Posted on 03/17/2008 6:05:21 PM PDT by SandRat
3/17/2008 - SAN ANTONIO (AFPN) -- Retired Staff Sgt. Jacob DeShazer, 95, one of the famed "Doolittle Raiders," who helped boost American morale in the early days of World War II with a surprise air attack on Japan, died March 15.
Born Nov. 15, 1912, in Salem, Ore., Sergeant DeShazer graduated from Madras High School in 1931. He enlisted in the Army Air Corps in 1940.
Sergeant DeShazer, then a corporal, was the bombardier of Crew No.16 flying the "Bat Out of Hell," the last of the 16 B-25 Mitchell bombers to launch from the USS Hornet April 18, 1942, on the famous bombing run over Tokyo. Led by legendary aviation pioneer Lt. Col. James H. "Jimmy" Doolittle, the raid is one of the most studied and talked about missions in the history of aerial warfare.
All 16 bombers made it to their targets. However, they were forced to ditch or bail out over or along the Chinese coast because the task force had been spotted by Japanese picket boats, and Colonel Doolittle had decided to launch early -- more than 600 miles from the Japanese mainland and 200 miles farther out than planned.
Sergeant DeShazer and the rest of his B-25 crew were forced to parachute into enemy territory over Ningpo, China, when their B-25 ran out of fuel. The entire crew was captured by the Japanese the next day.
During his captivity, Sergeant DeShazer was sent to Tokyo with the survivors of another Doolittle crew, and was held in a series of prison camps in Japan and China for 40 months, 34 of which were in solitary confinement. During this time he was subjected to unbelievable cruelty, including being forced to watch helplessly while one of his friends died of slow starvation.
"My hatred for the enemy nearly drove me crazy," he said. "My thoughts turned toward what I had heard about Christianity changing hatred between human beings into real brotherly love. I begged my captors to get me a Bible, and when the emperor of Japan told them to treat us better, I got one."
Sergeant DeShazer was able to read the Bible for only three weeks. Still, its message had a lifelong impact on him. After his release, he attended college and then seminary in preparation to become a missionary.
Sergeant DeShazer returned to Japan in 1948, where he spent 30 years preaching and teaching Christianity.
He leaves behind his wife, Florence, and five children.
That’s why God invented “ground effect”.
Thank you and God rest your soul. You are home safe now.
Does that really have a place at this moment in time?
America has lost a true hero. Before the era of “The Audacity of Hope,” this man displayed the audacity of courage! RIP, Mr. Deshazer, my family thanks you.
I don’t know if that was “The Greatest Generation” but it surely has to rank right up there.
Thank you, Sir.
Agreed. Thanks for saying it.
Just went to the air show in sacto this weekend. I have video of the B 25 doing a few fly bys. I don’t know how to post it though.
If I had to guess, I'd say, "not to you, but certainly the great American who's life this thread honors."
That's what I'd guess. I really wish you could ask him.
Again, if only Mr. DeShazer could speak for himself.
Go to youtube and register...figure it out. I haven’t done it, but if a bunch of brain dead teenagers who stick rockets in their rear ends can figure it out...we can too.
I would love to see it.
If I remember correctly, the Burns documentary was meant to follow soldier/sailors/marines from a few select locations in the country. He himself admitted that there was no way he could capture the entire history of the war in one series.
In other words, it covered the events that impacted few people that he followed.
send me your e mail privately, i will e mail it back to you
I think I read a Gospel Tract some years ago about one of the Japanese pilots who was in the attack on Pearl Harbor, who DeShazer led to faith in Christ when he went back to Japan as a missionary after the war.
I look forward to attending the reunion next month in Dallas. I consider myself fortunate to have been able to attend the last one in San Antonio and the one in Tucson. Sitting next to Chase Nielsen during the banquet and being an audience of one as he recounted his experiences in captivity was a true privilege. I was further honored by Robert Hite when I received a handwritten letter from him. These men are true American treasures and I would encourage anyone who has the opportunity to attend their reunion.
Thanks for the heads-up. I live in Dallas. Do you know the particulars?
A_F_D
One of the great “stories behind the story” of the Doolittle raid was of the fate of the shot up bomber that had to land in the Soviet Union instead of China.
Stalin was ecstatic at the opportunity to steal the technology of the most advanced bomber in the world. He made it one of the top priorities of the Soviet scientific community to mass produce that aircraft within six months.
And he ordered that within three months they were to produce an “exact duplicate” prototype of the American aircraft. It was such an important operation, that he placed his chief of secret police to be in charge of the effort, with deadly ruthlessness.
Two to three hundred of their top aeronautical scientists were assembled. They quickly learned that the US aircraft was built to English, not metric standards. Both the commercial and scientific Soviet Union had long been exclusively metric.
So the chief of secret police ordered the entire scientific community to re-tool to English measurement standards, even though the rest of their society was metric. Their scientists did not convert back to metric until Brezhnev.
The scientists announced that they had built the prototype within three months. Showing up for an inspection, the chief of secret police noted that they had mistakenly created a *perfect* version of the aircraft, not the “exact duplicate” that Stalin had demanded.
So he ordered all of the scientists killed.
A completely new group were brought in, who then drilled holes at the same angles as the original bullet holes, broke glass, and ruptured rubber tires and hydraulic lines.
Stalin himself showed up for the test flight, taken by two of the top Soviet pilots. The plane crashed immediately on take off, killing both of them. Its total flight distance was just short of that of the Wright brothers ‘Kitty Hawk’.
It was nicknamed “The Brick”, and never went into production.
After considerable delay, the American air crew were returned to the United States.
I’m surprised there’s even that many remaining.
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