Doolittle’s Raiders: Florida’s connection to Pearl Harbor
As our country observed the 80th anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor this week, it’s easy to lose sight the ferocity of the bombing, the terror we felt as a nation as well as the military status of our country during that fateful time.
Just coming out of World War I, also known as “The war to end all wars,” the citizens of the United States were vehemently against entering into another foreign war. In fact, the U.S. army was smaller than the army in Portugal in the lead up to the war and was ranked 17th in the world.
The surprise attack on American military installations in the Pacific and specifically on United States soil in Pearl Harbor, ended America’s isolation on December 7, 1941.
We’re just learning the important role Florida played during this pivotal war, including German U-boats off the Florida coastlines, the military significance of Florida to Hitler’s Germany as well as the establishment of more than 170 military installations in the state as a response to the war. Major bases like Camp Blanding, Camp Gordon Johnston and the naval air stations at Pensacola and Jacksonville were built during this time.
One significant Florida connection to the response on the attack on Pearl Harbor was Doolittle’s Raiders, the heroic crew who trained at Eglin Air Base in Florida and launched the first counterattack on the Japanese in retaliation for Pearl Harbor. Eglin is located on the Gulf coast, between Pensacola and Panama City.
President Roosevelt took great pride in the United States Navy, having once served as the assistant secretary of the Navy during World War I under President Wilson. Considering himself a “Navy man,” the attack on Pearl Harbor was particularly painful for Roosevelt and he demanded action. The result was a United States raid on the enemy capital.
On April 18, 1942, 80 Americans and 16 B-25 bombers carried out the first retaliatory attack on the Japanese islands following Pearl Harbor.
The assignment was given to Col.Jimmy Doolittle, an aircraft pioneer who was one of the nation’s preeminent flyers in the 1930s. Doolittle was given the task to select and train sixteen crews to fly land-based B-25s off the deck of an aircraft carrier. Today that might be an ordinary feat, but in 1932, this was a first in aviation history.
The brave crew which initially assembled at Columbia Army Air Base for the secret mission, soon moved to Eglin Air Base in Florida for six weeks of intensive instruction and flight training.
Once the crews arrived at Eglin, they received concentrated training in simulated carrier deck takeoffs, low-level and night flying, low-altitude bombing, and over-water navigation, operating primarily out of Eglin Auxiliary Field 1, a more secluded site.
Lt. Henry L. Miller, a U.S. Navy flight instructor from the nearby Naval Air Station Pensacola, supervised the training and accompanied the crews to the launch. For his efforts, Miller is considered an honorary member of the raider group.
On March 25, 1941, Doolittle’s Raiders took off from Eglin for McClellan Field, California. On April 1 the Raiders and their planes left the West Coast aboard the carrier “Hornet.” Seventeen days later they began their mission as they flew off the carrier deck to strike back at Japan.
The strike was deemed a success. Most of the Raiders made it to the mainland but ran out of fuel before they could land, forcing them to bail out or crash with their aircraft. Three died and eight were captured, three were executed. The other five were sentenced to life imprisonment and the rest made it back despite some close calls with Japanese military.
While the raid had no significant strategic value, the tremendous moral boost it gave our nation during this tragic time was invaluable. Despite the minimal damage, American moral which was reeling after the Pearl Harbor attack, soared when news of the raid was released.
After the war, the remaining Raiders held an annual reunion from the late 1940s to 2013. The high point of each reunion was a solemn and private ceremony in which the surviving Raiders performed a roll call, then toasted their fellow Raiders who had died during the previous year. The final reunion was held in 2013 at Fort Walton Beach, Fla., not far from Eglin Air Force Base where they trained for their mission.
