Posted on 03/27/2007 4:02:38 AM PDT by ajolympian2004
Lt. Col. Chase J. Nielsen, a Utah man and member of the famed "Doolittle Raiders" who bombed Japan in 1942 -- in a retaliation attack from Pearl Harbor -- passed away on Friday at the age of 90.
Nielsen was a navigator in one of the most daring air raids in American history, when 16 B-25 bombers took off from an aircraft carrier and bombed Tokyo on April 18, 1942.
Nielsen and his crew -- named "Crew 6," because of the order in which they left the aircraft carrier -- ditched the plane off the coast of China after it ran out of fuel. He then spent more than three years as a Japanese prisoner of war. Nielsen was the only member of "Crew 6" to survive the war.
The raid, planned by Lt. Col. Jimmy Doolittle as a retaliation attack from Japan's assault on Pearl Harbor four months earlier, was the subject of the book and movie "Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo" and the book "Four Came Home," which chronicled the story of Nielsen and the three other survivors. (Click Here to see pictures of the raid)
Nielsen, who returned to China to testify at Japanese war crimes trials just months after he was released, was known for telling his story to anyone who asked.
"They were always after him to tell his war stories," Nielsen's wife, Phyllis, told the Ogden Standard-Examiner. "He was a very well-thought-of man because he was just a nice person. He loved to help anybody that needed help."
Nielsen's death leaves 14 surviving "Doolittle Raiders," according to researchers.
In 1935, Nielsen graduated from South Cache High School in Hyrum before attending Utah State University between 1935 and 1938, where he received a degree in civil engineering. Nielsen enlisted at Fort Douglas in Salt Lake City as a flying cadet in 1939. He retired from military service in 1961 after receiving several honors including the Distinguished Flying Cross and the Purple Heart.
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Excellent slideshow -
http://kutv.com/slideshows/local_slideshow_084225753
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Video of story as aired on KUTV 2 in Salt Lake and other links here -
http://kutv.com/local/local_story_084215726.html
God Bless
Another cup turned down.Rest in peace Colonel, thank you...
ping
The video from the newscast shows film of B-17's....figures...BTW, we are coming up on another anniversary, four days earlier than the Dolittle raid, April 14th..Operation El Dorado Canyon..the raid on Qadafi..
They saved the world, God bless Sir.
I was wondering about those "B-25's" featured in the story video. Thanks for pointing this out.
I couldn't agree more.
hero bump
What great men. Rest in peace.
They definitely ain't making men like that anymore! Rest in peace Lt. Col. Chase J. Nielsen!
Thank you for the posting.
Post or FReepmail me if you wish to be enlisted in or discharged from the Navair Pinglist.
This is a low volume pinglist.
Post or FReepmail me if you wish to be enlisted in or discharged from the Navair Pinglist.
Apparently this pinglist isn't quite as low volume as I thought it would be.
Thanks for posting and linking.
Condolences to Lt. Col. Chase J. Nielsen's family and friends.
America's finest.
They certainly did. Salute !
One of the Doolittle Raids' POWs stuck around after the war and converted Pearl Harbor attacker Air Wing Commander Fuchida
to Christianity.
Doolittle visited Japan several times in the 1950s when I was an Army Brat. My dad got to shake his had at one of the functions where he made an appearance. Dad was from his era and flew C-46s in the CBI, which was largely a forgotten or overlooked piece of the action. Hump pilots were a tough bunch, but flying a loaded bomber from a stubby WW II carrier took real brass.
Thanks for the ping. May he rest in peace.
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