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Home , Columbia Army Air Base, Doolittle Raid, Jimmy Doolittle, Wagner Field

early March 1942, 140 men from the 17th Bombardment Group, recently reassigned from Pendleton AAF, Ore., to Columbia AAB, S.C., had arrived at Eglin Field, Fla. They were there to prepare for one of the most daring and famous air missions of World War II, an air attack on Japan. The mission was to raise American morale after months of doom-and-gloom news from Photos courtesy of doolittleraider.com the war fronts. Later known as the - ers, the men would spend three weeks at Eglin Field in preparation for their famous mission against Japan. After the Japanese attack on Hawaii on Dec. 7, 1941, President Franklin D.

Roosevelt wanted to retaliate. On Dec. 21, he asked for a plan to—in the words of Lt. Gen. Henry H. “Hap” Arnold, Chief of the Army Air Forces—bring “home to Japan proper, in the form of a bombing raid, the real meaning of war.” In March 1942, the Doolittle Raiders By the end of January, Lt. Col. James H. trained in the Panhandle for their “Jimmy” Doolittle, special assistant to Arnold, and Navy Capt. Francis S. Low, historic mission. a submariner on the staff of Adm. Ernest J. King—commander in chief of the US Fleet and later Chief of Naval Opera- tions—had independently concluded that an AAF B-25 Mitchell medium bomber could take off from a Navy carrier with a 3,000-pound bomb load and hit Japan. The crews could fl y the 2,000 miles from a launch point 400 miles east of Japan, attack military targets, and safely reach bases in Chinese-held territory. After reviewing the AAF’s B-25 bomb groups, Doolittle selected the 17th Bom- bardment Group (Medium), consisting of the 34th, 37th, 95th Bombardment Squadrons and the 89th Reconnaissance

Top: Doolittle Raiders B-25s on the ramp at Eglin Field, Fla., in March 1942. Center: Raiders, including Lt. Richard Joyce (far left)—who had an accident during training when the nose gear of his aircraft collapsed after landing— spend some leisure time in the quarters at Eglin. Bottom: Mechanics work on the engine of a raider B-25. 70 AIR FORCE Magazine / April 2015 Squadron. Stationed at Pendleton in but had no accurate idea of where they crews at Field 3 to provide a ranking northeast , the group had been would be going. order, based on their performance. By conducting anti-submarine patrols off Their most important task at Eglin March 24, all of the crews could lift a the northwest US coast. On Feb. 3, the was to learn how to launch a fully loaded fully loaded B-25 off the ground with a group received orders, transferring them B-25 (31,000 pounds—aircraft, crew, speed of 55 to 60 mph with full fl aps in to . fuel, and bombs) from a standing start less than 500 feet without stalling. At the Meanwhile, Doolittle informed Lt. in less than 500 feet. Normally, a fully start of this training, the average takeoff Col. William C. Mills, the 17th BG com- loaded B-25 needed about 3,300 feet distance was 800 feet, but by the end the mander, that he had selected the unit for at sea level with zero wind to take off shortest takeoff roll was 287 feet. a hazardous mission that would require a safely. However, the B-25s that would In 1980s interviews, several raiders high degree of skill and be of great value launch from the carrier USS Hornet made comments such as, the fi elds to the US defense effort. Without provid- would have about 450 feet, the front were “away from prying eyes,” “close ing any other details, Doolittle diverted half of the carrier’s flight deck, for to Eglin,” and “out in the boondocks.” their aircraft to on the way to their takeoff since the B-25s would The remoteness of the auxiliary fi elds South Carolina, for various modifi cations. take up the rear half. and the early morning risings made it The 17th BG arrived at Columbia by From NAS Pensacola, Fla., Navy Lt. diffi cult, if not impossible, for the raiders Feb. 16, and Doolittle showed up a day Henry L. Miller, who had never seen to remember the specifi c fi elds where or two later, asking for volunteers for a B-25, much less fl own one, arrived they trained.

By Robert B. Kane a hazardous top secret mission. Since to train Doolittle’s crews on the short NOT HURLBURT the entire group volunteered, the bomb takeoffs. Little defi nitive evidence exists, but squadron commanders, Capt.Edward J. By the end of the fi rst week, the crews it appears the raiders trained at Auxil- York, Capt. Al Rutherford, and Capt. Karl began the short takeoff landing training, iary Field 1 (later ) and at Baumeister, selected 24 crews (80 men) with their day normally beginning at 7 Auxiliary Field 3 (later ).The and 60 enlisted personnel (maintainers, a.m. and often ending at 10 p.m. Early 1944 Master Plan for Eglin Field specifi - armorers, and other specialists) from the each morning, they checked their air- cally mentions Field 1 as a training fi eld. group for the “Special Project.” craft at Eglin main, and the pilots and History of the Amy Air Forces Proving By Feb. 28, the selected crews and navigators received a separate briefi ng. Ground Command, Part 3, Gunnery enlisted men had arrived at Eglin Field The pilots then told their navigators what Training 1935-1944, mentioned that the near Fort Walton. In 1942, the Eglin mili- was on the day’s schedule: short takeoff, raiders trained at Field 3. Several raiders tary reservation consisted of Eglin main, bombing, or gunnery training at one of remembered training on a fi eld north seven auxiliary fi elds, and several ranges the auxiliary fi elds or navigation training of Eglin toward Crestview—Field 3 is for bombing and gunnery training and over the Gulf of Mexico. about 15 miles north of Eglin main, ap- weapons testing in the Choctawhatchee For the short takeoff training, white proximately halfway between Valparaiso National Forest. The airfi elds in the for- lines, simulating a carrier fl ight deck, and Crestview. On March 23, an aircraft est, the absence of large cities (in early were painted onto the runways of several fl own by Lt. James Bates stalled, caus- 1942, Okaloosa County only had about auxiliary fi elds. Flags were placed at the ing the aircraft to crash just after taking 12,900 inhabitants, and the largest town, 250-foot markers and at 50-foot intervals off from Field 3. The raiders probably Crestview, north of Fort Walton, had only from 400 to 700 feet to help the crews used other auxiliary fi elds to practice 2,900 inhabitants), and the proximity of judge their takeoff distances. The pilots the short takeoffs. the Gulf of Mexico for overwater naviga- started out with a light aircraft, weighing Using photographs of the short take- tion training made Eglin Field perfect 27,000 pounds, and tested combinations offs as evidence, some believe that the for the required training. of takeoff speed, application of brakes, raiders trained at Field 4, Peel Field. During the fi rst two days of March, the fl ap positions, and throttle positions to However, those pictures are not originals crews fl ew around the Eglin reservation fi nd the right combination to achieve from March 1942 but stills from the to locate the auxiliary fi elds. Doolittle a takeoff in less than 350 feet without 1944 Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer movie arrived on March 3 and provided them stalling. “Thirty Seconds Over ” about the with a few additional details about the As this training progressed, the pilots Doolittle Raid. The history of the AAF mission and the training, specifi cally worked up to a full load and recorded the Proving Ground Command identifi es emphasizing their top secret nature. exact distance from start to takeoff, wind Peel as Field 4 where the fi lming of the By the end of the training at Eglin, the velocity, and load condition. During the movie occurred. raiders had fi gured out that they would training, Doolittle and Miller evaluated Finally, some believe the raiders be taking off from an the short takeoff performance of the 24 trained at Field 9, now . A AIR FORCE Magazine / April 2015 71 Photos courtesy of doolittleraider.com Photo courtesy of doolittleraider.org former Hurlburt Field base commander bombsight, dubbed the “Mark Twain,” at the best rate of fuel consumption in the 1950s may have started this story, from two pieces of aluminum in the for low-altitude fl ying to maximize the and several official histories and raider Eglin Field workshops. It proved to be B-25’s range. interviews have perpetuated this belief. highly accurate during the bombing During the raiders’ stopover at the After Miller retired, he mentioned that training at Eglin Field and on the raid. Sacramento Air Depot (McClellan Field), the training occurred at “an airfield Since most of the gunners had never Calif., a mechanic replaced the Bendix near the water,” possibly Santa Rosa fired the guns on the aircraft, Doolittle carburetors on York’s aircraft with regular