RichyBear;592145 said:
Anyone who say 'Pearl harbor' or 'Thirty seconds over Tokiyo' heard of him. The History channel did a 4 part series about the Doolittle raid.
Anyone from WWII knew about Jimmy Doolittle. He was born in Alameda, California, and spent his youth in Nome, Alaska, where he earned a reputation as a boxer. He won admission to the University of California, Berkeley where he studied in The School of Mines, before taking a leave of absence in 1917 to learn how to fly airplanes. He later returned to Cal in order to complete his degree in 1922.
Doolittle's most important contribution to aeronautical technology was the development of instrument flying. He was the first to recognize that true operational freedom in the air could not be achieved unless pilots developed the ability to control and navigate aircraft in flight, from takeoff run to landing rollout, regardless of the range of vision from the cockpit.
However, Doolittle's most notorious accomplishment was his Raid on Tokyo. One month after the Japanese raid on Pearl Harbor Dollitle concocted an incredible plan whereby 16 B-25 medium bombers would take off from the deck of the aircraft carrier USS Hornet, with targets on Tokyo. Three months later all the bombers successfully took off from the Hornet, reached Japan, and bombed their targets.
As did most of the other crewmen who participated in the mission, Doolittle's crew bailed out according to plan safely over China when their bombers ran out of fuel. Doolittle was helped through Japanese lines by Chinese guerrillas and American missionaries. Other aircrews were not so fortunate.
The Doolittle Raid is viewed by historians as a major morale-building victory for the United States. Although the damage done to Japanese war industry was minor, the raid showed the Japanese that their homeland was vulnerable to air attack, and forced them to withdraw several front-line fighter units from Pacific war zones for homeland defense.
Jimmy Doolittle went on to win the Medal of Honor, Commanded the Eighth Air Force in 1944 England as a Lieutenant General, retire in Pebble Beach, California, and be placed to rest in Arlington National Cemetery next to his wife, at the age of 96.
This guy was a hero back when a "volunteer suicide mission" meant you were really willing to try or die trying.
:gobears:
