Recently, Tom Madsen kicked off a flurry of e-mails concerning the Doolittle Raiders. Gloria asked me to compile the e-mails and post them to the blog.
Jerry Ball
RHS '65
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Mar 14 (2 days ago)
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Hello Everyone,
A good friend of mine found this message about the Doolittle raiders. There mission was a Big Deal to our parents and the nation in 1942. It’s a QUICK READ. Thanks for your time, if you read it.
Tom Madsen
The FINAL TOAST!
They bombed Tokyo 73 years ago.
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.
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 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 than they 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.
TO THOSE WHO WERE TOO YOUNG TO
KNOW ABOUT THESE BRAVE HEROES.
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Tom, I am so glad you found this. Col. Travis Hoover, who piloted the second plane, was a good friend of my parents, so I was familiar with the story of Doolittle's Raiders from a young age. I did not know the story of the annual reunion, however.
Pam Pratt Viles
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On Tue, Mar 15, 2016 at 10:35 AM, Phil Moseley <> wrote:
What a terrific article about a group of our nation's bravest heroes. I'm not sure that all of our friends ever knew that our classmate (and my senior prom date) Lynda Knobloch's father was one of the raiders. I came across her married name awhile back when an article like this prompted me to Google her father's obituary. I tracked her down and have since then enjoyed getting reacquainted and learning about her family and her most interesting life.
Capt. Phil
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On Tue, Mar 15, 2016 at 11:15 AM, Ron Bergquist <> wrote:
The dad of one of our 1964 classmates [Linda Knobloch] was one of this select group. I did not know about his experience until long after we graduated. I guess modesty was a way of life for them.
R.E. Bergquist
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On Tue, Mar 15, 2016 at 11:25 AM, Jim Dieterich <> wrote:
Our parents were very impressive people (and I guess some still are).
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On Tue, Mar 15, 2016 at 11:46 AM, Pam Viles <> wrote:
I found an interesting article about what happened to each of the planes that took part in the raid. Lynda's dad co-piloted the thirteenth plane, if this article is correct: http://www.doolittleraider.
Pam
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On Tue, Mar 15, 2016 at 12:06 PM, Lynda (Knobloch) Lillywhite <> wrote:
Thanks for remembering, Phil! And yes, Pam, that is correct. My dad was co-pilot of #13.
Lynda
Lynda
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On Tue, Mar 15, 2016 at 1:18 PM, Dickie O'Banion <> wrote:
Linda,
I had no idea your dad flew with the Raiders. That is just awesome and is another confirmation of how blessed we are as children of these great Americans to have been given a such a legacy. I may not have appreciated what “the greatest generation” did for our country back then - when we were all so carefree and unconcerned about the future, but there’s not a day that goes by now that I don’t look heavenward and thank my own father for the principles he lived by and taught his children. Don’t we all wish that so many Americans would find again just a measure of our parent’s steadfast patriotism and faith in the founding principles of our country.
Dickie
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On Tue, Mar 15, 2016 at 5:55 PM, Janet Jendron <> wrote:
Have loved this thread of conversation! Amen, Dickie! Grateful for our parents and for all of you.
JJ
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On Tue, Mar 15, 2016 at 8:29 PM, Pam Viles <> wrote:
Hear, hear, Dickie. But we experienced so many things differently from our civilian counterparts, e.g., the Cuban Missile Crisis when RAFB was on lockdown and we were not allowed to use our house phones in case our fathers were required to report immediately. That situation made all of us reassess our own (albeit teenaged) mortality while our civilian counterparts were watching "American Dance Party" on one of the three available television channels.
Janet, wasn't your dad on the cover of TIME magazine?
Pam
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On Tue, Mar 15, 2016 at 11:57 PM, laray van meter <> wrote:
Tom
Thanks for giving us 'brats' something good to remember and be proud of our Air Force background once more. So much negative in this world today.
LaRay Watkins Van Meter
RHS '66
RHS '66
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On Tue, Mar 15, 2016 at 11:29 PM, Jerry Ball <> wrote:
Tom and fellow/sister Rohawks!
It has been wonderful to see the e-mail "crackle" again with enthusiastic Rohawks. Tom has certainly gotten things started with an apt subject for us Air Force "brats" - the previous topic that generated so much conversation more than a decade ago.
Those of us who were cadets at the Air Force Academy in the sixties were privileged not only to learn about the Doolittle Raiders but to have the goblets and cognac displayed in one of the hallways we walked down. As with any item you see on a regular basis, sometimes it faded into the background, but often I, and other cadets, would pause to view the display and just to contemplate what these men had done.
It really is amazing when you think about it. Less than forty years earlier, two bicycle makers from Dayton, Ohio had gone to the beach at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina and had flown what amounted to a motorized kite for a distance of of 120 feet and a flight time of 12 seconds. In 1942, these 80 men we know as the Doolittle Raiders flew off the deck of a ship never designed to launch bombers in airplanes that were meant to lift off from land - not a pitching runway. I don't know how many times as a cadet, I saw video of the takeoffs and was always awed by how close some of the planes came to disaster right at the beginning of the mission. Still photos are great, but video gives a whole different perspective of the courage of these airmen. I found one such video. Watch the pitching sea at about 4:40 and then check out the near-disaster of one of the last B-25s at about 5:20 in the video.
In 1982, the Raiders met in San Antonio and some of them came out and met with the folks in our HQ ATC directorate (ATC/XP - Plans). They joked that they liked to get together every year "to polish our war stories and some of the guys have some pretty good ones now." I doubt there was much need to "enhance" their stories. The truth of their mission is heroic enough.
The last time I was near any of the Raiders was in 2007 when I worked in the civil service at HQ Air Force Personnel Center, and they came to San Antonio again for their annual gathering. We had a B-25 in the hangar and after the appropriate words were spoken about the courage of the Raiders and the morale boost it gave the American people in WWII, we got to visit the airplane and, more importantly, the Raiders themselves. You can see your balding, broadening former schoolmate below the arrow in the official USAF picture below. I was waiting my turn in line to shake hands - just to touch the hand of one of the men behind the legend I had so long ago learned about.
I can't imagine a mission like the one the Doolittle Raiders accomplished could ever be done again. The secrecy of the operation would be at great risk from the ubiquity of technology like cell phones and Twitter on the low level and by satellite imagery at the national level. But the heroism of the probably-never-to-be-
Thank, Tom, for starting this.
Jerry Ball
RHS '65
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On Wed, Mar 16, 2016 at 7:20 AM, gutsking <gutsking@aol.com> wrote:
Jerry, this would be something to put on the blog.....
Gloria
~Peace
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And so here we are! I would love to see folks use the blog capability to comment. If not, I may be forced to re-enter the business of writing blog items on my own!
Regards,
Jerry
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