Sound, just south of Field 9. allotted time for gunnery practice. They ones. After taking off from the Hornet on However, the story is a total myth, fired both the .50-caliber turret guns and the morning of April 18, York realized as Field 9, much less a hard-surfaced the .30-caliber nose gun on the ground that his aircraft was burning fuel at a high runway there, did not exist in March and in the air. The raiders set up targets rate, and, after bombing Tokyo, diverted 1942. at one of Eglin’s auxiliary fields for to in the . The Doolittle raiders also practiced ground firing and used sea slicks in Since the Soviet Union was not at long-distance, low-level overwater the Gulf to practice strafing runs. The war with Japan, the Soviet government navigation to enable them to fly long shortage of .50-caliber machine gun jailed the crew and confi scated the distances without visual or radio ref- ammunition and the malfunctioning aircraft. After 13 months of internment erences or landmarks and to provide turrets limited the quantity of training that involved several moves to a small data for determining fuel consumption the gunners received. When the raiders town 20 miles from the Iranian border, under actual flying conditions that left Eglin on March 25, all of the guns York’s crew managed to escape into the raiders expected during the actual were operating satisfactorily, but there northern Iran. mission. They flew from Eglin Field were still problems with the turrets. Eglin workmen made other modifi ca- to Fort Myers, Fla.; then to Ellington tions to the aircraft. They added deicing Field, ; and after resting and re- MODIFYING THE AIRCRAFT boots to the leading edges of the wings fueling, back to Eglin Field. The first To save weight, Doolittle, at the sug- and installed cameras in all aircraft to accident during the training occurred gestion of two Mid-Continent Airlines take pictures of the actual bombing, but on March 10 at Ellington Field when mechanics earlier in February, had two none of the cameras survived the raid. the nose gear of Lt. Richard O. Joyce’s lathe-turned dowels, painted black to Many of the pilots had painted aircraft collapsed after landing. resemble machine guns, installed in the on their aircraft after 1st Lt. Ted W. Law- In addition, the raiders conducted rear of each aircraft while they were at son, the pilot for aircraft 7, had a carica- low-altitude bombing by dropping Eglin. From Greening’s postraid report, ture of with a headset and 100-pound practice bombs on Eglin’s it appears these managed to deceive a crossed crutches painted on his bomber. bombing ranges and over the Gulf of few Japanese fi ghters that challenged Finally, since the Army crews would be Mexico from 1,500, 5,000, and 10,500 the raiders during the attack. on a Navy ship for several weeks, Miller feet. They also buzzed some of the Doolittle knew that fuel would be taught them Navy terms, courtesy, and towns along the Florida Gulf Coast, a critical element for a successful etiquette, such as saluting the national producing complaints by local citizens mission. He had additional fuel tanks ensign on a ship’s stern when boarding to the Eglin base commander, Maj. installed in the aircraft. He replaced and leaving a ship. George W. Mundy. the belly turret with a fuel tank and had As the project leader, Doolittle The low-altitude bombing training at another tank placed in the crawlway believed he should get checked out Eglin demonstrated the relative inac- above the bomb bay. By the time the on the B-25 and complete the short curacy of the , the Navy loaded the B-25s onto Hornet takeoff training—and he also wanted to standard B-25 bombsight. Because of at NAS Alameda, Calif., each one lead the mission himself. When Capt. this inaccuracy and the possibility of the could carry a total of 1,141 gallons Vernon L. Stinzi fell ill with an ulcer, bombsight falling into Japanese hands, of . Doolittle trained with Stinzi’s crew to Doolittle had them removed from the In between the short takeoff train- complete the short takeoff training. As B-25s. Capt. Charles R. Greening, the ing periods, Eglin aircraft mechanics the training and aircraft modification armaments officer and pilot of aircraft and Bendix Corp. experts replaced the progressed at Eglin, Doolittle managed 11, and SSgt. Edwin V. Bain, the gunner original carburetors with special ones to get Arnold to allow him to command on aircraft 14, developed a “20 cent” to obtain the maximum performance the actual mission. 72 AIR FORCE Magazine / April 2015 Far left: Lt. Col. (cen- ter) confers with his crew near Hangar 68 at Eglin. They are (l-r) SSgt. Paul Leonard, Lt. Henry Potter, Lt. Richard Cole, and SSgt. Fred Braemer. Center: Some of the raider B-25s on the ramp at Eglin. Left: An aerial view of Wagner Field.

