Class was in session at the April 23 Isle of Palms Chamber of Commerce meeting featuring historian Dave Schuler, who regaled club members with the heroics of World War II military members following the 1941 bombing of Pearl Harbor.
In the Unites States’ first retaliatory action in response to the Japanese incursion, a group 80 crewmembers, known as the Doolittle Raiders, flew into the Land of the Rising Sun on April 18, 1942 and bombed the cities of Tokyo, Yokohama, Nagoya and Osaka.
Spearheaded by “Master of the Calculated Risk” U.S. Army Lt. Col. Jimmy Doolittle, the raid saw seven US airmen perish during the military “suicide mission” and 13 others later succumb to the ravages of war.
The Americans would continue flying into China in the aftermath of the invasion, which killed 50 people on the ground and injured 400. The revenge strategy was viewed as a morale booster for the US, according to Schuler, a graduate of The Citadel.
Doolittle who served in the US Army — and later the U.S. Air Force at the end of his service — in both World War I and World War II would go on to receive a Medal of Honor for his leadership and bravery.
The last Doolittle Raider to die was Lt. Col. Richard Cole, who passed on April 19, 2019 at Brooke Medical Center in San Antonio, Texas at 103 years old.
Visit https://www.afhistory.af.mil/FAQs/Fact-Sheets/Article/458984/1942-doolittles-raid/ for more information on the Doolittle Raiders.
