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 sneak 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 a 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 before been tried -- sending such bi g, 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
military caught wind of the plan. The Raiders were told that they
would have to take off from much farther out in the Pacific Ocean 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 Raiders 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.
Al so 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, the sheer
guts ... 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 was emblematic of 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 marked 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 planned 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 first hand 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. 
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