The Cup of Brandy No One Wants to Drink
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 4:32 PM (14 hours ago)
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On Tuesday, in Fort Walton Beach, Florida, the surviving Doolittle Raiders gathered publicly for the last time.
They once were among the most universally admired and revered men in the
United States. There were 80 of the Raiders in April 1942, when they
carried out one of the most courageous and heart-stirring military
operations in this nation's history. The mere mention of their unit's
name, in those years, would bring tears to the eyes of grateful
Americans.
Now only four survive.
After Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor, with the United States reeling and
wounded, something dramatic was needed to turn the war effort around.
Even though there were no friendly airfields close enough to Japan for
the United States to launch retaliation, a daring plan was devised.
Sixteen B-25s were modified so that they could take off from the deck of
an aircraft carrier. This had never been tried before -- sending big,
heavy bombers from a carrier.
The 16 five-man crews, under the command of Lt. Col. James Doolittle,
who himself flew the lead plane off the USS Hornet, knew that they would
not be able to return to the carrier. They would have to hit Japan and
then hope to make it to China for a safe landing.
But on the day of the raid, the Japanese navy caught sight of the
carrier. The Raiders were told that they would have to take off from
much farther out in the Pacific than they had counted on. They were told
that because of this they would not have enough fuel to make it to
safety.
And those men went anyway.
They bombed Tokyo, and then flew as far as they could. Four planes
crash-landed; 11 more crews bailed out, and three of the Raiders died.
Eight more were captured; three were executed. Another died of
starvation in a Japanese prison camp. One crew made it to Russia.
The Doolittle Raid sent a message from the United States to its enemies, and to the rest of the world:
We will fight. And, no matter what it takes, we will win.
Of the 80 Raiders, 62 survived the war. They were celebrated as national
heroes, models of bravery. Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer produced a motion
picture based on the raid; "Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo," starring Spencer
Tracy and Van Johnson, was a patriotic and emotional box-office hit,
and the phrase became part of the national lexicon. In the movie-theater
previews for the film, MGM proclaimed that it was presenting the story
"with supreme pride."
Beginning in 1946, the surviving Raiders have held a reunion each April,
to commemorate the mission. The reunion is in a different city each
year. In 1959, the city of Tucson, Arizona, as a gesture of respect and
gratitude, presented the Doolittle Raiders with a set of 80 silver
goblets. Each goblet was engraved with the name of a Raider.
Every year, a wooden display case bearing all 80 goblets is transported
to the reunion city. Each time a Raider passes away, his goblet is
turned upside down in the case at the next reunion, as his old friends
bear solemn witness.
Also in the wooden case is a bottle of 1896 Hennessy Very Special
cognac. The year is not happenstance: 1896 was when Jimmy Doolittle was
born.
There has always been a plan: When there are only two surviving Raiders,
they would open the bottle, at last drink from it, and toast their
comrades who preceded them in death.
As 2013 began, there were five living Raiders; then, in February, Tom
Griffin passed away at age 96. What a man he was. After bailing out of
his plane over a mountainous Chinese forest after the Tokyo raid, he
became ill with malaria, and almost died. When he recovered, he was sent
to Europe to fly more combat missions. He was shot down, captured, and
spent 22 months in a German prisoner of war camp.
The selflessness of these men ... there was a passage in the Cincinnati
Enquirer obituary for Mr. Griffin that, on the surface, had nothing to
do with the war, but that captures the depth of his sense of duty and
devotion:
"When his wife became ill and needed to go into a nursing home, he
visited her every day. He walked from his house to the nursing home, fed
his wife and at the end of the day brought home her clothes. At night,
he washed and ironed her clothes. Then he walked them up to her room the
next morning. He did that for three years until her death in 2005."
So now, out of the original 80, only four Raiders remain: Dick Cole
(Doolittle's co-pilot on the Tokyo raid), Robert Hite, Edward Saylor and
David Thatcher. All are in their 90s. They have decided that there are
too few of them for the public reunions to continue.
The events in Fort Walton Beach this week will mark the end. It has come
full circle; Florida's nearby Eglin Field was where the Raiders trained
in secrecy for the Tokyo mission.
The town is planning to do all it can to honor the men: a six-day
celebration of their valor, including luncheons, a dinner and a parade.
Do the men ever wonder if those of us for whom they helped save the
country have tended to it in a way that is worthy of their sacrifice?
They don't talk about that, at least not around other people. But if you
find yourself near Fort Walton Beach this week, and if you should
encounter any of the Raiders, you might want to offer them a word of
thanks. I can tell you from firsthand observation that they appreciate
hearing that they are remembered.
The men have decided that after this final public reunion they will wait
until a later date -- sometime this year -- to get together once more,
informally and in absolute privacy. That is when they will open the
bottle of brandy.
The years are flowing by too swiftly now; they are not going to wait
until there are only two of them. They will fill the four remaining
upturned goblets…
And raise them in a toast to those who are gone.
We need to remember who America is and be proud!
We ARE exceptional!
