"The biggest success of this mission was secrecy. Unlike more recent missions where the current Administration quickly ran to the press to release details of successful missions, even the President of the United States kept the secret until all of the aircrews were accounted for."
From the article:
“Of the eighty original members of Doolittle’s team who flew into history that day in April 1942 only five remain today...”
And of the eighty here’s what happened to eight of them who were captured by the Japanese - On August 13, 1942 Japan passed an ex-post facto law called the Enemy Airman’s Act that declared airmen whose bombs fell on civilians would be sentenced to death. The eight prisoners were sentenced to death.
On October 15, 1942 Dean Hallmark of Robert Lee, Texas, Bill Farrow of Darlington, South Carolina, and Harold Spatz of Lebo, Kansas were executed by firing squad.
Emperor Hirohito in his royal benevolence commuted the sentences of the other five to life imprisonment, with the proviso they would not be treated as prisoners of war, but as war criminals that could not be repatriated should there ever be an exchange of prisoners of war.