The FReeper Foxhole Profiles General "Jimmy" Doolittle - Mar 8th, 2004

www.militarymuseum.org ^ | Norman S. Marshall and Mark J. Denger

[SAMWolf]

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General James Harold "Jimmy" Doolittle
(1896-1993)

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Doolittle was one of the pioneers of instrument flying and of advanced technology, while also being an outstanding combat leader, commanding the Twelfth, Fifteenth, and Eighth Air Forces during World War II.

James Harold Doolittle, the son of Frank H. and Rosa C. (Shephard) Doolittle, was born on December 14, 1896 in Alameda, California. Jimmy Doolittle grew up in Los Angeles and as a fast punching boy became renowned for his street fighting. After at least one arrest for brawling, he turned to amateur boxing and became the amateur flyweight champion of the West Coast. James attended Los Angeles Junior College, and spent a year at the University of California School of Mines before dropping out to enlist as a flying cadet in the Aviation Section of the Signal Corps Reserve in October 1917 and trained at the School of Military Aeronautics, University of California and Rockwell Field California. It was here that he married the lovely Josephine E. Daniels on December 24, 1917.

He was commissioned a second lieutenant in the Aviation Section of the Signal Corps on March 11, 1918, and served successively at Camp Dick, Texas; Wright Field, Ohio; Gerstner Field, Louisiana; and returned back to Rockwell Field, chiefly as a flight leader and gunnery instructor. He then went to Kelly Field, Texas, for duty first with the 104th Aero Squadron, and next with the 90th Squadron on border patrol duty at Eagle Pass, Texas.

After World War I Doolittle received his commission in the U.S. Army on July 1, 1920 and a promotion to first lieutenant. He then took the Air Service Mechanical School and Aeronautical Engineering courses at Kelly Field and McCook Field, Ohio, respectively. In September 1922 he made the first of many pioneering flights which earned him most of the major air trophies and international fame.


Lt. James Doolittle

On September 4, 1922, Lieutenant Jimmy Doolittle flew a DH-4B, equipped with crude navigational instruments, in the first transcontinental flight across the country, taking off from Pablo Beach, Florida, and landing at Rockwell Field at North Island, San Diego, California, covering a distance of 2,163 miles in 21 hours and 19 minutes. He made only one refueling stop at Kelly Field near San Antonio, Texas. The military awarded him his first Distinguished Flying Cross for this historic feat. In the same year he received his bachelor of arts degree from the University of California.

In July 1923 he entered the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) for special engineering courses and graduated the following year with a master of science degree, completing his doctoral of science degree in Aeronautics a year later, and being one of the first men in the country to earn a doctorate in aeronautics.


Jimmy Doolittle flew an O2U Corsair forThe Guggenheim Laboratory to develop cross-country flying instruments and navigation aids.

Doolittle's doctoral dissertation, "Wind Velocity Gradient and Its Effect on Flying Characteristics," disproved the popular theory held by many pilots of the day that they could tell wind direction and the level plane by instinct even when they could not see the ground or horizon. Applying classroom theory to test flights in the worst possible weather, Doolittle determined that there was no accurate way for a pilot to know how the wind was blowing or the altitude of the plane unless he had visual aids or instruments. These were believed to be the first studies in aeronautics to directly combine data from the laboratory with data from the flights of a test pilot.


Lt Jimmy Doolittle with 90th Fighter Squadron

In March 1924 he served at McCook Field conducting aircraft acceleration tests. In June 1925 Doolittle went to the Naval Air Station in Washington, D.C., for special training in flying high-speed seaplanes. During this period he served for a while with the Naval Test Board at Mitchel, New York, and was a familiar figure in airspeed record attempts in the New York area. In October 1925, fitted with streamlined single-step wooden floats and designated the Curtiss Navy Racer, R3C-2, Doolittle won the Schneider Cup - the World's Series of seaplane racing - with an average speed of 232.57 miles per hour. On the day after the Schneider Cup race, Doolittle flew the R3C-2 over a straight course at a world record speed of 245.7 m.p.h. This was the fastest a seaplane had ever flown, and Doolittle the following year received the Mackay Trophy for this feat.


September 1929
Jimmy Doolittle makes the first blind flight. He took off and landed at Mitchel Field using only instruments. All of the instruments in his Consolidated Husky are made by Long Island companies.

In April 1926 he was granted a leave of absence to go to South America on airplane demonstration flights. In Chile he broke both ankles but put his Curtiss P-1 through stirring aerial maneuvers with his ankles in casts. He returned to the United States and was in Walter Reed Hospital for these injuries until April 1927 when he was assigned to McCook Field for experimental work and additional duty as instructor with Organized Reserves of the Fifth Corps Area's 385th Bomb Squadron.

Returning to Mitchel Field in September 1928, he assisted in the development of fog flying equipment. He helped develop the now almost universally used artificial horizontal and directional gyroscopes and made the first flight completely by instruments. He attracted wide newspaper attention with this feat of "blind" flying and later received the Harmon Trophy for conducting the experiments.


