– The Bottom Line –
The Greatest Generation Indeed. How refreshing is it when you read about them in this day when and age when heroes are now homosexual basketball players and female law students who want taxpayers to subsidize their promiscuity. It definitely begs the question : 'What went wrong'?
This story is just so inspiring that it needs to be told and remembered. Eighty guys who defied death and all the odds to fight in the name of freedom and liberty, not just for America, but for all who yearn for these God given rights.
There are many examples of heroism and American resolve in the 4 years of World War II. This story is one of the most famous of them. It is a story in it's last chapter. It is a story we will cherish as long as courage and freedom are the backbone of our country.
In Memoriam
The Doolittle Raiders
Exclusive: Les Kinsolving toasts 80 Air Force fliers who were 1st to bomb Japan
Posted on May 7, 2013
In 1942, 80 members of what was at that time the United States Army Air Force participated in our first bombing of Japan.
A case of 80 goblets was brought to their annual reunions. Whenever a Raider died, his cup was upended.
This year, 2013, only four of these Raiders are still alive. At their annual reunion at Fort Walton Beach, Fla., this year, they gathered publicly for the last time.
After Japan’s 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 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 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 learned of the plan. The Raiders were told that they would have to take off from much further 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.
Those men went anyway.
Read the rest of this inspiring story at
