Jimmy Doolittle

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

James Doolittle
Mexican Border Service
World War II
AwardsMedal of Honor
Army Distinguished Service Medal (2)
Silver Star
Distinguished Flying Cross (3)
Bronze Star Medal
Air Medal (4)
Presidential Medal of Freedom
Spouse(s)
Josephine Daniels
​
​
(m. 1917; died 1988)​
Children2
Other work
Space Technology Laboratories and NACA

James Harold Doolittle (December 14, 1896 – September 27, 1993) was an American military general and aviation pioneer who received the Medal of Honor for his daring raid on Japan during World War II, known as the Doolittle Raid in his honor.[1] He made early coast-to-coast flights, record-breaking speed flights, won many flying races, and helped develop flight-test instrument flying.[2]

Doolittle grew up in

outside loop, thought at the time to be a fatal aerobatic maneuver, and two years later, in 1929, pioneered the use of "blind flying", where a pilot relies on flight instruments alone, which later won him the Harmon Trophy and made all-weather airline
operations practical.

Doolittle was a flying instructor during World War I and a reserve officer in the United States Army Air Corps, but was recalled to active duty during World War II. He was awarded the Medal of Honor for personal valor and leadership as commander of the Doolittle Raid, a bold long-range retaliatory air raid on some of the Japanese main islands on April 18, 1942, four months after the attack on Pearl Harbor. The raid used 16 B-25B Mitchell medium bombers with reduced armament to decrease weight and increase range, each with a crew of five and no escort fighter aircraft. It was a major morale booster for the United States and Doolittle was celebrated as a hero, making him one of the most important national figures of the war.

Doolittle was promoted to

general in 1985, presented to him by President Ronald Reagan 43 years after the Doolittle Raid.[4] In 2003, he topped Air & Space/Smithsonian magazine's list of the greatest pilots of all time, and ten years later, Flying magazine ranked Doolittle sixth on its list of the 51 Heroes of Aviation.[5][6] He died in 1993 at the age of 96, and was buried at Arlington National Cemetery
.

Early life and education

Doolittle was born December 14, 1896, in Alameda, California.[7] He spent his youth in Nome, Alaska, where he earned a reputation as a boxer.[8] His parents were Frank Henry Doolittle and Rosa (Rose) Cerenah Doolittle (née Shephard). By 1910, Jimmy Doolittle was attending school in Los Angeles. When his school attended the 1910 Los Angeles International Air Meet at Dominguez Field, Doolittle saw his first airplane.[9]

He attended Los Angeles City College after graduating from Manual Arts High School, together with later film director Frank Capra, in Los Angeles. He entered the University of California, Berkeley, where he studied at the College of Mines. He was a member of Theta Kappa Nu fraternity, which later merged into Lambda Chi Alpha during the later stages of the Great Depression.

Military career

Curtiss R3C-2 Racer, the plane in which he won the Schneider Trophy
in 1925

Doolittle took a leave of absence in October 1917 to enlist in the

Reserve Military Aviator rating and was commissioned a second lieutenant
in the Signal Officers Reserve Corps of the U.S. Army on March 11, 1918.

During

Kelly Field, Texas, and Eagle Pass, Texas
.

Doolittle served at Rockwell as a flight leader and gunnery instructor. At Kelly Field, he served with the

1st Surveillance Group. His detachment of the 90th Aero Squadron was based at Eagle Pass, patrolling the Mexican border. Recommended by three officers for retention in the Air Service
during demobilization at the end of the war, Doolittle qualified by examination and received a Regular Army commission as a 1st Lieutenant, Air Service, on July 1, 1920.

On May 10, 1921, he was engineering officer and pilot for an expedition recovering a plane that had force-landed in a Mexican canyon on February 10 during a transcontinental flight attempt by

carrier pigeons to communicate. The additional parts were dropped by air and installed, and Doolittle flew the plane to Del Rio, Texas
, himself, taking off from a 400-yard airstrip hacked out of the canyon floor.

Subsequently, he attended the Air Service Mechanical School at Kelly Field and the Aeronautical Engineering Course at

McCook Field, Ohio. Having at last returned to complete his college degree, he earned a Bachelor of Arts from the University of California, Berkeley in 1922, and joined the Lambda Chi Alpha
fraternity.

Doolittle was one of the most famous pilots during the inter-war period. On September 4, 1922, he made the first of many pioneering flights, flying a

DH-4 – which was equipped with early navigational instruments – in the first cross-country flight, from Pablo Beach (now Jacksonville Beach), Florida, to Rockwell Field, San Diego, California, in 21 hours and 19 minutes, making only one refueling stop at Kelly Field. The U.S. Army awarded him the Distinguished Flying Cross
.

