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| -Obits- |
| Bill Bower dies; Doolittle Raider was last surviving pilot |
| 2011-01-15 |
| Bill Bower, the last surviving bomber pilot of the audacious Doolittle Raid, a morale-boosting strike against the Japanese months after the attack on Pearl Harbor, died Jan. 10 at his home in Boulder, Colo. He was 93. As a 25-year-old first lieutenant, Col. Bower commanded one of the 16 Army Air Forces' B-25s in the top-secret mission under the direction of then-Lt. Col. James H. Doolittle. Col. Bower and the 79 other men who participated in the bombing run came to be known as the Doolittle Raiders. On April 18, 1942, the Doolittle Raiders carried out a daring bombing run over Tokyo and the surrounding area. Although the bombing run had resulted in minimal damage, the Doolittle Raiders returned to the United States as heroes, hailed as having delivered a symbolic blow to the Axis powers early in the war. For his integral role, Col. Bower received the Distinguished Flying Cross. When Doolittle died in 1993, Col. Bower was picked to play "Taps" at the funeral in Arlington. Col. Bower managed to play a few notes before he was overcome with emotion and passed the bugle on to Doolittle's great-grandson. |
| Posted by:Beavis |
| #8 Doolittle was born in 1896. The Last Doolittle raider died Jan 10, 2011. A life span some of the 80 men of 115 years. Others died shortly after the raid in other battles during WWII. One of the Japanese who held a few captured raiders became a Christian Missionary. The Japanese killed 250,000 Chinese civilians looking for these men. Immediately after the raid when Doolittle realized his planes were all lost thought he would be court marshalled. Instead he recieved the Medal of Honor. |
| Posted by: Gleash Bourbon7710 2011-01-15 21:33 |
| #7 So, thinking about pilots in a BOMBER taking off from a carrier... The descriptions from Ted Lawson's book Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo made quite an impression on me as a child. I haven't seen the book in 35(?) years and can still remember his description of his crew yelling all at once when they first saw the Hornet, how much time they spent saying 'this will NEVER work' and how angry they were on the actual takeoff when the deck crew spent too much time (in his opinion) letting the engines warm up- wasting precious fuel. |
| Posted by: Free Radical 2011-01-15 19:37 |
| #6 The proper question is can we grow the civilians to support them on the home front? |
| Posted by: Nimble Spemble 2011-01-15 18:26 |
| #5 And Bosnia and South Korea and South America... |
| Posted by: Fire and Ice 2011-01-15 17:38 |
| #4 Can we grow them anymore? All the time. Iraq and Afghanistan proved we have ranks filled with such brave and wonderful soldiers. We'll see if the rot in the political class and the liberal areas can overcome them. |
| Posted by: DarthVader 2011-01-15 16:45 |
| #3 I remember watching Tora Tora Tora, a 1970 movie that dramatized the Pearl Harbor attack. Having grown up in an era where planes were hurled off the carrier deck by a catapult, I was amazed watching the planes waddle off the deck. I thought "Boy, those guys were brave!". So, thinking about pilots in a BOMBER taking off from a carrier, all I can say is: those guys had seriously large brass balls! And, they realized that it was likely to be a suicide mission - even if they managed to attack Japan. Again, RIP to all the heroes of the Doolittle raid. |
| Posted by: Rambler in Virginia 2011-01-15 16:32 |
| #2 Can we grow them anymore? |
| Posted by: Zebulon Threremble2404 2011-01-15 16:09 |
| #1 RIP, hero |
| Posted by: Frank G 2011-01-15 13:46 |