On April 18th, it will be 79th anniversary of Doolittle's Tokyo raid. Some historians have joked that it was the last time that the Navy and the Air Force ever cooperated on anything with any great measure of success.
In a previous life, I had the honor of knowing a lot of WWII veterans. I also had the pleasure of meeting some of Doolittle's raiders.
One gentleman that I met was the fellow at the extreme right in the photo below. He is the one standing with arms raised, flag in hand. The carrier guys can give us his correct job title, but I think he is called the "Launch Officer."
Anyway, he told me that after the Hornet sunk he was taken back to San Francisco and given a week of shore leave. One day, he decided to watch a movie. In those days, there was no CNN, Fox News, MSNBC or myriads of people taking videos with their smart phones.
Before the main feature there was always the showing of the newsreel. He was amazed to see film of the Hornet and her sinking. He marveled at how modern technology could get imagery of what had happened back to the mainland so quickly.
Some of the men on that raid told me that they thought they were going on a suicide mission.