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Leftists have gone on the attack against the U.S. Air Force Academy football team for honoring the WWII Doolittle Raid on Japan that occurred immediately after the Japanese sneak attack on Pearl Harbor. On Tuesday, Air Force Football revealed its new uniforms, which feature a tribute to the Doolittle Raid. Left-wing trolls blasted the Air Force for celebrating the raid conducted by American heroes who showed Japan that the U.S. was not down for the count after taking such heavy losses at Pearl.

One week after Pearl Harbor, President Roosevelt began pressing the U.S. military to immediately strike the Japanese homeland. The desire to bolster morale became more urgent in light of rapid Japanese advances. These included victories in Malaya, Singapore, the Philippines, Wake Island, Guam, and the Dutch East Indies, as well as sinking the British battleships Prince of Wales and Repulse.Only improbable, audacious ideas warranted consideration, because submarines confirmed Japan placed picket boats at extreme carrier aircraft range. One idea even involved launching four engine heavy bombers from China or Outer Mongolia to strike Japan and fly on to Alaska. Captain...

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...

One week after Pearl Harbor, President Roosevelt began pressing the U.S. military to immediately strike the Japanese homeland. The desire to bolster morale became more urgent in light of rapid Japanese advances. These included victories in Malaya, Singapore, the Philippines, Wake Island, Guam, and the Dutch East Indies, as well as sinking the British battleships Prince of Wales and Repulse. Only improbable, audacious ideas warranted consideration, because submarines confirmed Japan placed picket boats at extreme carrier aircraft range. One idea even involved launching four engine heavy bombers from China or Outer Mongolia to strike Japan and fly on to Alaska....

The Washington Nationals will head to the White House Monday to meet with President Trump following the team's historic World Series victory. But pitcher Sean Doolittle won't be going. "There's a lot of things, policies that I disagree with, but at the end of the day, it has more to do with the divisive rhetoric and the enabling of conspiracy theories and widening the divide in this country," Doolittle said in an interview with The Washington Post. "At the end of the day, as much as I wanted to be there with my teammates and share that experience with my...

Washington Nationals pitcher Sean Doolittle will not visit the White House with his teammates when President Trump hosts the club to celebrate their World Series victory. Doolittle, a relief pitcher who joined the Nationals in 2017, told The Washington Post on Friday that he will not attend a White House ceremony scheduled for Monday because of his opposition to Trump. “There’s a lot of things, policies that I disagree with, but at the end of the day, it has more to do with the divisive rhetoric and the enabling of conspiracy theories and widening the divide in this country," Doolittle...

SAN ANTONIO, Texas - The last of World War II’s daring ‘Doolittle Raiders’ has passed away. Lt. Col. Richard Cole died Tuesday in San Antonio at the age of 103, according to the Air Force Times. The Ohio native played a significant role in one of the war’s most pivotal – and risky – early events. Cole served as co-pilot for then-Lt. Col. James Doolittle during the first American bombing raid on Japan, which provided an important morale boost to a nation haunted by the attack on Pearl Harbor.

Lt. Dick Cole stood over the open escape hatch of a B-25 bomber, gripping his parachute cord and looking down into 9,000 feet of seamless black. It was the night of April 18, 1942, and the plane, bucking in a roiling storm, had just led one of the most audacious and unlikely missions of World War II—the first Allied bombing of Japan. Now, out of fuel over China, the bomber was doomed. Cole dived out headfirst and vanished. The Doolittle Raid was a pivot point of the war. Cole survived, and would outlive all his 79 fellow raiders. When he...

Retired Air Force Lt. Col. Richard E. “Dick” Cole, the last living connection to a daring World War II bombing mission and a frequent visitor to Northwest Florida, died Tuesday in Texas at the age of 103. A memorial service is planned for Randolph Air Force Base in Texas with interment later at Arlington National Cemetery. Cole was among the 80 Army Air Corps airmen who volunteered for the Doolittle Raiders, a team led by then-Lt. Col. James Doolittle to strike Japan after the Japanese laid waste to American naval power in an attack on Hawaii’s Pearl Harbor on Dec....

(Photo credit United State Air Force) Sad news—the last Doolittle Raider has died. Lt. Col. Richard Cole passed away Monday at the age of 103. Cole was the final surviving member of the daring raid on Tokyo by carrier-launched B-25s. As I wrote for his 100th birthday in 2015: Col. Richard Cole was the co-pilot of "Crew 1," which means he sat alongside Col. Jimmy Doolittle at the tip of the tip of the American spear aimed at Imperial Japan. The Doolittle Raid on April 18, 1942, was a virtual suicide mission. It was a daring sea-launched bombing mission...

