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I had not known of this fascinating tidbit of US History. Thanks for the wonderful read.

Check the Bump List folders for articles related to and descriptions of the above topic(s) or for other topics of interest.

btt for later reading

Doolittle and his men had Balls.

They planned to ditch their planes and swim back if needed.

The 25 knot winds and the speed of the carrier really saved them. Without the combination of those two things, they wouldn't have made it off the deck.

USS HORNET (CV12)

Photo by: Shirley SachsenClass: Essex Aircraft Carrier
Launched: August 30, 1943
At: Newport News Shipbuilding Co., Newport News, Virginia
Commissioned: November 29, 1943
Modernized and re-Commissioned: September 11, 1953 at Brooklyn Navy Yard, Flushing, New York.
Length: 894 feet
Beam: 101 ft. at waterline, 192 ft. at angled deck
Draft: 30 ft.
Displacement: 41,200 tons fully loaded
Armament: WW II: 90 aircraft, 12 5"/38 cal, reduced postwar to 4 5"/38 cal., 8 3"/50 cal., 40 mm and 55 20 mm guns

Address:
Aircraft Carrier Hornet Museum
P.O. Box 460
Pier 3, Alameda Point
Alameda, CA 94501
(510) 521-8448
Fax (510) 521-8327
Email: info@uss-hornet.org
Email (for overnight encampments): tours@uss-hornet.org
http://www.uss-hornet.org

The veteran Essex-class carrier USS Hornet (CV-12, CVA-12, CVS-12) is the eighth and most distinguished namesake in a long line of U.S. Navy warships with proud naval histories, beginning with the first Hornet in 1775. Second Hornet took the Marines "to the shores of Tripoli" in 1805. Third Hornet, under the legendary Captain Lawrence, sank the British warships Peacock and Penguin in the War of 1812. Seventh Hornet (CV-8) took the Doolittle Raiders to Tokyo, helped with the Battle of Midway, and was sunk in October 1942, defending Guadalcanal in the Battle of Santa Cruz.

The eighth Hornet (CV-12) had an extraordinary combat record in WW II, engaging the enemy in the Pacific in March 1944, just 21 months after the laying of her keel and the shortest shakedown cruise in Navy history (2 weeks). For eighteen months, she never touched land. She was constantly in the most forward areas of the Pacific war - sometimes within 40 miles of the Japanese home islands. Her pilots destroyed 1,410 enemy aircraft and over one million tons of enemy shipping. Her planes stopped the Japanese super-battleship Yamato and played the major part in sinking her. She launched the first strikes in the liberation of the Philippines, and in Feb. 1945, the first strikes on Japan since the Doolittle raid in 1942. The "Grey Ghost" participated in virtually all of the assault landings in the Pacific from March 1944 until the end of WW II, earning 9 battle stars and the Presidential Unit citation. In 1969, Hornet recovered the Apollo 11 space capsule containing astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin - the first men who walked on the moon - and Michael Collins. A short time later, she recovered Apollo 12 with the all-Navy crew of "moon walkers". The F/A 18 fighter plane is named after this distinguished ship.

USS Hornet is a National Historic Landmark and a State Historical Landmark. The ship is located on the east side of San Francisco Bay. A "Living Ship" demonstration is presented on the first Saturday of each month.

Return to the HNSA Guide.

Here's a poem I wrote about the raid last night:

Jimmy Doo Much

History trended against US from Pearl
even as record Old Glories would unfurl.
It was up to the U.S. Army Air Corps
to shift the balance of power and war.

It was Sixty great years ago today
an air raid was fought near Tokyo Bay.
Sixteen B-25’s soared through the skies:
the mission’s secret was kept under lie.

The bombing raid was determined to fail
and be recorded a terrible tale.
Yet, victory is known to the reader
for the mission had picked the right leader.

U.S. planes came so fast as bombs hit low.
The enemy’s fate blew out their window.
What was (four months) a war we all thought lost
became one won (albeit) at great cost.

And, as our foe Japan became aflame
the Irony truly was in a name:
"Jimmy Doolittle." The Colonel met Fate.
Jimmy did a lot. The Colonel was great!

Jimmy Doolittle, I know where you are.
You’re above us in the skies as a star.
So, I raise my glass filled past a Zero
to a great American Air Hero!

Thank You, Jimmy Doolittle and All Vets, for Defending My Freedom!

Thanks for the ping, Coteblanche.

>This bombing of Tokyo and other industrial cities in the Japanese homeland was a great "Morale Boosting" action for the American public, as a retaliation for the sneak attack at Pearl Harbor.

In some ways -- from an Arab perspective -- the Dolittle Raid can be seen as a prototype of the 911/WTC attacks. The Arabs -- and third worlders in general -- always see themselves as under real or covert attacks from Western economic/cultural interests. They say they feel provoked. The 911/WTC attack, while accomplishing little or nothing of strategic importance and killing civilians, served as a "morale boost" for the disenfranchise all around the world. (Of course, we were at war with the Japanese at the time. However, any number of terrorist groups, especially Arab groups, have openly declared "war" against the "Great Satan" in the press, so they can say they were just conducting a campaign...)

Killing vast numbers of civilians for a morale boost is a pretty disgusting way to run a war. Sorry, I know a lot of people disagree about this, but whether it's bin Laden (or whomever) committing 9/11 to boost their morale, or the Doolittle Raid to boost our morale, it's just not a type of fighting I'd ever engage in or vote for. (Not to mention that what goes around comes around. We did it to Japan, now the Arabs it seems have done it to us...)

Mark W.

The evangelical priest who helped Doolittle escape into free China was John Birch. Birch was subsequently tortured and executed by the ChiComs. An organization, The John Birch Society, bears his name.