the idea during her pre-commissioning trials.
Since only sixteen of the bombers would fit on the Hornet and still allow sufficient space on the 809-foot flight deck for a 500-foot takeoff roll, Doolittle now set out to find enough five-man crews to fly the mission. That should have meant he was looking for eighty men, but the forty-five-year-old lieutenant colonel needed only seventy-nine. Doolittle had convinced his superiors that heâd have to lead the attack, not just plan it.
Â
USS Hornet . Doolittleâs Raiders launched from her deck in April 1942.
Doolittle began his search for aircrews by first asking the Army Air Corps to identify the best-trained B-25 unit. The 17th Bombardment Group, stationed at Pendleton Field, Oregon, was selected, and in early February 1942, the entire group was ordered to fly to Columbia, South Carolina, where they would be away from any possible enemy spies or collaborators. Once they arrived in South Carolina, Doolittle asked for volunteers to accompany him on a top-secret mission he described only as âdangerous.â One hundred and forty-nine men volunteered, from which he selected ninety-nine.
Doolittle divided the men into twenty five-man flight crews, and dispatched them to Eglin Field, on the Gulf Coast of Florida, where they spent most of March practicing takeoffs from a 500-foot section of runway to approximate what it would be like to launch from a carrier deck. They also practiced low-level bombing runs by flying just above the whitecaps in the Gulf of Mexico.
During this Florida âshakedownâ period, Doolittle had each B-25 retrofitted with extra 225-gallon fuel tanks in the bomb bay and in the crawlway behind the cockpit. Sixty-gallon fuel tanks replaced guns in the bottom turrets, so radios, batteries, and even the tail guns were removed. Broomsticks, painted black, were inserted in the turrets and blisters in hopes that any pursuing Japanese fighter planes would mistake them for real machine guns and think twice about getting too close. Doolittle also used this time to trim down his volunteers to the seventy-nine who would accompany him on the mission.
While the aircraft were being modified, Doolittle sent two lieutenants, Thomas Griffin and Davey Jones, to Washington, D.C., to learn all they could about the enemy from Army Air Corps intelligence. Without divulging their mission, Griffin and Jones collected maps and photographs of five different Japanese cities. Doolittle wanted American bombs to land on at least five different locations so that that the enemy propaganda machine couldnât hide the facts of the attacks from the Japanese people.
Twenty-six-year-old Dick Cole was among those who gave me their account of the mission. He was Doolittleâs copilot, and the planeâs navigator was Lieutenant Henry Potter, a twenty-two-year-old from South Dakota.
Lieutenant Bobby Hite, a farm boy from Texas, had planned to become an agricultural teacher but dropped out of college after three years and enlisted in the Army Air Corps. As a twenty-one-year-old copilot, he flew in the same B-25 as Corporal Jacob (âJakeâ) DeShazer, their bombardier.
LIEUTENANT ROBERT HITE, US ARMY
Secret Training Site
Eglin Field, Florida
15 February 1942
We didnât know at the time that we were going to Japan. Jimmy said it would be very dangerous, but he couldnât tell us more. Everybody speculated that we were going to be sent to Europe. We just really didnât have a
clue. Nobody mentioned an aircraft carrier, but the whole group volunteered anyway.
We were ready. We wanted to go with Jimmy Doolittle wherever he went. And I think, in our hearts and minds, we had the attitude âwe can do it.â
LIEUTENANT HENRY (âHANKâ) POTTER,
US ARMY
Secret Training Site
Eglin Field, Florida
15 February 1942
When we got to Columbia, South Carolina, Doolittle gathered the flight crews together in a hangar and briefed us,
Since only sixteen of the bombers would fit on the Hornet and still allow sufficient space on the 809-foot flight deck for a 500-foot takeoff roll, Doolittle now set out to find enough five-man crews to fly the mission. That should have meant he was looking for eighty men, but the forty-five-year-old lieutenant colonel needed only seventy-nine. Doolittle had convinced his superiors that heâd have to lead the attack, not just plan it.
Â
USS Hornet . Doolittleâs Raiders launched from her deck in April 1942.
Doolittle began his search for aircrews by first asking the Army Air Corps to identify the best-trained B-25 unit. The 17th Bombardment Group, stationed at Pendleton Field, Oregon, was selected, and in early February 1942, the entire group was ordered to fly to Columbia, South Carolina, where they would be away from any possible enemy spies or collaborators. Once they arrived in South Carolina, Doolittle asked for volunteers to accompany him on a top-secret mission he described only as âdangerous.â One hundred and forty-nine men volunteered, from which he selected ninety-nine.
Doolittle divided the men into twenty five-man flight crews, and dispatched them to Eglin Field, on the Gulf Coast of Florida, where they spent most of March practicing takeoffs from a 500-foot section of runway to approximate what it would be like to launch from a carrier deck. They also practiced low-level bombing runs by flying just above the whitecaps in the Gulf of Mexico.
During this Florida âshakedownâ period, Doolittle had each B-25 retrofitted with extra 225-gallon fuel tanks in the bomb bay and in the crawlway behind the cockpit. Sixty-gallon fuel tanks replaced guns in the bottom turrets, so radios, batteries, and even the tail guns were removed. Broomsticks, painted black, were inserted in the turrets and blisters in hopes that any pursuing Japanese fighter planes would mistake them for real machine guns and think twice about getting too close. Doolittle also used this time to trim down his volunteers to the seventy-nine who would accompany him on the mission.
While the aircraft were being modified, Doolittle sent two lieutenants, Thomas Griffin and Davey Jones, to Washington, D.C., to learn all they could about the enemy from Army Air Corps intelligence. Without divulging their mission, Griffin and Jones collected maps and photographs of five different Japanese cities. Doolittle wanted American bombs to land on at least five different locations so that that the enemy propaganda machine couldnât hide the facts of the attacks from the Japanese people.
Twenty-six-year-old Dick Cole was among those who gave me their account of the mission. He was Doolittleâs copilot, and the planeâs navigator was Lieutenant Henry Potter, a twenty-two-year-old from South Dakota.
Lieutenant Bobby Hite, a farm boy from Texas, had planned to become an agricultural teacher but dropped out of college after three years and enlisted in the Army Air Corps. As a twenty-one-year-old copilot, he flew in the same B-25 as Corporal Jacob (âJakeâ) DeShazer, their bombardier.
LIEUTENANT ROBERT HITE, US ARMY
Secret Training Site
Eglin Field, Florida
15 February 1942
We didnât know at the time that we were going to Japan. Jimmy said it would be very dangerous, but he couldnât tell us more. Everybody speculated that we were going to be sent to Europe. We just really didnât have a
clue. Nobody mentioned an aircraft carrier, but the whole group volunteered anyway.
We were ready. We wanted to go with Jimmy Doolittle wherever he went. And I think, in our hearts and minds, we had the attitude âwe can do it.â
LIEUTENANT HENRY (âHANKâ) POTTER,
US ARMY
Secret Training Site
Eglin Field, Florida
15 February 1942
When we got to Columbia, South Carolina, Doolittle gathered the flight crews together in a hangar and briefed us,
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