Dick Cole, the last of the B-25 crewmen who flew “Thirty Seconds over Tokyo” in the first daring WWII air raid of Japan, has passed away at 103. Cole was mission leader Jimmy Doolittle’s co-pilot.
The April 1942 attack was as much symbolic as anything else — a first-ever (and one-way) carrier launch of tactical bombers …
… attacking five Japanese cities, then ditching (for the most part) over China, nearly 1500 miles beyond.
But even if its actual military effect was relatively small, it was a huge morale booster for the US, four months after the Pearl Harbor debacle, and demonstrated Japan’s vulnerability to bombing (a method of attack that would escalate to horrific proportions during the course of the war).
Cole was the last of the 80 raiders to pass away. In post-war life he was a citrus farmer in Texas.
Thank you, sir, for your service, those many years ago.
Do you want to know more?
- Dick Cole, last of the Doolittle Raiders, dies at 103 – CNN
- Richard Cole, 103, Last Survivor of Doolittle Raid on Japan, Dies – The New York Times
- A legend passes: Dick Cole, last of the Doolittle Raiders, dies at 103