!<\/strong><\/p>\nThey once were among the most universally admired and revered men in the United States.<\/p>\n
There were 80 of the Raiders on April 18, 1942 when they carried out one of the most courageous and heart-stirring military operations in this nation’s history.<\/p>\n
The mere mention of their unit’s name in those years would bring tears to the eyes of grateful Americans.<\/p>\n
Now they are all gone . . .<\/p>\n
After Japan ‘s sneak attack on Pearl Harbor with the United States reeling and wounded something dramatic was needed to turn the war effort around.<\/p>\n
Even though there were no friendly airfields close enough to Japan for the U.S. to launch a retaliation a daring plan was devised. Sixteen B-25s were modified so that they could take off from the deck of an aircraft carrier. This had never been tried before — sending such big, heavy bombers from a carrier.<\/p>\n
They would have to hit Japan and then hope to make it to China for a safe landing.<\/p>\n
The 16 five man crews under the command of Lt. Colonel James Doolittle, who himself would fly the lead plane off the USS Hornet, knew that they would not be able to return to the carrier.<\/p>\n
But on the day of the raid a Japanese fishing vessel was sighted. Fearing the boat notified the enemy\u2019s military the Raiders had to take off much farther out from Japan than originally planned. They were told that because of this they would not have enough fuel to make it to safety. But those men went anyway.<\/p>\n
They struck Tokyo, Japan\u2019s capital and then flew as far as they could.<\/p>\n
Four planes crash-landed. One crew made it to Russia. Eleven more crews bailed out and three of the Raiders died.<\/p>\n
Eight more were captured; three were executed. Another died of starvation in a Japanese prison camp.<\/p>\n
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The Doolittle Raiders sent a message from the United States to its enemies and to the rest of the world: We will fight. And, no matter what it takes, we will win!<\/p>\n
Of the 80 Raiders 62 survived the war. They were celebrated as national heroes, models of bravery.<\/p>\n
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer produced a motion picture based on the raid; “Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo” starring Spencer Tracy and Van Johnson. It was a patriotic and emotional box-office hit and the phrase became part of the national lexicon. In the movie-theater previews for the film MGM proclaimed that it was presenting the story “with supreme pride.”<\/p>\n
Beginning in 1946 the surviving Raiders began holding a reunion each April to commemorate the mission. The reunion was in a different city each year.<\/p>\n
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In 1959, the city of Tucson, Arizona, as a gesture of respect and gratitude, presented the Doolittle Raiders with a set of 80 silver goblets. Each goblet was engraved with the name of a Raider.<\/p>\n
Every year a wooden display case bearing all 80 goblets is transported to the reunion city. Each time a Raider would pass away his goblet was turned upside down in the case at the next reunion as his old friends would bear solemn witness.<\/p>\n
Also in the wooden case is a bottle of 1896 Hennessy Very Special cognac. The year is not happenstance: 1896 was when Jimmy Doolittle was born.<\/p>\n
There has always been a plan: When there were only two surviving Raiders they would open the bottle and at last drink from it and toast their comrades who preceded them in death.<\/p>\n
That toast would have been made by S\/Sgt. David Thatcher and Doolittle\u2019s copilot, Lt Colonel Richard Cole at the 2016 reunion but the last four survivors had ceased their reunions due to their advanced ages.<\/p>\n
Thatcher died that following June and Cole passed away three years later at the age of 103, the oldest of the surviving Raiders.<\/p>\n
Florida’s Eglin Field was where the Raiders trained in secrecy for the Tokyo mission. In 2013 the town did all it could to honor the men: a six-day celebration of their valor, including luncheons, a dinner and a parade.<\/p>\n
After that year\u2019s reunion the few survivors decided it would be their final public reunion.<\/p>\n
Later in 2013, they did get together once more, informally and in absolute privacy. There they opened the bottle of brandy. They said the years were flowing by too swiftly and they were not going to wait until there was only two of them. They filled the four remaining upturned goblets and raised them in a toast to those who preceded them into the Lord\u2019s arms.<\/p>\n
By 2019 when the last Raider passed away the story had come full circle.<\/p>\n
Retired Lt. Colonel Richard \u201cDick\u201d Cole, the last of the 80 Doolittle Tokyo Raiders who carried out the daring U.S. attack on Japan during World War II died April 19, 2019 at a military hospital in Texas. He was 103.<\/p>\n
Remembered as a man who faithfully served his country and was a devoted father and a man of faith, Lt. Colonel Richard \u201cDick\u201d Cole, the last of the Doolittle Raiders, was honored and posthumously promoted to the rank of Colonel during a September 7, 2021 ceremony at the Joint Base San Antonio-Fort Sam Houston Golf Course ballroom.<\/p>\n
Cole was the last surviving member of the Doolittle Raiders, a group of 80 crew members led by Lt. Colonel James \u201cJimmy\u201d Doolittle who flew 16 B-25 Mitchell bombers from the USS Hornet April 18, 1942, en route to an air raid to attack Tokyo in World War II after the Japanese had bombed Pearl Harbor December 7, 1941.<\/p>\n
Cole was Doolittle\u2019s co-pilot in the lead B-25 aircraft during the mission.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
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