Doolittle in the R-1 crosses the finish line during his speed-record attempt

Doolittle resigned his Army commission on February 15, 1930 because of what he called his advanced age. He was 34. He transferred to the Officer Reserve Corps and received a commission as a major in the Specialist Reserve Corps a month later. Jimmy, now in the private sector, was named manager of the Aviation Department of the Shell Petroleum Corporation, in which capacity he conducted numerous aviation tests. He returned to active duty with the Army frequently to conduct tests, and in 1932 set the world's high speed record for land planes with a speed averaging 252 miles per hour. He won the Bendix Trophy in a race from Burbank, California, to Cleveland in a Laird Biplane, and participated in the National Air Races in Cleveland, Ohio, where he took the Thompson Trophy in the Gee Bee racer, an erratic aircraft some called the flying death trap, setting a world land speed record of 296 miles an hour (476 kilometers an hour).


A bemused—and lucky—Doolittle with the wreck of the Super Solution.

In April 1934 Doolittle became a member of the Army Board to study Air Corps organization and a year later was transferred to the Air Corps Reserve. In 1940 he became president of the Institute of Aeronautical Science. That year, on July 1, 1940, he again returned to active duty as a major and assistant district supervisor of the Central Air Corps Procurement District at Indianapolis, Indiana, and Detroit, Michigan, where he worked with large auto manufacturers on the conversion of their plants for production of planes. The following August he went to England as a member of a special mission to survey British aircraft production and brought back information about other countries' air forces and military buildups.


Jimmy Doolittle
Winner
1932 Thompson Trophy

His next assignment put him at the controls of the new, twin-engine B-26 Marauder bomber, which pilots called the "widowmaker" because several had crashed. Its 100-mile-an-hour (160-kilometer-an-hour) landing speed and stubby wings made it tricky to handle. Doolittle proved that the B-26 was a safe and effective aircraft and convinced pilots that all they needed to do was learn how to fly it. Lieutenant General H. H. Arnold, the Chief of the Army Air Forces, gave Doolittle the job of proving that the B-26 was a safe and effective aircraft. Arnold was one of the first pilots in what would become the U.S. Army Air Forces and had received his wings in 1911 after being personally instructed by one of the Wright Brothers. Doolittle was successful in taming the B-26 Marauder and convinced pilots that all they needed to do was learn how to fly it properly.


Jimmy Doolittle & the Gee Bee R-1

A month after the Pearl Harbor disaster, at a White House meeting on January 4, 1942, President Roosevelt asked his senior military leaders to find a way to strike back at Japan. At this grim point in the Pacific War, he believed that an air attack against Japan was the best way to bolster American morale.

Realistically, little could be done. Proposals included sending Army planes to bomb Japan from bases in the Aleutian Islands, Soviet Siberia, and China. But the Aleutians were too far from the main Japanese island of Honshu. The Soviet Union and Japan were not at war. Transporting bombs and fuel to bases in China was extremely difficult, and Japanese air and ground forces could easily thwart such a venture.



Roosevelt was particularly taken with the idea of bombing from bases in China. Lieutenant General H. H. Arnold responded that he was studying such a bombing mission against Japan. Preliminary plans were being developed calling for the bombers to fly to advanced bases in China, land under cover of darkness, refuel, and fly on to bomb Japan. But, added Arnold, it would take "a few months" to get the gasoline and fields available for the bombers and that these advanced bases in China could be easily attacked should the Japanese learn of the operations.

The problem seemed unsolvable until an idea came to Captain Francis S. "Frog" Low, the operations officer on the staff of Admiral Ernest J. King, Commander in Chief U.S. Fleet. Captain Low advised Admiral King that when he was taking off from Norfolk, Virginia, on a flight back to Washington, he had noticed the outline of a carrier flight deck painted on the runway of the naval airfield used to train Navy pilots. "I saw some Army twin-engine planes making bombing passes at this simulated carrier deck. I thought if the Army had some twin-engine bombers with a range greater than our [carrier planes], it seems to me a few of them could be loaded on a carrier and used to bomb Japan."



After listening to Low, a submariner, King, who had been both an aviation and submarine officer, leaned back and thought a moment. Then he said, "You may have something there, Low. Talk to Duncan about it in the morning. And don't tell anyone else about this." Thus, the plan was born for the first direct attack against Japan. It was the evening of January 10, 1942, on board King's flagship VIXEN, a former German yacht moored at the Washington Navy Yard.

The next morning, Low met with Captain Donald B. Duncan, a pilot, who was King's air operations officer. Duncan told Low that it was impossible for an Army twin-engine bomber to land on a carrier. If it could be lifted on by crane, a fully armed plane might be able to take off, but it would have to fly back to a land base.

