{"id":138590,"date":"2019-04-10T23:18:12","date_gmt":"2019-04-11T05:18:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/?p=138590"},"modified":"2019-04-10T23:21:29","modified_gmt":"2019-04-11T05:21:29","slug":"the-last-of-doolittles-raiders","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2019\/04\/10\/the-last-of-doolittles-raiders.html","title":{"rendered":"The Last of Doolittle’s Raiders"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dick Cole, the last of the B-25 crewmen who flew\u00a0\u00a0“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.<\/p>\n

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The lead bomber crew, under Lt Col Jimmy Doolittle (2nd fr L). Lt Cole is 2nd fr R.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The April 1942 attack was as much symbolic as anything else — a first-ever (and one-way) carrier launch of tactical bombers …<\/p>\n

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B-25 taking off from the USS Hornet<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

… attacking five Japanese cities, then ditching (for the most part) over China, nearly 1500 miles beyond.<\/p>\n

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Newspaper map of the Doolittle Raid.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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).<\/p>\n

Cole was the last of the 80 raiders to pass away. In post-war life he was a citrus farmer in Texas.<\/p>\n

Thank you, sir, for your service, those many years ago.<\/p>\n

Do you want to know more?\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n