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Doolittle Raiders share memories, sign autographs

Doolittle Raiders from left, Lt. Col. Richard E. Cole, Lt. Col. Robert L. Hite, Maj. Thomas C. Griffin and MSgt. David L. Thatcher answer media questions Friday April 16 at the Air Force Museum. The Raiders are in town for the 68th reunion. The brave Doolittle Tokyo Raiders bombed Japan at the beginning of WWII. Staff photo by Jim Noelker

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Photos: Doolittle Raiders in town

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By John Nolan, Staff Writer Updated 12:50 AM Saturday, April 17, 2010

WRIGHT-PATTERSON AIR FORCE BASE — Four of the men who flew on a brazen bombing raid of Japan that lifted U.S. spirits and helped change the course of World War II reunited on Friday, April 16.

Retired Lt. Col. Richard E. Cole, 94, of Comfort, Texas; Maj. Thomas C. Griffin, 92, Cincinnati; Lt. Col. Robert L. Hite, 90, Nashville, Tenn., and Master Sgt. David J. Thatcher, 88, Missoula, Mont., shared some of their memories with reporters at the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force. They then spent two hours autographing books, aircraft photos and even the plastic wings of WWII model airplanes, while hundreds of visitors waited in a line that stretched out of the museum’s Air Power Gallery and down a hallway.

The weekend reunion is the 68th for veterans of the raid. Only eight of the original 80 participants survive, and four weren’t well enough to attend this reunion. They are to meet next year in Omaha, Neb.

The men showed flashes of humor as they answered questions about the April 18, 1942, mission in which the Jimmy Doolittle-led band of 80 men flew B-25 bombers from the deck of an aircraft carrier more than 600 miles to drop firebombs on Japan. At the time, getting a bomber airborne from an aircraft carrier’s deck had barely been tested.

Cole, raised in Dayton, was Doolittle’s co-pilot in the lead plane. Cole said he wrote his name on a bulletin board to volunteer for what was simply described as “a dangerous mission.”

Asked about that on Friday, he quipped: “If I’d have known then what I know now, I’m not sure it would have happened.”

Hite, part of the crew in the 16th and final plane, said: “We were wondering whether we would be able to take off. After 15 other planes had done it, we realized that we could.”

Griffin said a bomb dropped from his plane missed the intended target, a factory. “We hit the target’s immediate neighbor, the Tokyo Gas & Electric Co., which was probably a pretty good trade-off.”

All of the men went on to fly other missions. Hite and Griffin eventually were taken prisoner and weren’t liberated until the war ended in 1945.

Air Force Secretary Michael B. Donley, who came to the Air Force Museum to meet the surviving raiders and speak at a dinner in their honor Friday night, said the men remain an inspiration to today’s airmen.

“The Doolittle Raiders have a very special place in the history of our Air Force,” Donley told reporters prior to the dinner, which was a sell-out with about 400 tickets sold. “They’ve provided such great examples to us of leadership, of audacity, of innovation and personal courage, in some of the darkest days of World War II.”

Seventeen B-25 Mitchell bombers, the type that the Doolittle Raiders flew, are to land prior to 8 a.m. today on the runway behind the museum. The field will be open to the public at 10 , after the bombers are in place for ground displays. Museum officials said it is one of the largest B-25 gatherings since WWII.

The bombers are to remain at the museum until their departure Sunday, when they will be flown over a 1 p.m. memorial service for the Doolittle Raiders at the museum’s outdoor memorial park.

Contact this reporter at (937) 225-2242 or jnolan@DaytonDailyNews.com.

Reunion events

Saturday, April 17

• Family Day events, 10 am-3 pm

• Ground display of B-25 bombers behind the Air Force Museum, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

• “Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo” film showing, 3 p.m., museum’s Carney Auditorium

• The “Airmen of Note” tribute concert to the Doolittle Raiders, 7:30 p.m. Wright State University’s Nutter Center

Sunday, April 18

•Doolittle Raiders memorial service with B-25 fly-over, 1 to 2 p.m., in the museum’s memorial park (incumbent weather site is Carney Auditorium)

•Autograph session, 2:30 to 4:30 p.m. at the museum’s B-25 exhibit

For more information, call (937) 904-9881 or go online to www.nationalmuseum.af.mil/doolittle.asp

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