Despite the many provisos, Duncan was intrigued by the possibilities of a carrier-based raid on Japan, and for the next few days he and Low read Army technical manuals on twin-engine aircraft, checked carrier specifications, and prepared a 30-page handwritten memo. It was a brilliant analytical paper. It concluded that such an operation was possible, although fraught with problems and risks. Duncan and Low then went to Admiral King and briefed him on their progress. After hearing them out, King told them, "Go see General Arnold about it, and if he agrees with you, ask him to get in touch with me. And don't you two mention this to another soul!"


Lt. Col. Jimmy Doolittle, accepts from the skipper of the Hornet, Capt. Marc A. Mitscher, a medal once given to a U.S. Navy officer by Japan. This medal was wired to a 500-lb. bomb for return to Japan "with interest."
Photo courtesy of the USAF Museum at Wright Patterson Air Force Base

On January 17, Low and Duncan outlined the idea to General Arnold, who immediately agreed to the proposal. Duncan and Low proposed a test takeoff of twin-engine B-25 Mitchell bombers from the aircraft carrier HORNET, then at Norfolk, Virginia. Arnold assigned three B-25s to try some short-field takeoffs, and on February 2 two of them were lifted aboard the HORNET by crane and spotted, one forward and one aft, as if they were two of 15 tightly arranged on the flight deck. The carrier steamed out into the Atlantic, and the Army pilots easily took off. But there was a great difference between flying off two bombers, with little fuel and no bombs, and perhaps a dozen or more fully loaded planes in the rough seas of the North Pacific.

Meanwhile, Arnold had assigned Lieutenant Colonel James H. Doolittle to assemble a group of volunteer pilots and planes for the raid, modify the planes with extra gas tanks and other features, and start a training program –all quickly and with the utmost secrecy.

[SAMWolf]

Doolittle now began one of the most intense training programs in aviation history. Lieutenant Henry L. (Hank) Miller, a Navy carrier pilot, was assigned to him to teach the Army pilots how to take off with a run of only 350 feet –about a quarter of what the Army pilots were used to when they took off bomb-laden B-25s. Meanwhile, the carrier HORNET raced south from Norfolk, through the Panama Canal, and up to San Francisco. At Pearl Harbor, Vice Admiral William F. Halsey, the Navy's senior carrier force commander, and Admiral Chester W. Nimitz, the Pacific Fleet commander, worked out the details of the raid. The HORNET would carry the Army bombers, while Halsey, aboard the ENTERPRISE, would provide cover for the task force, which would also include four cruisers, eight destroyers, and two oilers.



There was not enough time to fully train the B-25 crews, and their new, extensively modified B-25B bombers still had "bugs." The additional fuel tanks being installed leaked, and the electrically operated twin .50-caliber gun turrets atop the fuselage were not working properly. The turret problems and an ammunition shortage prevented any of the gunners from firing on a moving target from a B-25 in flight. But the mission was urgent. The Japanese continued to win victory after victory in the South Pacific, and President Roosevelt was growing impatient. So fast were developments taking place –and so secret were the preparations –that until 24 hours before the raid, only seven people knew the complete plan to attack Tokyo – King, Nimitz, Arnold, Halsey, Low, Duncan, and Doolittle. Only as the U.S.S. HORNET was nearing the takeoff point did King go to the White House and give details about the raid to President Roosevelt.


Colonel Doolittle and co-pilot Lieutenant Richard Cole confer with launch officer Lt. Edgar Osborne (USN), just prior to take off from the USS Hornet, for the now legendary Doolittle raid on Tokyo, April 18, 1942

Doolittle was an old man by Army Air Force standards, at the age of 45, he had never actually flown in combat. Doolittle knew he would have to do some fast talking to get Arnold to let him lead the strike. In fact, Arnold at first did refuse, but Doolittle was able to outmaneuver his chief and won approval to lead the strike.



Under secret orders, Doolittle's bombers flew from their training site, Eglin Field in Florida, to McClellan Field in Sacramento, California. After a final series of checks, the B-25s then flew to Alameda Naval Air Station near San Francisco. There 16 twin-engine bombers were loaded by crane onto the deck of the HORNET –the maximum number that Doolittle, Duncan and Low felt could be safely flown off. Doolittle met secretly with Halsey in San Francisco to go over the final steps of the plan, and on April 2 the HORNET steamed out of San Francisco Bay.


A B-25 leaves the U.S.S. Hornet as the Doolittle raid gets underway, April 18, 1942

West of Hawaii, the ENTERPRISE and HORNET task groups rendezvoused on April 13, and the 16 ships set course for Japan with fighters and scout bombers from the ENTERPRISE, Halsey's flagship, flying protective cover. On the morning of April 18, the planes were loaded with bombs and ammunition, fueled, and spotted on the HORNET's deck for takeoff. Halsey gave the order to go, sent by flashing light from ENTERPRISE to the HORNET: "LAUNCH PLANES. TO COL DOOLITTLE AND GALLANT COMMAND GOOD LUCK AND GOD BLESS YOU –HALSEY." At 8;20 A.M., 770 miles east of Japan, Doolittle took off from the HORNET in the lead bomber. In just over an hour all 16 of the planes had been launched, each flown by a crew of five.