Doolittle in a pre-World War II photo

Within days after the transcontinental flight, he was at the Air Service Engineering School (a precursor to the Air Force Institute of Technology) at McCook Field, Dayton, Ohio. For Doolittle, the school assignment had special significance: "I had applied for the Engineering School because I thought there should be a better rapport between the aeronautical engineer and the pilot. It seemed to me that the engineers felt pilots were all a little crazy or else they wouldn't be pilots. The pilots felt the engineers as a group were, if not incompetent, at least not thoroughly acquainted with the pilot's viewpoint—that all the engineers did was zip slide rules back and forth and come out with erroneous results and bad aircraft. I thought from a philosophical point of view that it would be good to have engineers and pilots understand one another better. It seemed desirable to marry these two capabilities in one person—and I wanted to be that person."[10]

In July 1923, after serving as a test pilot and aeronautical engineer at McCook Field, Doolittle entered the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. In March 1924, he conducted aircraft acceleration tests at McCook Field, which became the basis of his master's thesis and led to his second Distinguished Flying Cross. He received his SM degree in Aeronautics from MIT in June 1924. Because the Army had given him two years to get his degree and he had done it in just one, he immediately started working on his Sc.D. in Aeronautics, which he received in June 1925. His doctorate in aeronautical engineering was the first issued in the United States.[11] He said that he considered his master's work more significant than his doctorate.[12]

Following graduation, Doolittle attended special training in high-speed seaplanes at

Mitchel Field, Long Island, New York, and was a familiar figure in air speed record attempts in the New York area. He won the Schneider Cup race in a Curtiss R3C in 1925 with an average speed of 232 MPH.[13] For that feat, Doolittle was awarded the Mackay Trophy
in 1926.

In April 1926, Doolittle was given a leave of absence to go to

outside loop
, previously thought to be a fatal maneuver. Carried out in a Curtiss fighter at Wright Field in Ohio, Doolittle executed the dive from 10,000 feet, reached 280 mph, bottomed out upside down, then climbed and completed the loop.

Instrument flight

Bust of General Doolittle at the Imperial War Museum, Duxford
For another instrument flying pioneer, see William C. Ocker.

Doolittle's most important contribution to aeronautical technology was his early advancement of instrument flying. He was the first to recognize that true operational freedom in the air could not be achieved until pilots developed the ability to control and navigate aircraft in flight from takeoff run to landing rollout, regardless of the range of vision from the cockpit. Doolittle was the first to envision that a pilot could be trained to use instruments to fly through fog, clouds, precipitation of all forms, darkness, or any other impediment to visibility, and in spite of the pilot's own possibly convoluted motion sense inputs. Even at this early stage, the ability to control aircraft was getting beyond the motion sense capability of the pilot. That is, as aircraft became faster and more maneuverable, pilots could become seriously disoriented without visual cues from outside the cockpit, because aircraft could move in ways that pilots' senses could not accurately decipher.

Doolittle was also the first to recognize these psycho-physiological limitations of the human senses (particularly the motion sense inputs, i.e., up, down, left, right). He initiated the study of the relationships between the psychological effects of visual cues and motion senses. His research resulted in programs that trained pilots to read and understand navigational instruments. A pilot learned to "trust his instruments," not his senses, as visual cues and his motion sense inputs (what he sensed and "felt") could be incorrect or unreliable.

In 1929, he became the first pilot to take off, fly and land an airplane using instruments alone, without a view outside the cockpit.[15] Having returned to Mitchell Field that September, he helped develop blind-flying equipment. He helped develop, and was then the first to test, the now universally used artificial horizon and directional gyroscope. He attracted wide newspaper attention with this feat of "blind" flying and later received the Harmon Trophy for conducting the experiments. These accomplishments made all-weather airline operations practical.

Reserve status

1932, flying for the Hoover League

In January 1930, he advised the Army on the construction of

Shell Oil Company, in which capacity he conducted numerous aviation tests.[16]
While in the Reserve, he also returned to temporary active duty with the Army frequently to conduct tests.

Doolittle helped influence Shell Oil Company to produce the first quantities of 100 octane aviation gasoline. High octane fuel was crucial to the high-performance planes that were developed in the late 1930s.

In 1931, Doolittle won the first Bendix Trophy race from Burbank, California, to Cleveland, in a Laird Super Solution biplane.

In 1932, Doolittle set the world's high-speed record for land planes at 296 miles per hour in the Shell Speed Dash. Later, he took the

Gee Bee R-1
racer with a speed averaging 252 miles per hour. After having won the three big air racing trophies of the time, the Schneider, Bendix, and Thompson, he officially retired from air racing stating, "I have yet to hear anyone engaged in this work dying of old age."

In April 1934, Doolittle was selected to be a member of the Baker Board. Chaired by former Secretary of War Newton D. Baker, the board was convened during the Air Mail scandal to study Air Corps organization. In 1940, he became president of the Institute of Aeronautical Science.

