[HCARC] The Final Four Doolittle Raiders - Final Toast

[josephs at beecreek.net]

Gary

Thanks for the reminder of Jimmy and his group did.  We sure need more like
them today!

Peace and all good,

Don Josephs  K5DEJ 
 
 
 
 
-------Original Message-------
 
From: Gary and Arlene Johnson
Date: 06/21/13 20:42:55
To: hcarc at mailman.qth.net
Subject: [HCARC] The Final Four Doolittle Raiders - Final Toast
 
The Final Toast
 
It's the cup of brandy no one wants to drink.
 
On Tuesday, in Fort Walton Beach, Florida, the surviving Doolittle Raiders
gathered publicly for the last time.
 
They once were among the most universally admired and revered men in the
United States. There were 80 of the Raiders in April 1942, when they carried
out one of the most courageous and heart-stirring military operations in
this nation's history. The mere mention of their unit's name, in those years
 would bring tears to the eyes of grateful Americans.
 
Now only four survive.
 
After Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor, with the United States reeling and
wounded, something dramatic was needed to turn the war effort around. Even
though there were no friendly airfields close enough to Japan for the United
States 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 big, heavy bombers from a
carrier.
 
The 16 five-man crews, under the command of Lt. Col. James Doolittle, who
himself flew the lead plane off the USS Hornet, knew that they would not be
able to return to the carrier. They would have to hit Japan and then hope to
make it to China for a safe landing.
 
But on the day of the raid, the Japanese navy caught sight of the carrier.
The Raiders were told that they would have to take off from much farther out
in the Pacific than they had counted on. They were told that because of this
they would not have enough fuel to make it to safety.
 
And those men went anyway.
 
They bombed Tokyo, and then flew as far as they could.
 
·         4 planes crash-landed;
 
·         11 more crews bailed out, and three of the Raiders died.
 
·         8 more were captured; three were executed.
 
·         1 died of starvation in a Japanese prison camp.
 
·         1 crew made it to Russia.
 
The Doolittle Raid 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.
 
Of the 80 Raiders, 62 survived the war.
 
They were celebrated as national heroes, models of bravery.
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer produced a motion picture based on the raid; "Thirty
Seconds Over Tokyo," starring Spencer Tracy and Van Johnson, 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."
 
Beginning in 1946, the surviving Raiders have held a reunion each April, to
commemorate the mission.
 
The reunion is in a different city each year. 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. Every year, a wooden display case bearing all 80 goblets
is transported to the reunion city. Each time a Raider passes away; his
goblet is turned upside down in the case at the next reunion, as his old
friends bear solemn witness.
 
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.
 
There has always been a plan:
 
When there are only two surviving Raiders, they would open the bottle, at
last drink from it, and toast their comrades who preceded them in death.
 
As 2013 began, there were five living Raiders; then, in February, Tom
Griffin passed away at age 96. What a man he was. After bailing out of his
plane over a mountainous Chinese forest after the Tokyo raid, he became ill
with malaria, and almost died. When he recovered, he was sent to Europe to
fly more combat missions. He was shot down, captured, and spent 22 months in
a German prisoner of war camp.
 
The selflessness of these men ... there was a passage in the Cincinnati
Enquirer obituary for Mr. Griffin that, on the surface, had nothing to do
with the war, but that captures the depth of his sense of duty and devotion:
"When his wife became ill and needed to go into a nursing home, he visited
her every day. He walked from his house to the nursing home, fed his wife
and at the end of the day brought home her clothes. At night, he washed and
ironed her clothes. Then he walked them up to her room the next morning. He
did that for three years until her death in 2005."
 
So now, out of the original 80, only four Raiders remain:
 
Dick Cole (Doolittle's co-pilot on the Tokyo raid), Robert Hite, Edward
Saylor and David Thatcher. All are in their 90s. They have decided that
there are too few of them for the public reunions to continue.
 
The events in Fort Walton Beach this week will mark the end. It has come
full circle; Florida's nearby Eglin Field was where the Raiders trained in
secrecy for the Tokyo mission. The town is planning to do all it can to
honor the men: a six-day celebration of their valor, including luncheons, a
dinner and a parade.
 
Do the men ever wonder if those of us for whom they helped save the country
have tended to it in a way that is worthy of their sacrifice? They don't
talk about that, at least not around other people. But if you find yourself
near Fort Walton Beach this week, and if you should encounter any of the
Raiders, you might want to offer them a word of thanks. I can tell you from
firsthand observation that they appreciate hearing that they are remembered.
 
The men have decided that after this final public reunion they will wait
until a later date -- some time this year -- to get together once more,
informally and in absolute privacy. That is when they will open the bottle
of brandy. The years are flowing by too swiftly now; they are not going to
wait until there are only two of them.
 
They will fill the four remaining upturned goblets...And raise them in a
toast to those who are gone ...
 
Gary J
 
N5BAA
 
HCARC Secretary 2013
 
 
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