Beyond "Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo" Jimmy Doolittle - Warrior, Scholar, Patriot

Beyond

“Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo”

JIMMY DOOLITTLE – WARRIOR, SCHOLAR, PATRIOT

By Katie Lange Public Affairs Specialist, U.S. Department of Defense

Most people know the name Jimmy Doolittle for his famous World War II raid on Tokyo that earned him the Medal of Honor, but the Army Air Force general was highly respected long before that. Doolittle set air racing records in the 1920s and was a revered aeronautical innovator throughout his life. His work and leadership led to many of the air and space technologies the world still uses today.

The DH-4 Liberty single-engine biplane was the only U.S.-built aircraft used in World War I. James Harold Doolittle was born near San Francisco on Dec. 14, 1896. When he was still an infant, his father, Frank, moved to Nome, Alaska, to try to capitalize on the gold rush there. Two years later, he and his mother, Rosa, moved to the frontier to join him.

A COMPETITOR FROM THE START

Doolittle likely honed his sense of competitiveness and adventure in the wilderness. He was a small boy, so he grew up scrappy and got into fights often to defend himself from bullies. The agility he learned from those fights made him a good gymnast, too.

Beyond

“Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo”

JIMMY DOOLITTLE – WARRIOR, SCHOLAR, PATRIOT

Doolittle and his mother moved to Los Angeles in 1908, where he continued to show off his fighting skills as a young professional -- even becoming an amateur boxing champion in 1912 at the age of 16. However, according to author James M. Scott in his book Target Tokyo, “he was a hothead outside the ring as well, landing in jail one Saturday night for disturbing the peace. His mother, never a fan of boxing, had enough and told police to keep him there until Monday.” Even after his mother “tried to bribe him with a motorcycle to quit boxing, the crafty teen adopted the pseudonym Jim Pierce and used his new bike to motor up and down the West Coast.”

After graduating high school in 1914, Doolittle moved back to Alaska to be with his father, but the change was short-lived. He was penniless within a year, so he made the return trip to L.A. as a stowaway on a transport ship. He enrolled at L.A. Junior College (current-day L.A. City College) before transferring to the g

University of California, Berkley, where he spent three years studying to be a mining engineer. While in college, he continued to box until he met his match. In a letter to his wife after his son lost a college match, Doolittle wrote, “Sometime in life we have to learn how to lose and the sooner the better. Every boy should learn how to win graciously and lose courageously.”

By now, World War I was raging in Europe, and Doolittle wanted to be part of the action. He left college in October 1917 during his senior year to enlist as a flying cadet in the Army Reserve. Two months later, he married his high school sweetheart, Josephine Daniels.

On March 11, 1918, Doolittle was commissioned as a second lieutenant into the Signal Corps’ Aviation Section; however, the war ended before he had a chance to fly in action. According to Scott, Doolittle sat out World War I, “bouncing around various posts before landing as an aviation instructor near San Diego. ‘I was pretty upset,’ Doolittle later recalled. ‘My students were going overseas and becoming heroes. My job was to make more heroes.’”

In July 1920, Doolittle received his regular commission while he continued to take mechanical and aeronautical engineering courses to be a test pilot. In his early days of flying, he pulled some reckless stunts – including walking on the wings of aircrafts while in flight -- that got him grounded a few times. But he eventually settled down and quickly became an accomplished pilot thanks to the tireless practice he put into honing his skills.

His first major feat: In September 1922, he completed the first cross-country flight in a DH-4 Liberty, the only U.S.-built aircraft used in World War I. Doolittle took off from Pablo Beach, Florida, and used his crude navigational instruments to make it to San Diego in 21 hours and 19 minutes with only one refueling stop. The triumph earned him the Distinguished Flying Cross.

That same year, the young pilot received his degree from UC Berkley. In the fall of 1923, he enrolled at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology under a special program to study advanced aeronautical engineering -- the first such course in the country. Doolittle earned a Master of Science degree from MIT in 1924, then became one of the first to also earn a doctorate in aeronautical engineering from the renowned institution. According to MIT, “there were not 100 men in the world who held comparable advanced degrees.”

Over the next 15 years, Doolittle accomplished many more pioneering feats that made him a celebrity of his time:

• He trained with the Navy to fly high-speed seaplanes to set air records. In 1925, in a propeller plane equipped with pontoons, he set a record for the fastest seaplane ever flown, racing it at an average speed of 232 miles per hour.

