It's the cup of brandy that no one wants to drink.
On Tuesday, in Fort Walton Beach, Florida, the surviving Doolittle Raiders will gather publicly for the last time.
They once were among the
most universally admired and revered men in the United States. There
were 80 of the Raiders in April 1942, when they carried out one of the
most courageous and heart-stirring military operations in this nation's
history. The mere mention of their unit's name, in those years, would
bring tears to the eyes of grateful Americans.
Now only four survive.
After Japan's sneak
attack on Pearl Harbor, with the United States reeling and wounded,
something dramatic was needed to turn the war effort around.
Even though there were no
friendly airfields close enough to Japan for the United States to
launch a retaliation, a daring plan was devised. Sixteen B-25s were
modified so that they could take off from the deck of an aircraft
carrier. This had never before been tried -- sending such big, heavy
bombers from a carrier.
The 16 five-man crews,
under the command of Lt. Col. James Doolittle, who himself flew the lead
plane off the USS Hornet, knew that they would not be able to return to
the carrier. They would have to hit Japan and then hope to make it to
China for a safe landing.
But on the day of the
raid, the Japanese military caught wind of the plan. The Raiders were
told that they would have to take off from much farther out in the
Pacific Ocean than they had counted on. They were told that because of
this they would not have enough fuel to make it to safety.
And those men went anyway.
They bombed Tokyo, and
then flew as far as they could. Four planes crash-landed; 11 more crews
bailed out, and three of the Raiders died. Eight more were captured;
three were executed. Another died of starvation in a Japanese prison
camp. One crew made it to Russia.
The Doolittle Raid sent a message from the United States to its enemies, and to the rest of the world:
We will fight.
And, no matter what it takes, we will win.
Of the 80 Raiders, 62
survived the war. They were celebrated as national heroes, models of
bravery. Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer produced a motion picture based on the
raid; "Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo," starring Spencer Tracy and Van
Johnson, was a patriotic and emotional box-office hit, and the phrase
became part of the national lexicon. In the movie-theater previews for
the film, MGM proclaimed that it was presenting the story "with supreme
pride."
Beginning in 1946, the
surviving Raiders have held a reunion each April, to commemorate the
mission. The reunion is in a different city each year. In 1959, the city
of Tucson, Arizona, as a gesture of respect and gratitude, presented
the Doolittle Raiders with a set of 80 silver goblets. Each goblet was
engraved with the name of a Raider.
Every year, a wooden
display case bearing all 80 goblets is transported to the reunion city.
Each time a Raider passes away, his goblet is turned upside down in the
case at the next reunion, as his old friends bear solemn witness.
Also in the wooden case
is a bottle of 1896 Hennessy Very Special cognac. The year is not
happenstance: 1896 was when Jimmy Doolittle was born.
More @ CNN
Old School.
ReplyDeleteYes, not enough fuel, but we'll do it anyway.
Delete