Crew of Plane 1. Henry Potter, James Doolittle, Fred Braemer, Richard Cole, Paul Leonard.

Beginning at 12:15 P.M. the first of thirteen planes struck Tokyo. The other planes hit Kobe, Nagoya, and Yokohama, all with little opposition. When the smoke cleared, the bomb damage was minimal. But the daring one-way mission of April 18, 1942 electrified the world and gave America's war hopes a terrific lift. As did the others who participated in the mission, Doolittle had to bail out, but fortunately landed in a rice paddy in China near Chu Chow. Some of the other flyers lost their lives on the mission. Doolittle and, eventually, 63 other fliers who came down in China made their way back to the United States.



Doolittle was hailed as a hero. He was awarded the Medal of Honor by President Roosevelt and promoted to brigadier general, skipping the rank of colonel. His citation reads:

"For conspicuous leadership above and beyond the call of duty, involving personal valor and intrepidity at an extreme hazard to life. With the apparent certainty of being forced to land in enemy territory or to perish at sea, Lt. Col. Doolittle personally led a squadron of Army bombers, manned by volunteer crews, in a highly destructive raid on the Japanese mainland."



When asked where the bombers came from, President Roosevelt laughed and replied, "Shangri-La," referring to the mythical Asian kingdom in James Hilton's popular novel Lost Horizon. (The U.S. Navy promptly named an aircraft carrier under construction the SHANGRI-LA.)


April 18, 1942. Ruptured Duck above Tokyo during the legendary Doolittle raid.

It would be more than two years before another bomb would fall on Japan and several months after that before another would strike the capital of Tokyo. Still, the "Doolittle Raid" was the first step on the long and bloody road of retribution for the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. And as the Pacific War raged on, both American and Japanese leaders would wonder if that road would ultimately lead to the shore of Japan itself. The "Doolittle Raid" had proved that the home islands were indeed vulnerable to air and sea attack.

[SAMWolf]

In July 1942, as a brigadier general - he had been advanced two grades the day after the Tokyo attack - Doolittle was assigned to the 8th Air Force and in September became commanding general of the 12th Air Force in North Africa. In February 1943 Doolittle assumed command of the Anglo-American Strategic Air Force in North Africa. He was promoted to major general in November and in March 1943 became commanding general of the North African Strategic Air Forces, which covered the central Mediterranean area.


Doolittle's Raiders toasted Jimmy Doolittle (front, third from left) at a reunion in 1943 in Algeria.

In January 1944 Doolittle took command of the Eighth Air Force in England, flying heavy bombers against European targets (he was promoted to lieutenant general after taking command). He held that command until May 1945, when he began moving part of the Eighth Air Force to the Pacific in preparation for operations against Japan.

Doolittle left active duty on January 5, 1946, as a lieutenant general. On May 10, 1946 he reverted to inactive reserve status and returned to Shell Oil as a vice president and later as its director. General Doolittle became the first president of the Air Force Association, in 1947, assisting its organization.



In March 1951 he was appointed a special assistant to the Air Force chief of staff, serving as a civilian in scientific matters which led to Air Force ballistic missile and space programs. Between 1956 and 1958 he became the advisor to the Commission on National Security Organization and served on the Joint Congressional Aviation Policy Board. From 1956 to 1965 he served as a member of the advisory board of the National Air Museum, Smithsonian Institute.

He retired from Air Force duty on February 28, 1959 but continued to serve his country as chairman of the board of Space Technology Laboratories. In 1961 he served as a consultant to TRW Systems and became a trustee of Aerospace Corporation in 1963. Upon his retirement in 1969, he and his wife, Josephine, made their home in Santa Monica, with an office on Wilshire Boulevard in Los Angeles.



General Doolittle was a close and lifelong friend of another California general, George S. Patton, Jr., and throughout their military careers were frequently promoted at about the same time, with Patton receiving the earlier date of rank. When Patton was promoted to four-star rank in Europe on April 14, 1945, Doolittle visited Patton's headquarters to have dinner and to congratulate him. After dinner, Patton handed a set of four star insignia to Doolittle. Doolittle protested that he was still a Lieutenant General (three-star rank), but Patton answered, "Yes, Jimmy, I know, but you'll be getting it soon." In 1974, General Doolittle donated Patton's stars to the Air Force Mueum. In recounting the event, General Doolittle commented, "You know, of course, I never did."

In 1985, however, General Doolittle was promoted to four-star rank following President Reagan's nomination and Senate confirmation. The U.S. Congress promoted him to full general on the Air Force retired list on April 4, 1985. The Air Force Museum at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base took the original four-star insignia from its collection and sent them to the Chief of Staff of the Air Force for use in the "pinning-on" ceremony. In June 1985, retired Lieutenant General James H. Doolittle became General James H. Doolittle when President Reagan and Senator Goldwater pinned on the same four-star insignia General Patton had given him more than 40 years earlier. General Doolittle thus became the first person in Air Force Reserve history to wear four stars.


