![\"Doolittle](\"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/11\/Doolittle-Raiders-300x168.jpg\")
<\/a><\/center><\/p>\nThere were 80 and now there are four surviving members of the Doolittle Raiders who struck our first blow against the Japanese mainland four months after the surprise attack on Pearl Harbor. From the Associated Press<\/a>;<\/p>\n Three of the four surviving Raiders attended the toast Saturday at the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force. Their late commander, Lt. Gen. James “Jimmy” Doolittle, started the tradition but they decided this autumn’s ceremony would be their last.<\/p>\n “May they rest in peace,” Lt. Col. Richard Cole, 98, said before he and fellow Raiders – Lt. Col. Edward Saylor, 93, and Staff Sgt. David Thatcher, 92 – sipped cognac from specially engraved silver goblets. The 1896 cognac was saved for the occasion after being passed down from Doolittle.<\/p>\n Hundreds invited to the ceremony, including family members of deceased Raiders, watched as the three each called out “here” as a historian read the names of all 80 of the original airmen.<\/p>\n The fourth surviving Raider, Lt. Col. Robert Hite, 93, couldn’t travel to Ohio because of health problems.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Hite is the last survivor of the Raiders who were captured by the Japanese. Of the eight who were prisoners, one died while in captivity and three others were executed by their captors.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"