Doolittle Raiders mark 65th anniversary

From Air Force Times

Doolittle Raiders mark 65th anniversary

The Associated Press

Posted : Monday Apr 16, 2007 7:00:50 EDT

SAN ANTONIO — A band of aging survivors of the Doolittle Raiders will gather in San Antonio this week to celebrate the 65th anniversary of their famed World War II bombing raid on Japan.

Seven survivors of the April 18, 1942, raid are expected to attend the five-day reunion, which starts Tuesday. Of the 80 pilots and crewmen who took part, 14 are still alive.

Lt. Col. James Doolittle led the 16 B-25B Mitchell bombers that embarked from the aircraft carrier Hornet on a risky mission that was credited with buoying American spirits in the aftermath of the attack on Pearl Harbor.

“One thing was to prove to the Japanese people that their leaders were misinforming them about their vulnerability,” said Dick Cole, now 91, who was Doolittle’s co-pilot in the lead plane. “The other was to give America a morale boost it hadn’t had since Pearl Harbor was attacked.”

But the raid came at a cost. A Pacific Ocean encounter with a Japanese boat prompted the bombing crews to depart earlier than planned, at the risk of running out of fuel before reaching landing strips in China.

Four crews crash-landed, resulting in the deaths of three men. Eleven crews bailed out. Three crewmen were executed, and one died as a prisoner.

Cole, who lives in Comfort, still has the compass he used during the mission. He carries it when he goes hunting.

“It served me well in China, and it serves me well now,” he said.

Doolittle became a general after the raid and sponsored the raiders’ first reunion in 1947. He died in 1993.

Bob Gardner, media spokesman for the reunion, said it’s an important chance to refocus attention on the raid and give people an opportunity to meet the surviving participants.

“This is history that’s not being taught in schools,” he said. “We have a generation that’s lost contact with some of our history.”

David Jones, a bomber pilot in the raid, said interest in the group increased after the terrorist attack of Sept. 11 and the Iraq war.

“The interest has come and gone in cycles,” said Jones, 93, a retired Air Force major general living in San Antonio. “We do represent a time in history when we were engaged in pretty heavy activity.”

The reunion includes several public events to support college scholarships, vintage aircraft preservation and a local children’s charity.