On April 9, retired Air Force Lt. Col. Richard E. Cole, the last surviving member of the famed Doolittle Tokyo Raiders, died at age 103 in a hospital in San Antonio, Texas.
Seventy-seven years earlier, on April 18, 1942, Cole and 79 fellow Raiders had embarked on what became one of the most famous missions of World War II — the first bombing of Japan. Seventy-three eventually come home. Over the following seven decades, Dick Cole would attend multiple reunions with his fellow Raiders and in later years scores of funerals as, one by one, the Raiders drifted away, all felled by Lincoln’s “silent artillery of time.”
Over the past 15 years, my colleagues at the American Veterans Center and I have had the honor of meeting many great heroes of many renowned units of World War II, but none resonated with the American public — especially the World War II generation — like the Doolittle Raiders did.
In the aftermath of the devastating attack on Pearl Harbor, President Franklin D. Roosevelt was frantically searching for a way to strike back at Japan. The solution came from Navy Captain Francis S. Low, who conceived a plan to have Army Air Corps bombers fly off the deck of an aircraft carrier approaching Japan, split up into groups, bomb various Japanese cities and fly on to an airfield in China.
The Army posted notices asking for volunteers for a “dangerous mission,” and young Lt. Richard Cole immediately signed up. Once selected, Cole was informed that he would co-pilot alongside the mission’s leader, Lt. Col. Jimmy Doolittle, already famous as a military test pilot.
Five-man crews were selected to fly 16 B-25 medium bombers off the aircraft carrier Hornet. Underway from San Francisco, they were informed of the plan to bomb Japan.
Unfortunately, 750 miles from the Japanese home islands, the American fleet was discovered by a Japanese picket boat. Fearing (correctly as it turned out) that the fleet’s presence would be reported to Tokyo, Doolittle faced a wrenching decision – abort the mission or launch immediately, almost 200 miles further out than planned. Doolittle’s decision came quickly — we’ll go. It also changed a dangerous mission into a possible suicide mission, as it was doubtful that there would be enough fuel to reach China.
“Col. Doolittle gave everybody the chance to bail out,” Cole said. “Nobody did!”
Led by Doolittle at the controls of the lead bomber, the planes took off one by one, until all were airborne — this despite the fact that not one of the pilots had ever done a carrier takeoff before.
They flew without incident over Japan, bombed their targets and headed for China. “Unfortunately,” Cole said, “our navigator, Lt. Potter, said that he calculated that we would run out of fuel 180 miles short of the coast.”
Then a miracle occurred. A powerful storm developed, with winds blowing east to west, strong enough to push the planes over the China Coast. Doolittle gunned his plane to 9,000 feet but the aircraft was now shrouded in darkness, rain, and thick fog.
“Doolittle was not a chit-chat kind of guy,” Cole said. “There was no conversation except for words that were concerned with the mission.” Cole added, “he was an excellent example of a military leader — he was the crew captain, but he was also a team player. Everybody got their say.”
Doolittle watched the fuel gauge and when the needle hit zero, he ordered his crew to bail out.
Cole had never parachuted before, and as a result, “I pulled the ripcord so hard I gave myself a black eye.”
Falling through the darkness, wind, and rain, Cole’s parachute snagged on a pine tree, leaving him dangling 12 feet off the ground.
When morning came, he cut himself down and started walking west, away from the Japanese-controlled region. Spying a building flying the Nationalist Chinese flag, he went in and was taken by a Nationalist soldier to meet another pilot already there. It was Jimmy Doolittle.
Soon, they met up with the other three crew members and, escorted by Chinese Nationalists, traveled through Japanese lines by boat and wagon to the Nationalist provisional capital of Chunking where most of the Raiders were reunited.
Col. Doolittle was distraught, fearing a court-martial because the Raiders had all lost their aircraft. Back in the United States, however, the reaction was one of jubilation. America had retaliated against Japan, “proving that the Japanese were not safe,” as Col. Cole said.
The raid in fact proved to be a turning point in the war. So shocked were the Japanese high command that they concluded that they needed to push the American lines back by occupying Midway Island. This resulted in the climactic Battle of Midway, in which four Japanese aircraft carriers were sunk, along with hundreds of highly trained pilots. Japan never recovered, and from then on the U.S. was on the offensive.
Instead of a court-martial, Col. Doolittle received the Medal of Honor from President Roosevelt and was eventually promoted to Lt. General.
Dick Cole went on to fly the Hump in the China-Burma-India theater in World War II and saw combat duty in the Korean War. He retired from the Air Force as a Lieutenant Colonel in 1966 to care for a son who was ill, leaving just short of an assignment that would have led to his promotion to full colonel.
Today, Sen. Rob Portman, R-Ohio, and Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, are leading an effort in Congress to grant Cole a promotion to full colonel so that he can be buried at Arlington National Cemetery with full military honors.
In 2013, three of the last four living Raiders met to hold a final toast together at Wright Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton, Ohio. Thousands lined the road to the Air Force museum where 600 invited guests gathered for the historic event.
At the American Veterans Center’s annual Salute to American Valor gala, the tradition of an annual toast to the Raiders lives on. The Raiders established and entrusted to us the “Doolittle Tokyo Raiders Wings of Valor Award,” with a list of prospective awardees that will allow us to continue presenting the award for years of come.
The first recipient of the award was Gen. Richard Myers (USAF-Ret.), former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and chairman of the American Veterans Center advisory board.
In a toast to the Raiders, Gen. Myers said, ”You gave us hope when there was great uncertainty in the Land; you showed courage when many were afraid and you conducted yourselves with honor providing all of us a legacy of freedom — here’s to the Doolittle Raiders.”
It is a toast that the American Veterans Center will offer for many years to come.
Jim Roberts is President of the American Veterans Center.
