Live Feed--Doolittle Raiders Last Toast

USAF.Mil website ^ | 11/9/13 | Rebelbase

[Rebelbase]

Live now. Last toast for the surviving raiders.

[yarddog]

Where is the ceremony taking place?

[Old Sarge]

Just damn. I missed it by minutes.

My blessings upon the last of the Raiders. We shall not see their like again in our lifetime.

To these last few heroes, I say only: “I’m sorry we let the flag falter these last five years.”

[offduty]

I had the unique pleasure to be at the last public reunion of the Raiders this past summer in Fort Walton Beach, Fl. My dad, who is a WWII vet, had an opportunity to fly in a B-25 that was at the event.

Doolittle’s co-pilot, Bob Cole, flew a B-25 at the reunion and it was said that he still had the ability at his age to hold altitude and actually landed the aircraft.

Listening to the stories that the Raiders told gave me a new appreciation for the “greatest generation”.

There are only 4 survivors remaining. One is in very bad shape and wasn’t at the reunion and it appears he isn’t at this event either. When these fellows are gone, a chapter of American history and bravery will close with their passing. Here’s hoping they someday reunite with the other 76 fliers that await them in heaven.

[bd476]

Thank you for posting this.
God Bless our American heroes.
Getting teary eyed here...

[BlessingsofLiberty]

Thank you so much for posting this link.

The final mission....

God Bless these great men!

[exit82]

Old Sarge, go to the link in post 1—the ceremony is being replayed—you can catch most of it.

[ConorMacNessa]

We may never see their like again, anytime, sad to say!

Sarge, the flag has certainly faltered lately, but you are among those who fought for it in youth and fight for it still! It has faltered but will not fall unless we let it fall. I will resist that with my last breath, as I know you will, Brother!

America demands Justice for the Fallen of Benghazi!

Eagles Up! Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more!

Listen, O isles, unto me; and hearken, ye people, from far; The LORD hath called me from the womb; from the bowels of my mother hath he made mention of my name. (Isaiah 49:1 KJV)

[clintonh8r]

That was wonderful. Thank you for posting this. I would have missed it otherwise.

[dadfly]

thanks.

[Sparky1776]

Looks like it is replaying.........

[JouleZ]

Agreed.

Salute and thanks for your brave service! Watching the re-run and it’s very moving....thanks for posting.

[Old Sarge]

THANK YOU!

Watching now...

[RedMDer]

Thank you very much!

[popdonnelly]

God bless them for their service. And may freedom always conquer over evil.

[Rebelbase]

USAF museum in Dayton, OH.

[GreyFriar]

Doolittle Raider’s last reunion.

[yarddog]

Thanks.

[tanknetter]

“I helped bomb Tokyo on the Doolittle raid of April 18, 1942. I crashed in the China Sea. I learned the full, deep meaning of the term “United Nations” from men and women whose language I couldn’t speak. I watched a buddy of mine saw off my left leg. And finally I got home to my wife after being flown, shipped and carried around the world.

Now I’m in line for the aeronautical engineering research job I wanted in the first place.”

—Ted Lawson, Pilot of Aircraft #7, “Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo”.

[rlmorel]

That was incredibly moving.

My whole life, the Doolittle Raiders were heroes to me.

I first learned of them when I was eight years old, reading Ted Lawson's Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo. It was one of the first books I remember checking out of the library.

I read that book over and over. I still cannot forget the imagery that his book imparted in my brain, specifically the crash on the beach.

I could imagine it perfectly as a kid. The shock. The confusion. Coming to on the surface and making it to the beach. The stupefaction of shock and concussion. His description of his wounds on his face and his leg.

As a kid, he transported me to that beach on that night. I could feel the hopelessness and the confusion. Just amazes me. How I wish I could get transported through a book again in my life like I did then.

I built the Revell model of the B-25 endlessly, and it was never the B-25 of Vesuvius.

And not the B-25 attacking Japanese shipping in the South Pacific.

And it wasn't the B-25 that crashed into the Empire State building.

It was always THIS B-25:

Or this:

I feel older tonight. The story of the Doolittle Raid was an integral part of growing up for me. Even though it was the early Sixties and the raid had been done 20+ years earlier, the story resonated with me so strongly that when I was faced with difficult things in my childhood, I could always feel in my gut the desperation that Ted Lawson had on that dark rainy beach in April of 1942, alone and hurt, far from home on an unknown shore, and that feeling would give me a more realistic perspective of my trivial childish problems.

God bless those men and their families. God bless them all.

[NonValueAdded]

Well done. Thank you.