Photo via History Offi ce Offi History Wing Test 96th via Photo As it turned out, the training and aircraft modifi cations at Eglin Field in those brief three weeks in March 1942 were suffi cient. The raid “lifted the gloom that had descended upon America and her Pacifi c allies,” retired Col. Carroll V. Glines wrote in The Doolittle Raid: Photo courtesy of doolittleraider.org America’s Daring First Strike Against The crews and enlisted support cifi c Fleet, in Honolulu to create a task Japan. “The bomb damage that resulted personnel first stayed in barracks on force around USS Enterprise to protect was not great, compared with that in- Eglin. Doolittle allowed the married the Hornet’s task force. At the end of fl icted late in the war, but the raid had officers to have their wives with them, the third week of March, Duncan wired some far-reaching effects.” and they initially lived in a hotel in King, who had become the Chief of Naval Although the actual raid had virtually Fort Walton, 12 miles away. After a Operations in Washington, D.C., that no adverse tactical impact on Japan, it few days, though, Doolittle arranged the Enterprise task group would soon signifi cantly raised American morale for them to stay at the Valparaiso Inn, be completed and provided the code after four months of glum news and a hotel built in 1924 that overlooked phrase, “Tell Jimmy to get on his horse,” noticeably affected the sense of security the Choctawhatchee Bay, near Eglin’s the signal for Doolittle to depart Eglin of the Japanese people who, until April main gate. During their training, the Field for NAS Alameda in California, 18, had not suffered a direct enemy at- pilots often buzzed the Valparaiso Inn for loading onto Hornet. tack on their home islands. Furthermore, on their way back to the airfield. King then called Arnold with this the raid caused the Japanese military Doolittle, the single officers, and the news. In turn, Arnold notifi ed Doolittle. leaders to pull back fi ghter squadrons enlisted men stayed in base quarters, The crews at Eglin were awakened at 3 for home defense. but they had little leisure time at the a.m. to move out. More importantly, Japanese military end of their long days. Still, Miller leaders redirected their strategy from was appalled by his Eglin quarters RAISING MORALE expansion into South Asia and the Indian and later called them “lousy” and not Doolittle told them one more time what Ocean to the expansion of their defense “appealing as far as living quarters are he’d been harping on all along. “Don’t perimeter east toward Hawaii. They concerned.” tell anyone what we were doing here at also began planning a operation Mundy, the Eglin Field commander, Eglin,” he reminded his team. Even if you to destroy the American carriers they became concerned over numerous flight think you’ve guessed what our mission had missed at . This opera- safety violations. He received many is, he said, keep in mind that “the lives tion ultimately produced a resounding phone calls from the local inhabitants of your buddies and a lot of other people American victory at the , about the B-25s’ low-level bombing depend on you keeping everything you June 3-6, 1942—the turning point in the practices, flying under bridges, and saw and did here a secret.” Pacifi c War. buzzing the beaches and other areas Doolittle dismissed everyone but On April 15, 2007, close to the 65th around the county. After the raiders the 22 crews chosen to fl y out to Mc- anniversary of the Doolittle Raid, Brig. took him for a low-altitude flight over Clellan Field for a fi nal inspection and Gen. David W. Eidsaune, the commander the Gulf of Mexico and up and down modifi cations. The crews stopped at of the Air Armament Center at Eglin, the Florida Gulf Coast, he forgot about McClellan and arrived at NAS Alameda dedicated a historical marker to the the complaints and the safety violations by March 30. Doolittle Raiders, commemorating their and wanted more flights. Hornet with 16 B-25s left Alameda training at Eglin Field. Subsequently, the Doolittle had restricted the unac- on April 1, 1942, for its rendezvous with base placed the marker near the entrance companied members to Eglin Field. the Enterprise task group and history. to Wagner Field. Still, some managed to get off base and Fog, bad weather, and the consider- On May 23, 2014, the Doolittle Raid- visited several local establishments, able time for the aircraft modifi cations at ers were honored with the Congressional such as the Magnolia Club in Fort Eglin had signifi cantly reduced the train- Gold Medal. On Sept. 12, 2014, the Walton, Bacon’s by the Sea in Mary ing time, but in “three weeks, ships and named its na- Esther, a small town several miles west crews were safely operational, although tional headquarters building the Doolittle of Fort Walton along Highway 98, and additional training of the crews and work Building, after AFA’s fi rst President. the Silver Bar and Cafe just outside of on the ships would have improved their Today, only three raiders are living: Eglin’s main gate alongside what was effi ciency,” wrote Doolittle in his after- Richard E. Cole, Robert L. Hite, and then Florida Highway 20. action report to Arnold in June 1942. David J. Thatcher. ✪ While the Doolittle Raiders trained at Eglin Field, Navy Capt. Donald B. Robert B. Kane retired from the US Air Force as a lieutenant in July 2014 Duncan worked with Adm. Chester W. and serves as the director of history for Air University, Maxwell AFB, Ala. This is his Nimitz, commander in chief of the Pa- fi rst article for Air Force Magazine. AIR FORCE Magazine / April 2015 73