President Ronald Reagan and Senator Barry Goldwater pin a fourth star on famous General, Jimmy Doolittle.

In addition to the Congressional Medal of Honor, Doolittle received the Distinguished Service Medal with oak leaf cluster, Silver Star, Distinguished Flying Crosse with two oak leaf clusters, Bronze Star, Air Medal with three oak leaf clusters, and several foreign decorations, including Great Britain (knight commander Order of the Bath), France (grande officer French Legion d'Honneur, Croix de Gueere with palm), Belgium (grande officer Order of Crown with palm and Croix de Guerre with palm), Bolivian (Order of Condor medal), Poland, China (Yon-Hwei Class III) and Ecuador. And, on July 6, 1989, President George Bush (posthumously) awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, our nation's highest civilian honor, to James Harold "Jimmy" Doolittle

At the age of 96, General Jimmy Doolittle died at his home in Pebble Beach, California, on September 27, 1993. Befitting his impact on U.S. aviation history, Doolittle was buried with full military honors in Section 7-A of Arlington National Cemetery, with his high school sweetheart, Josephine Daniels Doolittle (May 24, 1895 - December 24, 1988).



After a service at the Fort Myer Memorial Chapel, Doolittle's flag-draped coffin was placed on a military caisson. Drawn by six horses, the caisson traveled down a winding road from the chapel to the grave. Leading the entourage was the U.S. Air Force Band and 50 honor guards. Hundreds of mourners joined friends and family who followed the caisson. Doolittle was given an elaborate ceremony reserved for dignitaries. It included a 21-gun salute and flyover by 11 aircraft, including a B-1B, a twin-propeller World War II B-25 bomber, eight F-15 and F-16 fighter jets and a C-141 cargo jet. After a brief graveside service, one of the Doolittle Raiders tried to play taps in honor of his former commander, but retired Colonel William Bower could manage only a few faltered notes before having to pass the bugle to Doolittle's great-grandson who finished the playing of taps flawlessly.

Additional Sources:

www.ascho.wpafb.af.mil
www.cradleofaviation.org
www.avweb.com
kalaniosullivan.com
www.utdallas.edu
www.jeanpilkportraits.com
www.hangitonthewall.com
www.enquirer.com
www.leisuregalleries.com
www.donhollway.com
www.ehistorybuff.com
www.brooksart.com www.navyhistory.org
www.foitimes.com
www.rr0.org
www.medaloffreedom.com
www.doolittleraid.com

[SAMWolf]

Several biographies have been written about him, including:

Lowell Thomas and Edward Jablonski, Doolittle: A Biography
(Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1976);

Carroll V. Glines, Jimmy Doolittle: Daredevil Aviator and Scientist
(New York: Macmillan, 1972);

Glines again, Jimmy Doolittle: Master of the Calculated Risk
(New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold Co., 1980);

Carl Mann, Lightning in the Sky: The Story of Jimmy Doolittle
(New York: McBride, 1943);

Quentin Reynolds, The Amazing Mr. Doolittle: A Biography of Lieutenant General James H. Doolittle
(New York: Appleton Century Crofts, 1953).

The film Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo was based on the autobiography, and shown through the perspective, of Captain Ted W. Lawson (played in the film by Van Johnson), an aircraft commander during the Doolittle Raid who lost a leg when his B-25 crashed in China. Although the film dwelt heavily on Lawson's relationship with his wife, Spencer Tracy's Doolittle was a major character in the film and it did cover the preparations, raid and aftermath with as much detail and accuracy as could be given considering that the war was still going on at the time.

Another film, The Purple Heart (1945) was a reconstructed account of the fate of one of the other B-25 crews of the Doolittle Raid who were captured by the Japanese, recounting their trial and execution for war crimes, but Doolittle himself was not depicted in that film. Doolittle was also portrayed during the Tokyo mission by Alec Baldwin in Pearl Harbor (2001).

Jimmy Doolittle's son, retired Air Force Colonel John P. Doolittle and grandson, Colonel James H. Doolittle, III, vice commander of the Air Force Flight Test Center, Edwards Air Force Base, California, were on hand for the opening of the U.S. Air Force museum's World War II Tokyo Raid exhibit.

[SAMWolf]

Veterans for Constitution Restoration is a non-profit, non-partisan educational and grassroots activist organization. The primary area of concern to all VetsCoR members is that our national and local educational systems fall short in teaching students and all American citizens the history and underlying principles on which our Constitutional republic-based system of self-government was founded. VetsCoR members are also very concerned that the Federal government long ago over-stepped its limited authority as clearly specified in the United States Constitution, as well as the Founding Fathers' supporting letters, essays, and other public documents.

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[snippy_about_it]

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Good Monday Morning Everyone

If you would like added to our ping list let us know.

[Aeronaut]

Good morning Snippy.

Rotor Systems Research Aircraft (RSRA) X-Wing aircraft

[E.G.C.]

Good morning, Snippy and everyone at the Freeper Foxhole.

