OPINION:
After Pearl Harbor, President Franklin Roosevelt insisted the Japanese home islands be attacked. This audacious venture occurred because a submariner proposed the idea of flying U.S. Army bombers from an aircraft carrier. As one of the first Massachusetts Institute of Technology aeronautical engineering graduates, Jimmy Doolittle was just the man to turn possibility into reality. He selected the 17th Bombardment Group flying anti-submarine patrols from Pendleton, Oregon, because their flying required open ocean navigation.
On April 18, 1942, Doolittle led 16 B-25 bombers from the USS Hornet to attack Japan. The U.S. Navy risked two of four Pacific fleet aircraft carriers and 10,000 sailors. The Japanese six-carrier task force knew the Americans had sortied to the Western Pacific and planned to attack them.
The aircraft launched 170 miles farther than planned because extending the home islands patrol line was one of Japan’s intelligence strategies. A navy officer twirled a flag, listened for the right tone from the revving engines and felt for the precise moment to release them on the pitching deck. Every plane lifted off safely into the stormy sky.
Doolittle considered the raid a failure. Every plane was lost and 11 of 80 crewmen were killed or captured. However, the Japanese Imperial Navy suffered a devastating loss of face and Americans received a critical boost in morale.
NOLAN NELSON
Redmond, Oregon
Please read our comment policy before commenting.