Oh foercryinoutloud, she's fully clothed!
Posted on 04/16/2007 7:26:11 AM PDT by WestTexasWend
Only 15 men from historic World War II attack are alive today.
SAN MARCOS — One April morning 65 years ago, James Doolittle launched his B-25 bomber from the seesawing deck of an aircraft carrier in the Pacific Ocean. Fifteen bombers followed in the first U.S. air raid on Japan in World War II.
Reports of the raid buoyed American morale just four months after the attack on Pearl Harbor and showed the world that Japan, which had been rapidly advancing across the Pacific, was not invincible. The story of bomber crews flying at wave-top level toward their targets, knowing their fuel would run out before they reached their landing strips in China, still resonates.
On Sunday, restored B-25s and other vintage airplanes flew into the San Marcos Municipal Airport to begin a weeklong celebration of the Doolittle Raiders and their April 18, 1942, attack.
Only 15 of Doolittle's 80 men are alive today, and none attended the San Marcos event. The survivors, now 84 to 93 years old, will gather in the San Antonio area this week for five days of speeches and other events. Three of the raiders died ditching their bombers after the attack, and four died in Japanese custody. Doolittle himself died in 1993 after a successful career in the military and with Shell Oil Co.
On the San Marcos tarmac Sunday, Ken Udcoff, a retired airline pilot from Dallas, gave tours of a B-25 whose side sported a painting of a blonde wearing cowboy boots and little else.
Udcoff crawled through a shoulder-width tunnel leading to the bomber's clear nose cone. Today it's the best seat in the plane for a midday flight from Georgetown to San Marcos — a far cry, he said, from the terrifying perch it must have been during the war.
Former San Marcos resident Alvin Heath, 83, was six months away from enlisting in the Marines when he heard reports of the Doolittle Raid, he said.
Later, Heath flew training missions in preparation for an invasion of Japan that never came.
The cockpits were always too hot or too cold, and the roar of propellers and pistons firing louder than a pistol made conversation impossible, Heath said.
"We were fearless," he said of his crewmates. "Or too dumb to know better."
Eleven-year-old Dakota Burkland and his family spent Sunday afternoon exploring the vintage airplanes and World War II memorabilia on display. Dakota, who wants to be a pilot, pored over photographs of the Doolittle Raiders and accounts of their exploits.
"I hope I don't have to do that," he said.
On the tarmac, a restored B-25 that military buffs rescued from a career as a crop-duster made an emergency landing moments after taking off, possibly because of a fire in one of its engines, pilots said.
The old bomber sat seething on the runway, waiting for repairs to make one more sortie in honor of the Doolittle Raiders.
Real heroes, all.
Today, they would be accused of inciting violence against the US, and that the war would go away if only we left Japan alone.
They were offering flights here in Austin weekend before last.
Great story. A shame they did not include any photos of the B-25s in the article.
They were “the greatest generation”....
I was there for the parade held for the Raiders’ 60th anniversary, in Columbia, SC. In addition to seeing most of the surviving Raiders and all the other normal parade stuff, the highlight was a flyover by ten B-25s right over downtown Columbia.
None of those 80 men expected to come back from that flight, because they had to launch hours earlier than expected, hundreds of miles further away than planned, and into a 20-knot headwind. Doolittle said that any man that wanted to could back out, no questions asked. None did.
Heroes, one and all.
}:-)4
Was at the NAS Corpus Christi Air Show on Saturday and they had one B-25 there.
Wish had known about the San Marcos deal on Sunday!! For a kid that read 30 Seconds til the pages wore out it would have been very nice indeed to go see these great old warbirds.
Oh foercryinoutloud, she's fully clothed!
Today’s media would have condemned the attack arguing that it only escalated the crisis with Japan.
What an audacious mission that was! An action like that in modern times would be condemned by the MSM as a war crime no doubt. God Bless Doolittle and his Raiders.
A great old bird. I’m proud to have flown it even though it was then at the end of its active career. (1954)
In the very late 1980’s, a group of people somehow tracked down the legal owner of an apparently abandoned B-25 at an airport nearby. It also had engine failure, but was able to land without additional damage. Rather than fixed, it was parked. I don’t know when that happened, but I first saw in in the 1960’s and it had been there a long time then.
Anyway, they spent about a month replacing both engines and getting it ready to fly out. On the day it was scheduled to fly, my wife and I, along with our 2 or 3 year old son went to watch it. There were a lot of other people there. They got it started, then taxied to the end of a short grass runway (only about 2,000ft long) and spend quite a long time there (I bet they had a LOT of checking to do). Then they advanced the throttles. The nosewheel came up quickly and they were airborne by half the runway. Just as it came even with my son and I (he was on my shoulders), the full noise from two radial engines only 75 feet away could be heard. Then it was gone.
The airplace climbed and circled the airport for another 15-20 minutes before flying to a nearby, but larger airport for any additional work needed and fueling. The next day, they left for the west coast.
The B 25 had a crew of six,two pilots, navigator/bombardier, turret gunner/engineer, radio operator/waist gunner, tail gunner
It carried a total bomb load of 6,000 pounds.
Another aircraft of similar size, the F 15E, has a crew of 2 and carries a mixed bomb load (24,000lbs)up to and including the B61 TacNuke (340KT).
Oh, and the F15 is a little faster.
But doesn't do too well on the unassisted carrier launches :)
Certainly not off of a Yorktown class carrier...
she’s... 
fully clothed!
Well, not... 
always!
For the uncensored view, go HERE!
Made up those Texas Rose wings for a B-17 reunion a few years ago...
That’s Anna Nicole’s grandma, isn’t it?
< };^)
Fortunately he didn't have to live to see Alec Baldwin portray him in that god-awful "Pearl Harbor" movie.
Gadzooks... 
Nice to see you put on the dunce cap so I would not have to...
But to be on the safe side...
Go...
to your corner!
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