs aircraft took an 88mm round, dirct hit before they could drop their bombs. He didn;t get out...he was in the lower gun turret.
A farmer found his remains in 1946 and they were ultimately returned to the US and buried,
God bless them all, we owe them a debt of gratitude and honor for our freedom.
That spirit is still here, My FRiend. It was gravely damaged by the age of political correctness, feminism, hate Americanism, White self hatred and I rather be Red than dead ism. But it is still amongst us. As long as we are alive, it will still be here. Hopefully, as we depart, others will pick up the baton.
Excellent model, and memorial.
My wife was not thrilled that I gave it away after all that work!
Here's what it looked like back then:
" style="width:304px;height:228px;">
Amen
Praise God, our new Commander in Chief seeks Peace through Strength.
Looks like *Shangri-la* to me!
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