[snippy_about_it]

Good morning aeronaut. That looks like it has just about everything it would need to fly. ;-)

[snippy_about_it]

Good morning EGC. Light dusting of snow this morning and we are back in the low 30's. Brrrr and Grrrr.

[aomagrat]

Today's classic warship, Montana class battleships (BB-67 through BB-71)

Montana class design characteristics:

Displacement: 60,500 tons (standard); 70,965 tons (full load)
Dimensions: 921' 3" (length overall); 121' 2" (maximum beam)
Powerplant: 172,000 horsepower steam turbines, producing a 28 knot maximum speed
Armament (Main Battery): Twelve 16"/50 guns in four triple turrets
Armament (Secondary Battery): Twenty 5"/54 guns in ten twin mountings (ten guns on each side of the ship)

The five battleships of the Montana class, authorized under the 1940 "Two Ocean Navy" building program and funded in Fiscal Year 1941, were the last of their kind ordered by the U.S. Navy. With an intended standard displacement of 60,500 tons, they were nearly a third larger than the preceding Iowa class, four of which were the final battleships actually completed by the United States. The Montanas were intended to carry twelve 16"/50 guns, three more than the earlier class. Protection against underwater weapons and shellfire was also greatly enhanced. They would have been the only new World War II era U.S. battleships to be adequately armored against guns of the same power as their own. To achieve these advances, the Montana class was designed for a slower maximum speed than the very fast Iowas and had a beam too wide to pass through the existing Panama Canal locks.

Completion of the Montana class would have given the late 1940s U.S. Navy a total of seventeen new battleships, a considerable advantage over any other nation, or probable combination of nations. The Montanas also would have been the only American ships to come close to equalling the massive Japanese Yamato. However, World War II's urgent requirements for more aircraft carriers, amphibious and anti-submarine vessels resulted in suspension of the Montanas in May 1942, before any of their keels had been laid. In July 1943, when it was clear that the battleship was no longer the dominant element of sea power, their construction was cancelled.

The Montana class would have consisted of five ships, to be constructed at three Navy Yards:

Montana (BB-67), to be built at the Philadelphia Navy Yard, Pennsylvania;
Ohio (BB-68), to be built at the Philadelphia Navy Yard;
Maine (BB-69), to be built at the New York Navy Yard, Brooklyn, New York;
New Hampshire (BB-70), to be built at the New York Navy Yard; and

Louisiana (BB-71), to be built at the Norfolk Navy Yard, Portsmouth, Virginia.

Fate strikes again. Just like the end of WWI doomed the Montana (BB-51), the coming end of WWII doomed the Montana (BB-67). Montana is the only state not to have a Battleship or Battlecruiser named for it.

[The Mayor]

The Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many. —Mark 10:45

Be ambitious for the Lord, but be cautious about your motives.

[E.G.C.]

BTW< we welcomed a new black labodor into the household yesterday. He was with a family for a few days, then the dad, who works for the Corps of Engineers recevied a transfer assignment to another community.

The dog is about a year and half in dog year.(Four weeks old)We're trying to break him into some new habits like signaling to go outside to do business. He did some in our house a few times.

He also has a biting habit which we're trying to correct.

He's a great dog al in all.

Our other one's about several years old and hardly gets by these days.

[HiJinx]

Good Morning, Ms. Snippy.

Fantastic thread today...talk about men with vision...!

[Professional Engineer]

...in Alameda, California.

vich vay to de nooklear wessels?

[Professional Engineer]

Doolittle was successful in taming the B-26 Marauder and convinced pilots that all they needed to do was learn how to fly it properly.

Martin B-26 Marauder.

[snippy_about_it]

Sam this was a wonderful read. Wow. I had no idea of all his accomplishments before and beyond the "Dolittle raids".

Thanks, what a career!

[Valin]

On This Day In History


Birthdates which occurred on March 08:
1075 Abu 'l-Kasim Mahmud ibn Omar al-Zamachshari Arab theologist
1495 Juan de Dios Portugal/Spain, saint/founder (Brothers of Mercy)
1783 Hannah Hoes Van Buren Kinderhook NY, wife of President Martin Van Buren (1837-41) (died 1819)
1787 Karl Ferdinand von Grafe help create modern plastic surgery
1836 Matthew Calbraith Butler Major General (Confederate Army)
1841 Oliver Wendell Holmes Massachusetts, 59th Supreme Court justice (1902-32)
1865 Frederick William Goudy US, printer/type designer
1879 Otto Hahn German physicist/chemist (Nobel 44, radiothorium/actinium, co-discoverer-nuclear fission)
1911 Elsie Agnes Giorgi physician/humanitarian
1914 Jacob B Bakema urban developer (St Louis MO)
1918 Alan Hale [MacKahan] Jr Los Angeles CA, actor (Skipper Jonas Grumby-Gilligan's Island)
1921 Cyd Charisse [Tula Ellice Finklea] Amarillo TX, dancer/actress (East Side West Side, Brigadoon)
1936 Sue Ane Langdon Paterson NJ, actress (Bachelor Father, Arnie)
1939 Jim Bouton Newark NJ, pitcher (New York Yankees)/author (Ball Four)
1940 Leslie Isben Rogge one of FBI's most wanted
1945 Keith Jarrett pianist/composer
1945 Mickey Dolenz Los Angeles CA, actor (Circus Boy) singer (Monkees)
1952 Vladimir Vladimirovich Vasyutin USSR, cosmonaut (Soyuz T-14)
1963 Kathy Ireland model/actress (Alien From LA, Side Out)
1970 Jason Elam NFL kicker (Denver Broncos-Superbowl 32)
1973 Nanette Pearson Pleasant Grove UT, Miss America-Utah (1996)