The wreck of the World War II aircraft carrier USS Hornet has been discovered in the South Pacific, 77 years after Japanese forces sunk the ship in a fierce battle. The research vessel Petrel, owned by the estate of late Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen, discovered the Hornet three miles under the ocean surface off the Solomon Islands late last month. The Hornet, the last U.S. fleet carrier to be sunk by enemy fire, lost 140 hands under a relentless Japanese air bombing attack at the Battle of the Santa Cruz Islands on October 26, 1942. As Imperial Navy surface forces...

Just wondering if that would have put a halt to the Japanese aggression and given them a sense of what they were up against and what we were willing to do. Could it have saved thousands of American lives in the South Pacific? As an alternative history buff I’m curious about the opinions here.

One week after Pearl Harbor, President Roosevelt began pressing the U.S. military to immediately strike the Japanese homeland. The desire to bolster morale became more urgent in light of rapid Japanese advances. These included victories in Malaya, Singapore, the Philippines, Wake Island, Guam, and the Dutch East Indies, as well as sinking the British battleships Prince of Wales and Repulse. Only improbable, audacious ideas warranted consideration, because submarines confirmed Japan placed picket boats at extreme carrier aircraft range. One idea even involved launching four engine heavy bombers from China or Outer Mongolia to strike Japan and fly on to Alaska....

President Trump spoke by phone with the last surviving member of the famed “Doolittle Raiders” to thank the 101-year-old veteran for his service as the nation marks Independence Day. The White House said Mr. Trump “offered his best wishes and support” to retired Lt. Col. Dick Cole, a World War II veteran who was recently injured. “The president congratulated Lt. Col. Cole on his courage, thanked him for his service, and wished him a full recovery in advance of his upcoming 102nd birthday,” the White House said of the Sunday phone call.

On April 18, 1942 - 75 years ago Tuesday - 80 incredibly brave men in 16 bombers took off from the aircraft carrier USS Hornet to bomb Tokyo and other Japanese cities in retaliation for the sneak attack on Pearl Harbor. It was called the Doolittle Raid, after the group’s charismatic leader, Lt. Col. Jimmy Doolittle, a renowned avaiator even before the war. Doolittle’s B-25 was the first to take off from the Hornet. Sitting beside him was a quiet, lanky young man from Dayton, Ohio, named Dick Cole. On Tuesday, the 101-year-old will be at the National Museum of...

David Thatcher, an Army Air Force gunner who was decorated for helping to save the lives of four severely wounded fellow crewmen in the Doolittle Raid on Japan of April 1942, America’s first strike against the Japanese homeland in World War II, died on Wednesday in Missoula, Mont. He was 94 and the next-to-last survivor among the mission’s 80 airmen. His death, announced by his family through the Garden City Funeral Home in Missoula, leaves Richard Cole, age 100, as the last surviving veteran of a legendary chapter in Air Force history. Mr. Cole was a co-pilot alongside Lt. Col....

<p>MISSOULA, Mont. (AP) — One of the last two surviving members of the Doolittle Raiders — who bombed Japan in an attack that stunned that nation and boosted U.S. morale — has died in Montana, his family said.</p> <p>Retired Staff Sgt. David Jonathan Thatcher died Wednesday in a Missoula hospital. He was 94. He suffered a stroke on Sunday, Thatcher's son Jeff told the Missoulian newspaper (http://bit.ly/28V8l2c).</p>

One week after Pearl Harbor, President Roosevelt began pressing the U.S. military to immediately strike the Japanese homeland. The desire to bolster moral became more urgent in light of rapid Japanese advances. These included victories in Malaya, Singapore, the Philippines, Wake Island, Guam, and the Dutch East Indies, as well as sinking the British battleships Prince of Wales and Repulse. Only improbable, audacious ideas warranted consideration, because submarines confirmed Japan placed picket boats at extreme carrier aircraft range. One idea even involved launching four engine heavy bombers from China or Outer Mongolia to strike Japan and fly on to Alaska....

They're in their 90's now, old and bent. But 73 years ago today, their courage torched the skies over Tokyo, sending a message that the United States would stop at nothing to achieve victory. Of the 80 airmen and pilots commanded by Lieutenant Colonel James "Jimmy" Doolittle, that took off from the deck of the USS Hornet on April 18, 1942 bound for a bombing run over Tokyo, just two are still alive. Retired Lt. Col. Richard "Dick" Cole, 99, and Staff Sgt. David Thatcher, 93, will toast their 78 missing comrades at a private event later today, while taking...

The weather over Arlington National Cemetery was sunny and clear, similar to the day in 1942 when Richard Cole helped change the course of American history as one of James H. Doolittle’s “Raiders” during World War II. As he stood before the grave of his former commander, the 98-year-old ex-pilot who helped stage a daring attack on Japan that lifted American spirits at a crucial time said the memory is bittersweet. Cole flew in from his home in Texas to be the grand marshal in Monday’s Memorial Day Parade in Washington and to accept a Congressional Gold Medal on behalf...