Doolittle Raid Web exclusive on Air Force Link

Air Force Links ^

[SandRat]

4/4/2006 - SAN ANTONIO (AFPN) -- Just a few short months after a humiliating defeat at the hands of the Japanese at Pearl Harbor, a daring raid launched from the aircraft carrier Hornet changed the tone of the war. It set the U.S. and its allies on a course that would eventually lead to domination of the Pacific during World War II.

This year marks the 64th anniversary of the famed “Doolittle Raid,” when a group of 16 B-25 bombers comprised of 80 pilots and crew left their aircraft carrier on April 18, 1942, on a one-way, 500-mile trek to Tokyo to drop the first bombs on mainland Japan. Lt. Col. James H. “Jimmy” Doolittle commanded “Task Force 16,” in a daring assignment that in President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s words, took “…the war to Japan.”

A special Web exclusive this month on Air Force Link, the official U.S. Air Force Web site, highlights those accomplishments and the men who made history. A special multi-media presentation presents a visual look at the historic mission and the 80 men who changed the course of the war, as well as snapshots from the aircraft carrier as the mission began.

There is also a Doolittle documentary, an audio and video presentation in Colonel Doolittle’s own words about the mission and why its success was not only important to the task force involved, but to the entire United States during the darkest part of World War II. A special focus on Colonel Doolittle, the mastermind of the raid, shows why he went from major to major general in the span of a year, and one day became a four-star general.

A National Museum of the Air Force page provides details on this year’s Doolittle reunion marking the 64th anniversary of the raid on Tokyo.

[SandRat]

To learn more about one of the most decisive and important missions of World War II and the men who valiantly put their lives on the line to make it happen, go to http://www.af.mil/library/doolittleraiders.asp.

[SandRat]

From Shangrela to China and home again leaving 500 pound packages on Tokyo.

[Names Ash Housewares]

[elcid1970]

God bless them. Just count the blessings they left behind for the rest of us.

[davisfh]

Sadly, there appears to be little interest in this post. How quickly we forget.

This 70 year old was only five years old when the attack on Pearl Harbor occured. Believe it or not, I do recall that day and remember wondering what this was all about. I was incapable of understanding the problem at five years of age, of course. It seems to me that many people in their middle years are incapable of understanding what happened on December 7th, 1941, and in subsequent years. Too damned bad! Too damned bad for the nation!!

[guod]

I to am a 70 yr old. I remember the Doolittle raid, as well as Roosevelts speech on the Pearl Harbor attack.
In later years I had the chance to meet a number of the attackers and spoke with them. Wonderful heros and wonderful men, who's number is fading fast.

[steveo]

selfbump

[rlmorel]

An amazing chapter in our country's history. Yes, I agree that it is being forgotten. It is so easy for those of this and future generations to assume that the outcome of WWII was a foregone conclusion.

Many of us were not there, we cannot understand those dark days of 1941, 1942 and 1943 when the outcome of the struggle was NOT a foregone conclusion. We were getting our collective butts kicked on a nearly constant basis...In August 1942, we got clobbered...just annihalated in the Battle of Savo Island. In 1943, one bomber raid over Germany (Schweinfurt) cost us 65 bombers in one single day, each with 10 men on them who were either killed or lost for the war.

These men who did the Doolittle Raid came as close to a one way ticket as we ever gave any of our men in WWII, and for some of them, it turned out to actually be a one way ticket. Those were desperate times for our country, and the world, teetering on the edge of fascist rule worldwide. And those men stepped up to the plate.

So sad. Now, it is ancient history. You say "Doolittle Raid" to a high school or even a college age kid, and you will almost certainly get a blank stare.

I was in the USN when I was 19, but I was carrying on and being a 19 year old. When my dad was 19, he was an Ensign in the USNR, one of the youngest ever. (He turned 20 four months after he was commissioned) When he was 21, he became the head of our local VFW post, and was raising money each year for crippled vets.


My father gave a speech every year on Veterans Day in his hometown of Hudson, MA. In 1995, the 50th anniversary of the dropping of the atomic bombs, my father had the temerity in his speech to say what we did was not only the logical thing to do, it was the right thing to do. He was lambasted in the local papers for saying that, by people who had NO IDEA of what the atmosphere or time was like then.

[middie]

You're not the only one here to recall that day. I was in the front yard of our home in Virginia near the air base where my father was a new Captain stationed with a P-40 squadron. I was wearing my "Sam Brown Belt" U.S. Army Air Corps uniform tailored to fit a 9-year old. I understood what happened when my mother called me into the house crying and my father was donning his uniform and packing a flight bag. He left the next week for California and we saw him again two years later when he took command of a squadron of P-47s on their way to Europe after 2 weeks of leave.

At 12 years old we collected toothpaste tubes, old tire rims, iron fences and gates and anything else that was useful to melt down and throw at the enemy. Each week at school we bought war stamps we put in a little book and eventually traded them in for a $25 war bond. The family Pontiac was on concrete blocks until 1945 and we all had "Victory" gardens, food ration books (the red one were for meat and bacon)--and don't even think about finding chewing gum or candy with sugar.

It was a different time to grow up, especially when the dads started coming home (most of them).

With very few exceptions, Americans joined in the war effort and had a singular purpose and focused on the common objective of war fighting and winning.

Of course, we had a war footing in which everyone sacrificed and president and war cabinet who had an idea of what they were doing and how to win; that would be a nice change.

[VOA]

Many of us were not there, we cannot understand those dark days of 1941,
1942, and 1943 when the outcome of the struggle was NOT a foregone conclusion.

My mom has told me of how me how frightened she was as a nine-year old
when Pearl Harbor, Bataan, etc., happened.
She said you could even hear the concern in the voices of adults in every-
day conversation.

She said she was afraid of the Japanese invading or bombing.
And she was a kid in north-central Oklahoma!!!

[YaYa123]

One of the most wonderful WW2 movies ever made was the 1944
"Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo". I've loved it for a lifetime, but I never appreciated what a great tribute it is to real heros.

[Sam Cree]

That's a beautiful drawing of the carrier and the B-25 taking off, headed for Japan.

When I was a kid growing up in the 50's there were still quite a few of those old B-25's still flying, many had been converted to civilian use. It seemed like nearly every airport had one or 2 hanging around. Been many years since I've seen one, though.

I also remember quite well reading, as a kid, the Landmark book, Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo, I think it was called, which I had gotten out of the school library.

There's a nice website on the raid here:

http://www.ghspaulding.com/doolittle_raid.htm

[Pamlico]

I remember it as my father told me. He was at Peal Harbour on December 7, 1941, as an officer aboard the USS Phoenix. He said the ship took 30 damn minutes to build up enough steam to move. And he told me about his handsome younger brother who joined the Army Air Corps and piloted B-17s over Europe. His brother was 22 when he was killed over France in April of 1944.

However, you are right about today's kids. When I try to explain to my teenage children about the sacrifices the country made during WWII, they roll their eyes and quickly lose interest.

[Sam Cree]

[Battle Hymn of the Republic]

people care more about "american idol", than America...

[davisfh]

Thanks for the memories, Middie. I was the official can smasher in my family. We cut both ends out of the can,
slipped the can ends into the cylinder and stomped what remained. It was important to us and we felt good doing it.

[Calpernia]

bump

[Bender2]

Bump for later read

[davisfh]

Well, Pamlico, you just never know until you've been there. We all have a story to tell. My father was a WWI veteran and was caught up in the flu pandemic during the 1917-18 years and never made it to Europe. His life was cut short at the age of 57 in 1946 because that flu pandemic broke his health and ended his life too soon.