the editor talks with you

Dick Cole and his family were no strangers to Lexington County. They came often for Doolittle Raider reunions. In case you are too young to remember this story, here’s a Cliff Notes version. On Dec. 7, 1941, 353 Japanese planes attacked our military bases at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii. The attack left 2,403 Americans dead and 1,178 others wounded. World War I ace Jimmy Doolitle convinced President Roosevelt and his cabinet to launch a retaliatory raid on Japan. It was an outlandish idea. Doolittle’crews would fly 16 B-25s off the USS Hornet’s 500-foot deck as close to Japan as the aircraft carrier could get them. B-25s need thousands of feet of runway for takeoff. Jimmy Doolittle believed they could do it and he volunteered to lead the mission with Dick Cole as his co-pilot.

Cole learned of Doolittle’s outlandish idea from a bulletin-board notice. “Wanted: Volunteers for Dangerous Mission.” He signed up as did all of the other volunteers. They had no idea what they were agreeing to do, but they signed up. When you’re young, everything seems possible – even the impossible. The volunteers endured weeks of training for a mystery mission they knew not where in B-25s stripped of weight. Even the tail guns had been replaced by broomsticks. On board the Hornet, they finally learned their objective, wrote Laura Hillenbrand, author of “Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience and Redemption.” A day early, Japanese sailors spotted the task force and they had to launch 200 miles farther from Japan in a Pacific storm. The mission was now virtually suicidal. They would not have enough fuel to reach Chinese landing fields. Doolittle told his men they could withdraw. None did.

With waves crashing on the deck, Doolittle and Cole gunned their engines, hung on the verge of stalling, then rose. One by one the others followed, barely making it into the air. It took 4 hours to reach Tokyo. Flying through heavy flak, they dropped incendiaries to light the way for others. With fuel running out as they reached China, Doolittle ordered his crew to bail out. Cole stood over the open hatch gripping his parachute cord and looking down into 9,000 feet of darkness. He was terrified but leaped. He yanked the cord so hard he punched himself in the face. You don’t get a Purple Heart for that. Deep in Japanese-held territory, he skirted roads, until he saw a Nationalist Chinese flag. There he found Doolittle. Afer a harrowing 10-day escape by bus, boat and horse, they reached Chungking.

The bombing did little damage. But the raid shocked Japan, led the US into the war and our eventual victory in the Pacific. At their reunions here, the survivors drank toasts to those who died the year before. It had to be painful to see your buddies disappear one by one. Dick Cole, age 103, the last of those daring young men, went to join them April 9, closing a chapter in our nation’s history.

Are you a maverick?

Get your life off to an exciting start with our new “Maverick Entrepreneurs’ Million Dollar Strategies.” Inspire yourself or a friend with a personally-autographed copy for only $20. Call 359-7633.