Doolittle Raid

self | April 18, 2013 | self

[Retain Mike]

Each year on the anniversary I post this because I believe it was such an audacious decision and exampled many of those made in that war. This year I sent it to Paul Greenberg who said, “There were giants in the earth in those days.”

This year I am reminded of Leon Panetta discussing Bengasi and saying, “The basic principle is that you don’t deploy forces into harm’s way without knowing what’s going on, without having some real-time information about what’s taking place.” I think Von Moltke first said and others have repeated as there principle, “No plan ever survived collision with the enemy. “ We are now lead by small, pathetic creatures hardly recognizable as humans.

Every year I also seem to get one or two comments that help me to tweet the write up.

[Theoria]

Yeah, I was getting reading to post this: Surviving Doolittle Raiders To Hold Their Last Meeting

But, I'll just leave it in your thread.

[JRandomFreeper]

Great big clanking brass ones. Doolittle had them.

I aspire to be that cool.

/johnny

[trubolotta]

Excellent post! I watched “Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo” two nights ago and you can't help but get that swelling of pride but depressing realization that we had real leadership at one time. I'll watch “Destination Tokyo” later this week though it is largely a fictional tale but nonetheless entertaining.

[llevrok]

So many great, daring raids and acts of courage and bravery during WW2. In my mind, the Doolitle Raid stands as perhaps the most definitive of the then American spirit. The words “can’t be done” were not in our national vocabulary.

The valor and personal sacrifice of Doolittle and every single crew member stand as a benchmark we Americans need to aspire again.

Thanks for posting, Mike. Lest we never forget!

[Slump Tester]

There was also the matter of some idiot at an airbase who took it on himself to re-set all the carbs at the last minute before the planes were put on the boat. They had been painstakingly tweaked to get every last mile out of their fuel, and there was no time left to undo the damage.

I always though history should have noted the guy's name so he could be known as a meddling asshole the rest of his life. How many of the planes that ran dry might have made it, or reached a safer haven if not for this guy?

[Chainmail]

It's also possible that it was a couple of hard-charging mechs who put in extra time to help out some crews that had just completely a tough cross-country flight. Obviously, the mechanic or mechanics had no idea what mission they were going on or that the carbs had been tweaked deliberately.

Never ascribe untoward actions to malice when key people don't know the full picture.

[onedoug]

Heading west on a following wind....

Thanks guys.

[onedoug]

Heading west on a following wind....

Thanks guys.

[capt B]

Tony Curtis(actor) was 18 when he saw “Destination Tokyo” which prompted him to join the Navy and the “sub service”

[capt B]

Tony Curtis(actor) was 18 when he saw “Destination Tokyo” which prompted him to join the Navy and the “sub service”

[yarddog]

One minor correction to the article.

They did not train at Pensacola but at field 2 which was a remote airstrip at Eglin. They did have an officer from nearby Pensacola train them in short takeoffs.

They are going to have a reunion at Ft. Walton Beach sometime this year. This may well be the final one.

[A.A. Cunningham]

Desires to bolster moral(sic)

morale

discussing Bengasi(sic)

Benghazi

tweet(sic) the write up.

tweak

[353FMG]

Yup, the greatest American generation was also the last.

I too like to watch old WWII footage just to remind me that, when I was a kid, my parents and I belonged to that generation.

Press 2 for English.

[rlmorel]

God Bless those men.

[X-spurt]

Didn’t appear Slump was accusing the meddler of malice, just boneheaded stupidity.

There never fails to be one of this same type meddler “who knows best” in every crowd or at every plant, every shop. Proves that a little information is dangerous.

[Slump Tester]

It wasn't a "key" person who screwed up. It was the base commander at McClellan Field in Sacramento. He was a know-it-all, pompous ass who had nothing at all to do with the mission. He was pissed off about the secrecy and not being in the loop. He found out about all the tweaks that had been done and took it on himself to have everything put back to where the book said it should be, by God!

Unfortunately he wasn't the last REMF to get people killed.

[Homer_J_Simpson]

The N.Y. Times ran some stories on the one-year anniversary of the raid. We included some of them in the WWII + 70 Years threads, beginning with today's April 18, 1943 thread. The articles are on page 10. In the April 22 issue they broke the story that some of the captured Doolittle raiders had been executed. That will be our lead next Monday.

[Slump Tester]

Yep - There's a difference between malice and stupidity, but both can be deadly.

I believe I read that about the tweaks and fine tuning being messed up in "First Heroes" by Craig Nelson.

BTW - I just found it used in hardback on Amazon for 1 cent! (3.99 shipping) This time I'm not gonna loan it out!

[calex59]

There was an article several days ago about the last surviving member of the raid. Only one left.Those were men in those days, by God.