[Retain Mike]

Jimmy Doolittle's co-pilot, retired Air Force Lt. Col. Richard “Dick” Cole, was the last living raider and died April 7, 2019 at 103 years. I knew so many men like him as I grew up and throughout my years. I knew an ace who served in the Flying Tigers, a ranger who scaled Point-Du-Hoc, a UDT sailor who cleared surf obstacles before the Okinawa landing, and a man with the 10th Mountain Infantry who received two silver stars and was the only one of eight officers in his company to land in Italy and soldier through the102 days until the Germans surrendered.

Now like Richard Cole all the men I knew have passed as well. I do not plan to forget them and will post this story annually to help others remember.

[SuperLuminal]

I vividly remember (I was a 9-year-old) the elation and celebration when the American public was made aware of this attack on those stinking japs...

[Lurkinanloomin]

Thanks for the post.

I read “Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo” when I was a young and it left a lasting impression.

[Dilbert San Diego]

Thank you for the reminder of this historic mission. I remember hearing stories of how the Doolittle raid lifted the morale of the country, so soon after Pearl Harbor.

Remember this happened in April 1942. History tells us that the Axis powers had reached their maximum territory occupied in November and December of 1942. The outcome of the war was far from certain then.

While history tells us that we won World War II, it was not at all certain in those dark days of 1942 that we would emerge victorious.

[packrat35]

Thanks for posting.

[nicollo]

BTTP

Awesome work, Retain Mike !

[M Kehoe]

Bttt.

5.56mm

[Mean Daddy]

My father met him several times. Gen. Doolittle was on the board at Mutual of Omaha. Nothing but good things to say about the man.

[Theophilus]

The hangars at Eglin, used to modufy the B-25s, are stiml in service!

[Paal Gulli]

Jimmy Doolittle (et Al) is emblematic of an America that (seemingly) no longer exists. One in which the average citizen could be counted on to put his life on the line to preserve the very idea of America.

Even the fact that he managed to overcome the burden of a surname like “Doolittle” to become his own chapter in the history books shows what an un-ordinary man he was.

[jonrick46]

A Navy seaman who was waving the B-25 crews to take off was thrown off balance and lost his arm in the prop. He still gave a salute to the crew taking off from the Hornet.

[jonrick46]

"The Chinese who spirited the others to friendly hands paid a terrible price. Hirohito was enraged and authorized a reprisal expedition into Chekiang and Kiangsi provinces. According to Curtis LeMay, the Japanese not only destroyed military bases and infrastructure, but turned villages into cinders and killed 250,000 civilians."

The Japs were especially savage, lighting off metal barrels with fuel and throwing babies stabbed with their rifle bayonets into the flames.

[jonrick46]

Thank you for your important post. It has more value for me than I can reveal at this time.

[Texas resident]

When I was growing up in Houston in the 60’s/70’s all the dads on the block were WW2 and Korean War veterans. Some had been wounded and some not, but they were all of the same mindset.

[linMcHlp]

An unknown history fact about preparations for the Doolittle Raid. A Lt. Fitzgerald was assigned by Jimmy Doolittle, with the task of flying a B-25C below regulations altitude, “on the deck,” from east to west and back, in January 1942. In order to gather information re what might be, or would be, encountered.

Lt. Fitzgerald and I had a mutual friend. Both men had dated sisters. And by chance, in the early 1970s, I met the younger of the two sisters.

Just a couple years before meeting her, I had seen a picture of her, taken just after she graduated from high school. Very cute.

I was walking by a putting green at the Santa Barbara Biltmore Hotel, and I saw her walking around the far side of the putting green. I recognized her immediately - from that distance, based on the old photo.

Later that evening, at the hotel’s seaside ballroom and dining hall, she walked up to me and asked me if I would like to dance with her. I declined because I was nervous; I liked her alot. I liked just being near her.

I still have her picture.

I still have a WRIGHT arrow patch (issued to a friend), one of only 17 issued to Wright Field (Dayton, OH) based U.S.A.A.C. then U.S.A.A.F. test pilots over the period from before and thru World War II —> the WRIGHT arrow patch worn by Jimmy Doolittle - see the photos of him on the deck of the USS Hornet.

[rlmorel]

Thank you for doing so. Those were real Americans. Everything about them.