Their "final" reunion...........

Jimmy Doolittle's Raiders


Find a copy of "The Ruptured Duck" by Lt.Ted W.Lawson

Doolittle Raiders Hold Final Reunion

Apr 18, 2013

Associated Press| by Melissa Nelson-Gabriel

Doolittle Raider Lt. Col. Dick Cole, stands in front of a B-25 at the Destin Airport in Destin, Fla. on Tuesday April 16, 2013 before a flight as part of the Doolittle Raider 71st Anniversary Reunion.

EGLIN AIR FORCE BASE, Florida - At 97, retired Lt. Col. Richard Cole can still fly and land a vintage B-25 with a wide grin and a wave out the cockpit window to amazed onlookers.

David Thatcher, 91, charms admiring World War II history buffs with detailed accounts of his part in the 1942 Doolittle Raid on Tokyo, in which he earned a Silver Star.

Retired Lt. Col. Edward Saylor, 93, still gets loud laughs from crowds for his one liners about the historic bombing raid 71 years ago Wednesday that helped to boost a wounded nation's morale in the aftermath of Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor.

Cole, Thatcher and Saylor - three of the four surviving crew members from the history-making bombing run - are at Eglin Air Force Base in the Florida Panhandle for a final public reunion of the Doolittle Raiders. They decided to meet at Eglin because it is where they trained for their top-secret mission in the winter of 1942, just weeks after the Japanese devastated the American fleet at Pearl Harbor.

The fourth surviving raider, 93-year-old Robert Hite, could not make the event.

"At the time of the raid, you know the war was on and it was just a mission we went on, we were lucky enough to survive it but it didn't seem like that big of a deal at the time. I spent the rest of the war in Europe and with the guys in Normandy and taking bodies out of airplanes and stuff and I didn't feel like a hero," Saylor said Wednesday following a ceremony in which an F-35 Joint Strike Fighter maintenance hangar at the base was named in his honor.

Saylor joked with the audience of young airmen and local dignitaries.

"My reaction when I out found out we were bombing Japan from an aircraft carrier was that it was too far to swim back home so we might as well go ahead with it," he said.

The 16 planes, loaded with one-ton bombs, took off from the aircraft carrier on less than 500 feet of runway. They had only enough fuel to drop their bombs and try to land in China with the hope that the Chinese would help them to safety.

"We were all pretty upbeat about it, we didn't have any bad thoughts about what was going to happen. We just did what we had to do," said Cole, who was Doolittle's co-pilot.

Wednesday's event at the base is part of a weeklong series of activities planned by the military and community leaders to honor the men.

Thomas Casey, business manager for the Raiders and a longtime fan of the men, said the four survivors have decided they can no longer keep up with the demands of group public appearances.


At each reunion is a case containing 80 silver goblets with the name of each raider inscribed right-side up and upside down on a single goblet. The men toast their fallen comrades each year and turn their goblets upside down in their honor.

They have also saved a bottle of Hennessy cognac from 1896, the year mission commander James Doolittle was born. The Raiders had said the final two survivors would open the bottle, but they have since decided that the four survivors will meet in private later this year for the toast.


Here's to you boy's!

God Bless each and every one of them, true American Heroes one and all...

http://www.npr.org/2013/04/18/...d-their-last-meeting
An interview and salute to the final 4.

And I too, salute 'The Greatest Generation'. I would also say that the men and women who fought in Vietnam were their equals. And they, Vietnam vets, had to endure the scorn of millions when they came home. A shameful thing. And the Korean vets, and the Iraq vets and the Afghanistan vets. Hell, I salute any man or woman who had/has the courage to fight for our country.
Jim

I worked for Shell in the late '60s-early '70s, and had a brief encounter (Doolittle was a Shell executive, and his relationship with Shell went back over 40 years). I was surprised that he was fairly diminutive. He was also quite gracious and approchable; he was "Jimmy" to most of us.

I firmly believe he was the most accomplished individual I ever met.

These men were old fashioned heroes, fine young men with amazing guts and patriotic motives.

So many brave young men and women have served us who never got any special attention. Worse yet, so many who served have been neglected. I consider their treatment to be a national disgrace.

I, too, raise my glass to all of you fine Americans.