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Deaths which occurred on March 08:
0883 Albumasar [Ahmad Aboe M Gafar al-Balkhi], Arabic astronomer, dies
1144 Celestine II [Guido], Italian Pope (1143-44), dies in battle
1403 Bajezid I Jildirim 4th sultan of Turkey (1389-1403), dies at 42
1709 William Cowper/Cooper English anatomist, dies at about 62
1862 Nat Gordon last pirate, hanged in New York NY for stealing 1,000 slaves
1874 Millard Fillmore 13th President (1850-53), dies of at 74
1917 Ferdinand von Zeppelin Dutch count/air pioneer, dies at 78
1930 William Howard Taft 27th US President (1909-13)/Chief Justice, dies at 72
1951 The Honeymoon Killers (Martha Beck & Raymond Fernandez) die in electric chair
1967 John F Bothwell actor (Freckles-Our Gang), dies at 46
1971 Harold Lloyd US comic/actor (Why Worry), dies of cancer at 77
1973 Ron "Pigpen" McKernan rocker (Grateful Dead, Grass Roots), dies at 27
1977 Henry Hull actor (Werewolf of London, Boys Town), dies at 86
1985 Thomas Creighton US heart patient (3 implants in 46 hours), dies at 33
1993 Billy Eckstine jazz singer (Fools Rush In), dies at 78 of stroke
1997 Alexander Salkind producer (Superman), dies at 75

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Reported: MISSING in ACTION

1967 CRAIN CARROLL O.---MEMPHIS TN.
1967 GALVIN RONALD E.---RIVER FOREST IL.
1967 PAWLISH GEORGE F.---LAS ANIMAS CO.
1971 ANSHUS RICHARD C.---MINNEAPOLIS MN.
[03/27/73 RELEASED BY PRG, ALIVE AND WELL 98]
1971 GRANTHAMROBERT E.---LOS ANGELES CA.
1971 HALE JOHN D.---BRANDENBURG KY.
1971 PRATHER PHILLIP D.---ARMARILLO TX.
[03/27/73 RELEASED BY PRG, DECEASED 11/20/97]

POW / MIA Data & Bios supplied by
the P.O.W. NETWORK. Skidmore, MO. USA.

