as Lt. Col. Jimmy Doolittle’ s co-pilot in a slightly larger flyer: the B-25 Mitchell bomber.
Given how I spent my Saturdays, it wouldn’ t surprise many that I had made up my mind early to be either an Army Air Corps pilot or if that didn’ t pan out, a forest ranger. I applied for the Army Air Corps, but at that time they had very little funding, which made recruitment difficult. I also had problems with my tonsils and broke several teeth playing street hockey, so I figured becoming a forest ranger was my most likely destiny. Then, between my sophomore and junior year of high school, I heard about a civilian pilot training program. From there, things moved rather quickly. I applied and was accepted into the primary aviation program in St. Louis and enlisted in the Army Air Corps in November, 1940. Eventually, I joined up with the 17th Bombardment Group at Pendleton, Oregon.
When Pearl Harbor was hit on December 7, 1941, we were on temporary duty in Augusta, Georgia, conducting mock war exercises with the Army. News of the strike came through on the radio and after that, we headed back to Pendleton to run sub patrol for several months. We’ d fly loops off the coast of Portland, Seattle, and Everett, Washington, extending only so far out to sea before coming back in. After one of our pilots sank a Japanese sub off the Strait of Juan de Fuca, the situation intensified and we were transferred to Columbia, South Carolina.
I’ m often asked how I ended up joining the Doolittle mission and to be honest, it was strictly by luck. When I arrived with the 17th Bomber Group in Columbia, the conditions were difficult. The airfield was under construction, which meant we could only use sections of the runways. We lived in tents. It wasn’ t glamorous, but we survived. There was a bulletin board set up in front of the squadron leader’ s tent with a note seeking volunteers for a dangerous
CREW NO. 1- TARGET: TOKYO. PICTURED FRONT: LT. COL. JAMES H. DOOLITTLE( PILOT), LT. RICHARD E. COLE( CO-PI- LOT). BACK: LT. HENRY A. POTTER( NAVIGATOR), SSGT. FRED A. BRAEMER( BOMBARDIER), SSGT. PAUL J. LEONARD( FLIGHT ENGINEER / GUNNER).
mission. Ultimately, the whole group and our commander volunteered, but during training, my pilot became ill and was disqualified from participating. We didn’ t know any specifics, but were told to stay on base at Eglin Field in Florida and not to talk about our training. After some time, I went to see the operations officer, Captain Edward“ Ski” York, and he told me“ the old man” was coming in that afternoon. Of course from my early days flying model airplanes in Dayton, I knew who Doolittle was but I had never heard him called by that name. Sure enough, Doolittle arrived within the hour and Capt. York told me,“ If you do okay with him, you’ ve got yourself a pilot.” He never turned me away, so I guess I did alright.
Although we wouldn’ t know the full details of our mission— most of us thought we’ d be landing somewhere in the South Pacific— we knew we were in for a challenge. We later find out, the“ Doolittle Raid,” as it came to be known, called for an airstrike on Japanese targets by 16 of our B-25 Bombers. After hitting those military targets in Japan, the crews were to land in China. The mission was a response to Pearl Harbor and it was intended to alert the Japanese forces that they weren’ t untouchable. It prompted Japanese Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto’ s attack on Midway, which proved a decisive victory for the U. S. in the Pacific Theater.
To prepare for the Raid, we had to get the B-25s equipped to perform a takeoff from the USS Hornet aircraft carrier with four 500-lb payload bombs. Other modifications included removing the lower gun turret, installing a bladder tank in the bomb bay, and replacing the Norden bombsight with a makeshift aiming sight. To fool any enemy planes approaching from the rear, we also installed two mock gun barrels to the tail cone. Our great deception was actually just two broomsticks painted black.
Although only sixteen aircraft would eventually launch, 24 crews were originally assembled and we began our training at Eglin Air Force Base in Florida. The challenge undertaken there
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