This is inspirational
He was reading a book in the sun near a pool in Collier County, Fla. He appeared to be in his late 30s. I hesitated before approaching him, fearing it would be an intrusion.
“I’m sorry to bother you,” I said. “But I knew some of the men in that book. They’re all gone now. But they would be honored to know that you’re reading about them.”
The book was a paperback copy of “Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo” (1943), about the Doolittle Raiders, who in 1942 carried out one of the most heart-stirring military operations of World War II. There was a time when almost every American knew of their heroism. A fine motion picture starring Spencer Tracy as Lt. Col. James Doolittle, who led the raid, was adapted from the book.
But that was a long time ago. Doolittle Raiders? The words are likely to draw a blank among many people today. The names Kim Kardashian and Kanye West and the Real Housewives, yes. But the 80 Doolittle Raiders, it often seems, are lost to history.
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“You really knew them?” the man asked. I said that I had, at least the men who survived into the 1990s, when I had been invited to attend one of their reunions and help with the ceremony. I asked how he happened to be reading the book. “My dad was in the service,” he said, “and I have always been interested in valor.”
Valor. When things were their darkest for the U.S. after the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, the Doolittle Raiders gave the nation hope. Sixteen B-25s, each with a five-man crew, were lined up on the aircraft carrier USS Hornet. This had never been tried in war—sending heavy bombers off a carrier.
Because the Japanese military had learned of the strategy, the planes had to take off from farther out in the Pacific than had been planned. Their mission was to hit Tokyo, but now they would lack enough fuel to reach safety beyond Japan’s borders.
They went anyway. They bombed Tokyo, then tried to make it to China. Four planes crashed, 11 crews had to bail out, and three Raiders died. Eight were captured, and three were executed. One aviator died of starvation in a prison camp.
But the signal had been sent to Americans back home: Nothing will stop us from winning this war. The mention of the Raiders brought tears of pride to their fellow citizens.
Monday is the 80th anniversary of the raid. The children and grandchildren of the 80 aviators sometimes worry that the world has forgotten. I thanked the man for reading the book and said that because of him I was going to call the son of one of the Raiders.
Which I did. My friend Gary Griffin’s father, Tom, was the navigator of plane No. 9. After hitting Tokyo he bailed out over a Chinese forest, fell ill with malaria and almost died. When he recovered he flew more missions in Europe, was shot down and spent almost two years in a German prison camp. Then he came home and quietly raised a family. He died in 2013 at 96.
“There was nothing they could be asked to do for their country that they wouldn’t do,” Gary said. “That is who those men were.”