[NEWwoman]

April marks some key anniversaries from World War Two. April 12, FDR passed away - 70 years ago. But in 1942, this Commander-in-Chief urged his commanders to take bold action to fight back. That led to the Doolittle Raid - April 18, 1942.

And I felt compelled to write this blog post will news of the passing of Robert Hite, March 29. Only two are left.

We all are in deft to this men to their service and sacrifice to our country.

[laplata]

Thanks for posting this, NEWwoman. God bless them all.

[AEMILIUS PAULUS]

Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo was on TCM last night.

[MrEdd]

It tells volumes about how abysmal public education in general and collegiate journalism curricula in particular are when a piece like this could possibly be written with an assumption that there would be people reading it with so little knowledge of the second world War as to be clueless about the Doolittle raids.

[DuncanWaring]

Doolittle Raiders Last Toast.

[yarddog]

I guess in the long run it worked out OK as it probably led to the battle of Midway.

Still I wonder if it was really worth it. We lost 16 scarce B-25s and most of the crews for very little damage to Japan.

I know, it was to boost morale. Still I don’t think it was a good idea. Of course if they had launched maybe 500 miles closer to Japan, they may have saved most of the planes.

[FatherofFive]

Those critical 30 seconds, April 18, 1942, was a great moral boost for America. Though the war would not end for three more years, September 1945, the Doolittle Raid gave hope that we could win.

Still amazing that the US defeated Germany and Japan in less time than it took 0bama to build a website that didn't work.

[GreyFriar]

Thank you for posting this reminder of the Doolittle Raiders and LTC Hite’s recent passing.

“Now only two of the original Doolittle Raiders survive as I type (April 11, 2015): retired Lt. Col. Richard Cole and Staff Sgt. David Thatcher.”

[razorback-bert]

I went to military school with his son and his father addressed the corps at chapel one day.

[yarddog]

The Raiders trained at Field 2 on Eglin. It was not far from where I grew up in rural Walton County.

It was pretty much out in the sticks away from everything.

[DuncanWaring]

Ping.

[onedoug]

Read Lawson’s book when I was about ten (1960). Still surviving David Thatcher was part of his crew.

Thanks so much for posting.