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On this day...
1702 England's Queen Anne ascends throne upon death of King William III
1722 Afghan monarch Mir Mahmud occupies Persia
1746 Cumberland's troops occupy Aberdeen
1801 British drive French forces from Abukir, Egypt
1838 US mint in New Orleans begins operation (producing dimes)
1854 US Commodore Matthew C Perry's 2nd trip to Japan
1855 1st train crosses 1st US railway suspension bridge, Niagara Falls
1861 St Augustine FL surrenders to Union armies
1862 Battle of Elkhorn Tavern ends with Confederate withdrawal
1862 Confederate ironclad "Merrimack" launched
1862 Naval Engagement at Hampton Roads VA: CSS Virginia, Jamestown & Yorktown vs USS Cumberland, Congress & Monitor
1865 Battle of Kingston NC (Wilcox's ridge, Wise's Forks)
1887 Everett Horton, Connecticut, patents fishing rod of telescoping steel tubes
1894 New York passes 1st state dog license law
1896 Volunteers of America forms (New York NY)
1900 National League decides to go with 8 teams They exclude Baltimore, Cleveland, Louisville & Washington (in 1953 Boston Braves move to Milwaukee)
1908 Collingwood Elementary (Cleveland) burns, kills 173 kids & 2 teachers
1910 Baroness Raymonde de Laroche of Paris France becomes 1st licensed female pilot
1911 International Women's Day (1st celebrated)
1913 Internal Revenue Service begins to levy & collect income taxes
1915 1st US navy minelayer, Baltimore, commissioned
1916 US invades Cuba for 3rd time, this to end corrupt Menocal regime
1917 Russian revolution breaks out (in Petrograd/St Petersburg)
1924 Coal mine explosion kills 171 at Castle Gate UT
1927 Pan American Airlines incorporates
1930 Babe Ruth signs 2-year contract for $160,000 with New York Yankee GM Ed Barrow, wrongly predicts "No one will ever be paid more than Ruth"
1930 Mahatma Gandhi starts civil disobedience in India
1934 Edwin Hubble photo shows as many galaxies as Milky Way has stars
1941 1st baseball player drafted into WWII (Hugh Mulcahy, Phillies)
1942 Japanese forces captures Rangoon Burma
1943 Limited gambling legalized in Mexico
1945 Phyllis M Daley is 1st black nurse sworn-in as US Navy ensign
1946 1st helicopter licensed for commercial use (New York NY)
1950 1st woman medical officer assigned to naval vessel (BR Walters)
1950 Marshall Voroshilov of USSR announces they developed atomic bomb
1951 International Table Tennis Federation bans Egypt (for refusing to play Israel)
1957 Israeli troops leave Egypt; Suez Canal re-opened for minor ships
1957 USSR performs atmospheric nuclear test
1958 Silky Sullivan comes from 40 lengths back to win by 3 at Santa Anita
1958 William Faulkner says US schools degenerated to become babysitters
1959 Groucho, Chico & Harpo's final TV appearance together
1959 Pro-Egyptian coup fails in Mosul Iraq
1961 US nuclear submarine Patrick Henry arrives at Scottish naval base of Holy Loch from South Carolina in a record underseas journey of 66 days 22 hours
1963 Syrian Arab Republic Revolution Day: Military coup in Syria
1965 1st US combat forces arrive in South Vietnam (3,500 Marines)
1966 An IRA bomb destroyed Nelson's Column in Dublin
1966 Casey Stengel elected to Hall of Fame
1968 6 year old Tommy Moore scores hole-in-one in golf (Hagerstown MD)
1968 Fillmore East opens
1968 Students demonstrate in Warsaw
1969 Marriage of 12 year old Marcella Rosciglione in Palermo Italy
1971 Joe Frazier beats Muhammad Ali at Madison Square Garden (New York NY)in 15, retains heavyweight boxing title
1971 Milwaukee Bucks win their 20th straight NBA game (team record)
1973 Eisenhower Tunnel, world's highest/US longest, opens
1973 Paul & Linda McCartney are fined £100 for growing cannabis
1976 1,774 kg (largest observed) stony meteorite falls in Jilin, China
1979 1st extraterrestrial volcano discovered (Jupiter's satellite Io)
1983 House Foreign Affairs Committee endorses nuclear weapons freeze with USSR
1983 IBM releases PC DOS version 2.0
1983 President Reagan calls the USSR an "Evil Empire"
1986 4 French TV crew members are abducted in west Beirut Lebanon
1986 Japanese probe Suisei passes Halley's Comet at 109,800 km
1986 Martina Navratilova is 1st tennis player to earn $10 million
1987 FBI apprehends most wanted Claude L Dallas, Jr in California
1990 NYC's Zodiac killer shoots 1st victim, Mario Orosco
1991 17th People's Choice Awards: Julia Roberts, Bill Cosby, Pretty Woman
1994 Defense Department announces smoking ban in workplaces
1995 -26ºF (-32.2ºC) in Bismarck ND

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Holidays
Note: Some Holidays are only applicable on a given "day of the week"

China, Cuba, Mauritania, Mongolia, USSR : International Women's Day
Egypt, Libya, Syria : Syrian Revolution Day (1963)
Memphis TN : Cotton Carnival (held for 5 days)
New Mexico : Arbor Day - - - - - (Friday)
US : Aardvark Week (Day 2)
US : Federal Employees Recognition Week (Day 2)
US : Skunks Mating Day
Humorists Are Artists Month

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Religious Observances
Roman Catholic : Memorial of St John of God, confessor (optional)

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Religious History
1698 The first meeting convened of the British group which later formed the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge (SPCK).
1711 In this date's edition of "The Spectator," English essayist Joseph Addison wrote: 'To be an atheist requires an infinitely greater measure of faith than to receive all the great truths which atheism would deny.'
1740 Colonial revivalist Gilbert Tennent, 37, preached his famous sermon, "The Danger of An Unconverted Ministry." The message, assaulting opponents of the Great Awakening, contributed to the first schism within the American Presbyterian Church between the Old Side and New Side. (In 1758 the two divisions were reunited.)
1887 Death of Henry Ward Beecher, 73, American clergyman and social reformer. His last words were: 'Going out into life" that is dying.'
1921 The United Evangelical Lutheran Church in Australia was organized at Ebenezer, in South Australia. In 1966 the UELCA united with the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Australia (ELCA) to form the Lutheran Church of Australia (LCA).

Source: William D. Blake. ALMANAC OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. Minneapolis: Bethany House, 1987.

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Thought for the day :
"Quit work and play for once."

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Rules For Diet...
If you drink a diet soda with a candy bar, the calories in the candy bar are canceled out by the diet soda.

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New State Slogans...
Florida: Ask Us About Our Grandkids

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Amazing Fact #661...
The song "When Irish Eyes Are Smiling" was written by George Graff, who was German, and was never in Ireland in his life.

[snippy_about_it]

Good morning aomagrat. Too bad they couldn't complete them, sounds like it was a good idea.

[snippy_about_it]

Good morning Mayor.

[GailA]

Coffee's on