18 April 1942 (Read 907 times)

:salute :us_flag

On 18 April 1942, Lt. Col. James "Jimmy" Doolittle, took off from the storm tossed deck of the aircraft carrier U.S.S. Hornet in a B-25 medium bomber. Doolittle was the lead pilot of 16 B-25s.

The 16 planes and 80 crew members flew at an altitude of about 20 feet above the storm tossed North Pacific Ocean, on their way to the Empire of Japan.

All 16 planes made it to Japan and dropped their bombs.

The bombs had little impact on Japan.

But.

It was a total surprise to Japan and caused them to put more planes and guns than they could afford on air defense duty on their islands.

All planes crash landed in China, but for one that got to Russia. There were several crews that bailed out.

Four of the crew died in captivity, the rest made it out of China and most went on to more flying duties.

This weekend, the Doolittle Raiders are meeting at Wright-Pat. Four of the eight remaining Raiders are in attendance.

Soon they will all be gone.

True heroes.

If you have not read "Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo", by Ted Lawson, one of the pilots, it is a good read.
There is also a movie of the same title, staring Spencer Tracy as Doolittle.

You might also want to read, "I Could Never Be So Lucky Again", by Gen. Doolittle. A great biography of a great pilot and a great man.

Jim Too

:god_bless_usa