From the deck of the USS Hornet, Jimmy Doolittle led sixteen B-25 bombers for a raid on Tokyo OTD. If you don’t know about Doolittle, you should. An amazing American leader!

Doolittle was a famous American aviator before the War. In fact, he was the first man to fly “blind”, on instruments alone, in 1929, and was the first pilot to perform an outside loop. He had a doctorate in aeronautics from MIT, as well. He was close to Juvenal’s classical ideal of manhood – a strong mind in a strong body. 

Doolittle was a flight instructor in World War I but did not go to Europe. He stayed in the Army after the War and pioneered American aviation, such as making the first trans-continental airplane flight in 1922, for which he received the Distinguished Service Cross. He also received the Mackay Trophy in 1926, so he really piled up achievements well before World War II.

Doolittle returned to active duty in 1940, and, after Pearl Harbor, volunteered for and led the first retaliatory attack on the Japanese Empire, envisioning a bold plan to launch medium weight bombers from aircraft carrier’s something that had never been accomplished before. 

On April 16, 1942, Doolittle’s plane and fifteen other B-25’s took off from the USS Hornet, which had sailed dangerously close to Japan. The planes flew over Tokyo, surprising the Japanese completely, and hugely boosting morale in the United States. 

The bombers flew on to China after bombing Tokyo. Seven crew members lost their lives, three due to aircraft mishaps and four who were captured and murdered by the Japanese. Doolittle himself bailed out over China after his plane ran out of fuel, and landed in a rice paddy.

Doolittle thought that he had failed in his mission and would be courtmartialed, as none of his planes were useable by the Japanese. He was awestruck to find out that he had earned the Medal of Honor when he returned to the United States.

One of Dolittle’s pilots, Ted Lawson, was badly wounded in his crash landing, losing his leg and undergoing extensive surgery to reconstruct his jaw and face. He penned  a memoir of the raid, Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo, that was a best seller in 1943, and then turned into a movie starring Spencer Tracy in 1944. 

Please honor and remember the Doolittle Raiders!