They once were among the most universally admired and revered men in the United States .. There were 80 of the Raiders in April 1942, when they carried out one of the most courageous and heart-stirring military operations in this nation's history. The mere mention of their unit's name, in those years, would bring tears to the eyes of grateful Americans.  Now only four survive. |
After
Japan's sneak attack on Pearl Harbor, with the United States reeling
and wounded, something dramatic was needed to turn the war effort
around.
Even though
there were no friendly airfields close enough to Japan for the United
States to launch a retaliation, a daring plan was devised. Sixteen
B-25s
were modified so that they could take off from the
deck of an aircraft carrier. This had never before been tried --
sending such big, heavy bombers from a carrier.
The 16 five-man crews, under the
command of Lt. Col. James Doolittle, who himself flew the lead plane
off the USS Hornet, knew that they would not be able to return to the
carrier.
They would have to hit Japan and then hope to
make it to China for a safe landing.
But on the day of the raid, the
Japanese military caught wind of the plan. The Raiders were told that
they would have to take off from much farther out in the Pacific Ocean
thanthey had counted on. They were told that because of this they
would not have enough fuel to make it to safety.
And those
men went anyway.
They bombed Tokyo and then flew
as far as they could. Four planes crash-landed; 11 more crews bailed
out, and three of the Raiders died. Eight more were captured; three
were executed.
Another
died of starvation in a Japanese prison camp. One crew made it to
Russia.
The Doolittle Raiders sent a
message from the United States to its enemies, and to the rest of the
world: We will fight. And, no matter what it takes, we will
win.
Of the 80
Raiders, 62 survived the war. They were celebrated as national heroes,
models of bravery. Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer produced a motion picture based
on the raid; "Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo," starring Spencer Tracy and
Van Johnson, was a patriotic and emotional box-office hit, and the
phrase became part of the national lexicon. In the movie-theater
previews for the film, MGM proclaimed that it was presenting
the story "with supreme pride."
Beginning in 1946, the surviving
Raiders have held a reunion each April, to commemorate the mission.
The reunion is in a different city each year. In 1959, the city of
Tucson,
Arizona, as a gesture of respect and gratitude,
presented the Doolittle Raiders with a set of 80 silver goblets. Each
goblet was engraved with the name of a Raider.
Every year, a wooden display case
bearing all 80 goblets is transported to the reunion city. Each time a
Raider passes away, his goblet is turned upside down in the case at
the
next reunion, as his old friends bear solemn
witness.
Also, in the wooden case is a
bottle of 1896 Hennessy Very Special cognac. The year is not
happenstance: 1896 was when Jimmy Doolittle was born.
There has always been a plan:
When there are only two surviving Raiders, they would open the bottle
at last, drink from it and toast their comrades who preceded them in
death.
As 2013
began, there were five living Raiders; then, in February, Tom Griffin
passed away at age 96.
What a man he was. After bailing
out of his plane over a mountainous Chinese forest after the Tokyo
raid, he became ill with malaria, and almost died. When he recovered,
he was
sent to Europe to fly more combat missions. He
was shot down, captured, and spent 22 months in a German prisoner of
war camp.
The selflessness of these men,
the sheer guts ... there was a passage in the Cincinnati Enquirer
obituary for Mr. Griffin that, on the surface, had nothing to do with
the war,
but that was emblematic of the depth of his
sense of duty and devotion:
"When his
wife became ill and needed to go into a nursing home, he visited her
every day. He walked from his house to the nursing home, fed his wife
and at the end of the day brought home her clothes. At night, he
washed and ironed her clothes. Then he walked them up to her room the
next morning. He did that for three years until her death in
2005."
So now, out of the original 80,
only four Raiders remain: Dick Cole (Doolittle's co-pilot on the Tokyo
raid), Robert Hite, Edward Saylor and David Thatcher. All are in their
90s.
They have decided that there are too few of them
for the public reunions to continue.
The events
in Fort Walton Beach marked the end. It has come full circle;
Florida's nearby Eglin Field was where the Raiders trained in secrecy
for the Tokyo mission. The town planned to do all it can to honor the
men: a six-day celebration of their valor, including luncheons, a
dinner and a parade.
Do the men ever wonder if those
of us for whom they helped save the country have tended to it in a way
that is worthy of their sacrifice? They don't talk about that, at
least
not around other people. But if you find yourself
near Fort Walton Beach this week, and if you should encounter any of
the Raiders, you might want to offer them a word of thanks. I can tell
you from first hand observation that they appreciate hearing that
they are remembered.
The men
have decided that after this final public reunion they will wait until
a later date -- sometime this year -- to get together once more,
informally
and in absolute privacy. That is when they
will open the bottle of brandy. The years are flowing by too swiftly
now; they are not going to wait until there are only two of
them.
They will
fill the four remaining upturned goblets. And raise them in a toast to
those who are gone.
Their 70th Anniversary
Photo
PLEASE SEND THIS ON TO
EVERYONE
IN YOUR ADDRESS BOOK,
ESPECIALLY
TO THOSE WHO WERE TOO YOUNG
TO
KNOW ABOUT THESE BRAVE
HEROES!.
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