AOPA Pilot Magazine - October 2012 - 63

help from the Chinese, and many returned to continue fighting in World War II. “Our purpose was to give the folks at home the first good news that we’d had in World War II,” the Air Force museum quoted James H. “Jimmy” Doolittle, who led the raid as a lieutenant colonel and was promoted to brigadier general after its success. “It caused the Japanese to question their warlords. And from a tactical point of view, it caused the retention of aircraft in Japan for defense of the home islands when we had no intention of hitting them again, seriously in the near future.” After news spread of the Tokyo Raiders’ successful strike against Japan’s mainland, morale in the United States soared. “The Doolittle Raid was the first domino in the series” of the Pacific

REUNITED FOR THE SEVENTIETH

anniversary of the Doolittle Tokyo Raid are (left to right) Lt. Col. Richard E. Cole, Staff Sargeant David G. Thatcher, Lt. Col. Edward J. Saylor, and Major Thomas G. Griffin.

campaign, said Larry Kelley, owner of the B–25 Panchito, who helped organize a mass gathering of the bombers in Dayton, working with the Air Force to gain permission for 20 of the warbirds to land on a closed runway near

the museum for the seventieth anniversary of the raid. Yet the men who pulled off what seemed impossible simply say they were just doing their jobs, following the plan, and carrying out what they were trained to do—nothing special. “The Raiders don’t like to be singled out,” said retired Lt. Col. Richard E. Cole during a ceremony commemorating the day, honoring those who lost their lives because of the mission, and paying tribute to the Raiders who have since died. Only five Raiders are living; four, including 97-year-old Cole, attended the anniversary celebration. Retired Lt. Col. Robert L. Hite, who served as a co-pilot on Crew No. 16 and was one of the four to survive as a prisoner of war in Japan, was not able to attend.

LT. COL. RICHARD E. COLE, CO-PILOT CREW NO. 1

Perched on the USS Hornet, the B–25 Mitchell’s radial engines developing max power, Doolittle and Cole, his co-pilot, held the brakes, deployed full flaps, and prepared to lead 15 other bombers on a daunting mission: the Tokyo Raid. The crews had trained for this day, albeit on dry ground at Eglin Field in Florida. Navy pilot Lt. Henry L. Miller was called in to “teach us how to make short-field takeoffs,” said Cole, who retired from the military as a lieutenant colonel in 1967. They practiced with a 10-knot headwind and the same load they would carry the day of the mission. “We were able to get off in 500 feet,” Cole said. According to the Air Force museum, during training one B–25 lifted off in just 287 feet. The pilots were supposed to receive 50 hours of training, “but I don’t think we made more than 30 [hours]. Time was of the essence.” When the men learned the details of the mission for the first time on the USS Hornet, they were jubilant, Cole recalls; then “a little bit later when things got quiet,” they pondered the implications associated with the assignment. Still, he said, “nobody jumped ship.” The pilot Cole was originally scheduled to fly with became ill, so Doolittle stepped in. “I was a very lucky guy,” he recalled of flying with Doolittle. Eight hours ahead of schedule, 650 miles out to sea, they departed. A 25- to 30-knot wind from the carrier and the “same amount from Mother Nature” aided the short-field takeoff performance, as well as a deck officer who timed the bomber’s takeoff run so that the “carrier would drop down and kind of throw the airplane up in the air,” Cole explained. Even with the challenging task that lay ahead, “I never had a bad feeling. I think you waste time thinking of bad things.” Cole’s military career led him to take part in another secret mission, flying Douglas C–47s with the First Air Commando Group towing gliders at night over Japanese-occupied territory later in World War II. Today, his operations aren’t secret; now, he likes to fly “opp” (other people’s planes) when he gets the chance.
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AOPA Pilot Magazine - October 2012

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