Posted on 04/12/2019 5:53:03 AM PDT by reaganaut1
Lt. Dick Cole stood over the open escape hatch of a B-25 bomber, gripping his parachute cord and looking down into 9,000 feet of seamless black. It was the night of April 18, 1942, and the plane, bucking in a roiling storm, had just led one of the most audacious and unlikely missions of World War II—the first Allied bombing of Japan. Now, out of fuel over China, the bomber was doomed. Cole dived out headfirst and vanished.
The Doolittle Raid was a pivot point of the war. Cole survived, and would outlive all his 79 fellow raiders. When he died Tuesday at 103—“it feels a little slower than 102,” he told me in October—an epic chapter of living history closed.
The raid began with an outlandish idea. With no base from which to strike Japan and avenge Pearl Harbor, military planners opted to hoist 16 land-based B-25s, which normally needed thousands of feet of runway for takeoff, onto the aircraft carrier USS Hornet, sail them to Japanese waters, and attempt to fly them off the Hornet’s roughly 500-foot runway. Lt. Col. Jimmy Doolittle would lead the mission, with Cole as his co-pilot.
Cole learned of the operation from a bulletin-board notice. “WANTED: VOLUNTEERS FOR DANGEROUS MISSION.” He signed up. After weeks of strange, unexplained training in B-25s so stripped for weight their tail guns had been replaced by broomsticks, he joined his fellow airmen on the Hornet. There, they finally learned their objective.
The day before the planned launch, Cole was walking to breakfast when speakers blared. Japanese sailors had spotted the task force, and the strike had to launch some 200 miles prematurely, in a bruising storm. The mission was now virtually suicidal: The planes would not have enough fuel to reach Chinese landing fields.
(Excerpt) Read more at wsj.com ...
Laura Hillenbrand is author of the 2010 book “Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience and Redemption.”
Truly the end of an era. Sadly America has been transformed. Never again will the country produce such men in the numbers it once did. Try to imagine Doolitle’s Raiders using marijuana and other drugs regularly or avidly embracing today’s hedonism and decadence. Sorry but today’s America mass produces millennials not men.
“...Never again will the country produce such men in the numbers it once did....”
Agree. They were warriors back then.
Try to imagine today’s 17-20 year olds facing the beaches of Normandy, or storming the beaches of Tarawa, Iwo Jima or Okinawa. Yeah, we produce these frail, delicate, little snowflakes now that don’t know if they’re a boy or a girl or which even which bathroom to use.
They’re the product of what liberalism/communism has brought to America.
If I had the choice of being on the first wave to hit those beaches, OR a radio man on that raid. I would take the raid. Better odds of survival.
And our enemy's are well aware of it...
We can still say their name but no statues. This all subject to change when thought crimes become law.
Dick Cole was 24 years old on the day of the raid.
Today, he would be a snowflake in some college, feeling wounded because somebody over in the student union was saying nasty things about people who are trying to kill us. He would be on his parents’ health insurance policy, living in their basement, under his Beto poster, and texting his other snowflakes about how is fearful not of some Hitler or Tojo, but of Donald Trump.
To steal from Michener’s “Where do we get such men?” (Bridges of Toko Ri) will we ever again get such men, save for the 1/2% serving in uniform today?
They would get killed walking across the beach looking at their smart phones.
“Truly the end of an era. Sadly America has been transformed. Never again will the country produce such men in the numbers it once did.
Try to imagine Doolitle’s Raiders using marijuana and other drugs regularly or avidly embracing today’s hedonism and decadence. Sorry but today’s America mass produces millennials not men.” Try to imagine today’s 17-20 year olds facing the beaches of Normandy, or storming the beaches of Tarawa, Iwo Jima. If I had the choice of being on the first wave to hit those beaches, OR a radio man on that raid. I would take the raid. Better odds of survival.”
Folks, I beg to differ, although I get it… I understand where you’re coming from. I grew up in the military environment, I’ve known vets from as far back as World War I in my lifetime, and I’ve listened to them all. Many were beer drinkers and hell raisers. I would imagine the Raiders drank their fair share in their day… to infer they were decadent “just ain’t right”, neither is it right to paint our young heroes in the military with such a broad brush.
I’ve served over 20-years in the Air Force and worked as a contractor for longer supporting the military. Because of those preceding heroes, and the development of technologies and tactics, we no longer have to send in dozens of battalions across the beaches or invade whole continents.
My uncle, who served in the Korean and Vietnam wars once relayed to me that he and my dad enlisted in the buddy program together at age 17 knowing full well their first stop was Korea! Why, you might ask? I’ve never forgotten his answer because of the conviction with which he stated it: “We enlisted because we were taught and raised to love our country and what she stands for, right or wrong!” In other words “stuff happens, and who ya gonna call?”
I have to admit, I enlisted in the Air Force at barely 18 years old out of a sense of obligation to my country, and I only intended a single enlistment to get the GI Bill (1975). 21-years later, I retired from the Air Force with degrees and went to work for defense contractors supporting the Air Force. I too love my country and what she stands for, I understood the risks and responsibilities and took them head on.
Now, I have a grandson serving his first enlistment in the Air Force… he joined at age 17. Grandson #2 is planning to enlist next year. The neighbor’s kid enlisted in the Army. They weren’t forced to enlist. Probably like me, they grew up listening to the veteran’s stories and being taught by their parents to love our country and what she stands for, right or wrong.
If you’ll take the time and look around, you’ll realize the United States still produces an abundance of fine young American heroes, who when asked to storm the beaches or airdrop behind enemy lines will do it willingly! American heroes have been doing it on our behalf for over 240 years!
Try to imagine it, you say? Who is raising all of the hedonistic and decadent kiddies today? It sure ain’t me. I recommend you stop looking at and listening to the leftist whiners and crybabies, and instead stand up to them. Start looking around and identifying our true heroes… those youngsters are not imagining anything, they’re too busy doing and executing the missions that our duly elected government gets us entangled in! They are quite amazing, and fully deserving of your respect and admiration!
So endeth the sermon.
I suspect these men fall in that class of “Toxic Masculinity”.
Good sermon.
John Batchelor has been featuring an author about the raid and the experiences of the 80 Army Airmen participating in it on his weeknight 10pm show over Chicago’s WLS am 890 following previously recorded Mark Levin .
Thx ...
“...If I had the choice of being on the first wave to hit those beaches, OR a radio man on that raid. I would take the raid. Better odds of survival....”
Correct...I have no doubt about it. My dad was a BAR rifleman at 17 years old (lied about his age to get in) and was in the very first wave of Marines to hit the beach at Okinawa. They only made it ashore in one piece because the enemy weapons were not completely zeroed in. He told me that almost all of 2nd and 3rd waves never even made it to the beach at all as they were blown completely out of the water. They all thought they’d be trapped with no reinforcements for awhile but pressed on anyway. But yeah, those guys back then were something else.
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