Top honor for Doolittle Raiders

Top honor for Doolittle Raiders

The Doolittle Tokyo Raiders will receive the highest civilian honor the U.S. Congress can bestow, and then present it for permanent public display.

On April 15 at 3 p.m., leaders of the U.S. House and Senate will gather at the U.S. Capitol Visitor Center’s Emancipation Hall to present a Congressional Gold Medal in recognition of the Doolittle Tokyo Raiders’ heroism and service to the United States during World War II.

House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., and House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., will take part in the bipartisan, bicameral ceremony, and National Museum of the U.S. Air Force Director Lt. Gen. John “Jack” Hudson will accept the medal on behalf of the Raiders. The event will be broadcast live at www.speaker.gov/live.

On April 18, the 73rd anniversary of the raid, the medal will be presented to the National Museum of the United States Air Force by one of the two surviving Raiders, Lt. Col. Richard “Dick” E. Cole, co-pilot of Crew No. 1, during a ceremony at the museum. The other surviving Raider, Staff Sgt. David J. Thatcher, engineer-gunner of Crew No. 7, is also planning to attend.

Although tickets for the ceremony are no longer available, the event will be broadcast live at 6 p.m. at www.af.mil/live.aspx or at www.nationalmuseum.af.mil.

Following the ceremony, the medal will be on permanent display at the museum as part of the Doolittle Tokyo Raiders diorama that features a North American B-25 on the simulated deck of the USS Hornet.

Seventy-three years ago, 80 men achieved the unimaginable when they took off from an aircraft carrier on a top secret mission to bomb Japan. These men, led by Lt. Col. James H. “Jimmy” Doolittle, came to be known as the Doolittle Tokyo Raiders.