Lt. Col. Richard E. Cole, R.I.P.

The last member of the great US Army Air Corps crews that
Colonel James Doolittle led which turned around the fortunes
of the United States' efforts in the early years of WWII,
when directly after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor
Japan won several battles on land and sea against our
forces, Lieutenant Colonel Richard E. Cole went to join
his comrades for the Great Final Reunion, having attained
the grand advanced age of 103.

As Colonel Doolittle's co-pilot, Cole was part of 16 Army
Air Corps volunteers whose mission was to fly from the
aircraft carrier USS Hornet to Tokyo and bomb Japan's
capital city, thereby striking a mighty blow against
Imperial Japan and forcing them to shift their attention
away from the Philippines and the rest of the Pacific
Theatre of War. Doolittle, Cole, and the courageous
volunteers flew 600 miles to execute their lightening raid
which had come to be known as "30 seconds over Tokyo"
(Hollywood later made a movie with that very title to
honor Doolittle and his men for their heroic feat), after
which they had to crash-land their planes in China and
do what they could to make their way to safety.

Although the raid had little significance in terms of
strategic benefit, it did much to boost the heretofore
sagging morale of both the armed forces and civilians.
From the late 1940s to 2013, Colonel Doolittle and his
brave volunteers met every year in reunion to celebrate
their feat and the U.S. victory in that war in which it was
a part; now they shall have all of eternity to reunite,
to remember, and to enjoy the most perfect peace after
enduring the a most hellish war. Rest well, gentlemen.
You shall always have the gratitude and prayers of
your fellow Americans through the years and
the generations.


MEM