Cole served as co-pilot to the B-25 flown by squadron commander, Lt. Col. James Doolittle. Hollywood film director John Ford filmed Doolittle’s plane as it roared down the rain-swept decks of the Hornet.
Although the raid did not cause much damage, it was a thundering boost to American morale which had been battered by a series of Japanese victories during the first five months of the war – from the attack on Pearl Harbor to the capture of Wake Island, to the destruction of an Allied fleet off Java, and the surrender of 78,000 American and Filipino troops on Bataan.
One American newspaper reported news of the attack in a headline: “Doolittle Did It.”
One B-25 landed safely in the Soviet Union, while the other 15 crashed in China, although most crew members survived the crashed landings or bailed out, as Cole did. Eight fliers were captured by the Japanese and three were executed.
The White House event was closed to reporters and TV cameras for reasons not explained by Obama’s advisers. A still photograph was released to the Associated Press.
Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, who sponsored the bill, attended the signing. Both the House and Senate this week approved the measure awarding the Doolittle fliers a gold medal.
The medal will be stored at the National Museum of the United States Air Force at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base. Late last year, three of the four living members of the attack drank a toast at the museum.
Others who have received the honor in the past include Winston Churchill, Bob Hope, George Washington, Robert Frost, Mother Teresa, and, more recently, Ohioans Neil Armstrong, the first person to walk on the moon, and John Glenn, the first American to orbit the Earth.
Cole now lives in Texas.
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