Doolittle Raid Anniversary April 18, 1942

In honor of those 80 men who participated in the Doolittle Raid as well as those who crewed the ships and provided other support for the raid. Out of 80 Doolittle Raiders, one is still alive and you can learn more about the Doolittle Raid at http://www.doolittleraider.com/. Richard Cole is the last living member of the 80 Raiders who flew in the raid 76 years ago. He’s 102.

Here’s a list of the crew and their targets: http://cv6.org/1942/doolittle/doolittle_crews.htm. The 80 men flew in 16 B-25s against targets in Japan.

I became aware of the Doolittle Raid in elementary school when I read Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo by Ted Lawson, one of the pilots on the raid. His plane was the “Ruptured Duck” and you can learn more about his story and how the plane came to be known by this nickname by reading the book (available at a number of book resellers, including Barnes and Noble, Amazon, Kobo, Google Play, among other places). You can also buy or rent the movie based on the book. One of the biggest advantages for me in reading the book is it sparked a love of reading that is still with me many decades later. It was a while before I saw the movie as it’s not one that was easy to find back when I read the book.