• Doolittle became the first person to perform a maneuver called the “outside loop,” which many aeronautical engineers at the time thought was impossible. It required diving, bottoming out upside-down, then climbing back up to complete the loop.

• In 1926, while performing demonstration flights in South

America, Doolittle broke both of his ankles but continued to perform tricky maneuvers in casts. The decision caused injuries that required him to visit Walter Reed National

Military Medical Center for treatment when he returned.

• In 1928, Doolittle helped develop the artificial horizontal and directional gyroscopes that are now used almost universally. In September 1929, he used them to complete the first “blind” takeoff, flight, and landing.

• In 1930, he left active duty (but remained a reservist) so he could manage the aviation department at Shell Oil

Company, where he oversaw aviation tests. Doolittle led the push for high octane fuel, which later was credited for helping British pilots defeat the Germans in the Battle of

Britain.

• In 1932, he set the world’s high-speed record for racer airplanes on land going 296 MPH.

• In 1935, Doolittle was transferred to the Air Corps Reserve.

He became president of the Institute of Aeronautical

Science in 1940.

WORLD WAR II, PLOTTING REVENGE

By July 1940, war was raging in Europe again, and it seemed imminent that America would join the fight. In fact, Doolittle visited Germany and warned Army leaders of the coming conflict. Doolittle went back on active duty, having told Army Gen. Henry “Hap” Arnold “I am entirely and immediately at the disposal of the Air Corps for whatever use they care to make of me. The only suggestion that I would like to make is to recommend that I be given such duties as will best take advantage of my particular experience, associations and abilities.” He continued working with auto manufacturers to convert their plants to produce airplanes that might be needed for war.

Less than a month after the Dec. 7, 1941, attacks, Doolittle was promoted to lieutenant colonel. Planning for an attack on Japan began immediately after Pearl Harbor. Navy Capt. Francis Low first presented the idea of a carrier attack using Army aircraft to Navy Adm. Ernest King, Chief of Naval Operations. King ordered, “Go see General Arnold about it, and if he agrees with you, ask him to get in touch with me.” Arnold did! As author Scott found, “Arnold enthusiastically embraced the concept, but wanted to run it by his staff troubleshooter – Lieutenant Colonel Jimmy Doolittle…if anyone could evaluate this plan’s chance of success, Doolittle could.” With that, Gen. Arnold selected Doolittle to lead the planning of the first aerial raid on the Japanese mainland -- retaliation for Pearl Harbor.

It was a risky operation from the onset. B-25 Mitchell bombers were the only available aircraft that could meet the mission’s extensive criteria. But they would need to fly off a naval carrier with only 500 feet of takeoff space, something a fully loaded B-25 had never managed before. Furthermore, sending several Navy ships within a few hundred miles of the mainland was required for the planes to reach their destinations, and that was a dangerous move.

In preparation, 80 volunteers from the Army Air Force’s 17th Bombardment Group underwent intense training to fly across country, perform short takeoffs, fly at night and practice lowlevel bombings and aerial gunnery. Norden bombsights used for navigation were replaced with improvised models so the Norden devices wouldn’t fall into enemy hands. Pilots also learned to navigate without radio references or landmarks.

Doolittle volunteered to lead the attack. The plan was to take off from approximately 400 to 650 miles off the coast to bomb Tokyo and a few other enemy oil storage facilities, military bases and industrial areas. The bombers would then fly another 1,600 miles to friendly airfields in China to be picked up by Allied forces (officials determined landing back on an aircraft carrier was too difficult at the time.)

However, not everything went as planned.

THE RAID & ITS AFTER-EFFECTS

On April 18, 1942, 16 B-25 bombers took off from the aircraft carrier USS Hornet, but they did so from more than 800 miles out – some 200 miles further than planned -- after encountering an enemy patrol boat that could have given away their position.

After dropping their bombs, the 16 aircrews quickly realized that they weren’t going to make it to their Chinese destinations. All but one ditched their planes at sea, bailed out or crash-landed in Japanese-occupied China. The remaining B-25 diverted to Vladivostok, Russia, despite being told not to do so.

Doolittle bailed out and landed in a rice paddy near Chu Chow, China. He was fortunately retrieved by friendly forces, but that wasn’t the case for all the men on the mission. According to the Air Force, three died during the landings. The five men who landed in g