The development of 100-octane aviation gasoline on an economic scale was due in part to Doolittle, who had become aviation manager of Shell Oil Company. Around 1935 he convinced Shell to invest in refining capacity to produce 100-octane fuel on a scale that nobody needed since no aircraft existed that required a fuel that nobody made. Some fellow employees would call his effort "Doolittle's million-dollar blunder" but time would prove him correct. Before this the Army had considered 100-octane tests using pure octane but at $25 a gallon it did not happen. By 1936 tests at Wright Field using a cheaper alternative to pure octane proved the value of the fuel and both Shell and Standard Oil of New Jersey would win the contract to supply test quantities for the Army. By 1938 the price was down to 17.5 cents a gallon, only 2.5 cents more than 87 octane fuel. By the end of WW II, the price would be down to 16 cents a gallon and the U.S. armed forces would be consuming 20 million gallons a day.[17][18]

Doolittle returned to active duty in the U.S. Army Air Corps on July 1, 1940, with the rank of Major. He was assigned as the assistant district supervisor of the Central Air Corps Procurement District at Indianapolis and Detroit, where he worked with large auto manufacturers on the conversion of their plants to aircraft production.[19] The following August, he went to England as a member of a special mission and brought back information about other countries' air forces and military build-ups.

Doolittle Raid

Doolittle and his crew just before takeoff for the mission. From left to right: Lt. Henry A. Potter, navigator; Doolittle, pilot; SSgt. Fred A. Braemer, bombardier; Lt. Richard E. Cole, copilot; SSgt. Paul J. Leonard, flight engineer/gunner. On USS Hornet (CV-8), 18 April 1942.
Doolittle on the flight deck of USS Hornet (CV-8)
Exhibit at USAF Museum depicting a B-25B Mitchell in preparation for the Doolittle Raid.
Main article: Doolittle Raid

Following the reorganization of the Army Air Corps into the

B-25 medium bombers from the aircraft carrier USS Hornet, with targets in Tokyo, Kobe, Yokohama, Osaka and Nagoya
.

After training at

court martialed
due to having to launch the raid ahead of schedule after being spotted by a Japanese patrol boat and the loss of all the aircraft.

Doolittle went on to fly more combat missions as commander of the 12th Air Force in North Africa, for which he was awarded four Air Medals. He later commanded the 12th, 15th and 8th Air Forces in Europe.[20] The other surviving members of the Doolittle raid also went on to new assignments.

Doolittle received the Medal of Honor from President Franklin D. Roosevelt at the White House for planning and leading his raid on Japan. His citation reads: "For conspicuous leadership above and beyond the call of duty, involving personal valor and intrepidity at an extreme hazard to life. With the apparent certainty of being forced to land in enemy territory or to perish at sea, Lt. Col. Doolittle personally led a squadron of Army bombers, manned by volunteer crews, in a highly destructive raid on the Japanese mainland." He was also promoted to brigadier general.[20]

The Doolittle Raid is viewed by historians as a major morale-building victory for the United States. Although the damage done to Japanese war industry was minor, the raid showed the Japanese that their homeland was vulnerable to air attack,[21] and forced them to withdraw several front-line fighter units from Pacific war zones for homeland defense. More significantly, Japanese commanders considered the raid deeply embarrassing, and their attempt to close the perceived gap in their Pacific defense perimeter led directly to the decisive American victory at the Battle of Midway in June 1942.

When asked from where the Tokyo raid was launched, President Roosevelt coyly said its base was Shangri-La, a fictional paradise from the popular novel and film Lost Horizon. In the same vein, the U.S. Navy named one of its Essex-class fleet carriers USS Shangri-La.[20]

World War II, post-raid

Lt. Gen. Jimmy Doolittle (left) with Maj. Gen. Curtis LeMay (right), standing between tail booms of a Lockheed P-38 Lightning in Britain, 1944

In July 1942, as a

Carl Andrew Spaatz sent him a joking message: "You're slipping Jimmy. There's one crabapple tree and one stable still standing."[23]

Maj. Gen. Doolittle took command of the

B-26 Marauder of the 320th Bombardment Group, 442nd Bombardment Squadron on a mission to attack gun emplacements at Pantelleria. Doolittle continued to fly, despite the risk of capture, while being privy to the Ultra secret, which was that the German encryption systems had been broken by the British.[24] From January 1944 to September 1945, he held his largest command, the Eighth Air Force (8 AF) in England as a lieutenant general
, his promotion date being March 13, 1944, and the highest rank ever held by an active reserve officer in modern times.

Escort fighter tactics

Doolittle's major influence on the European air war occurred late in 1943—and primarily after he took command of the Eighth Air Force on January 6, 1944

Republic P-47 Thunderbolts through the end of 1943. They were progressively replaced with the long-ranged North American P-51 Mustangs as the spring of 1944 wore on.[26][27]

Postwar

Doolittle Board

Personalized photo of then-Major General Jimmy Doolittle

Secretary of War

Hanson Baldwin said that the Doolittle Board "caused severe damage to service effectiveness by recommendations intended to 'democratize' the Army—a concept that is self-contradictory".[30]

U.S. space program

Doolittle became acquainted with the field of

Harry Guggenheim, whose foundation sponsored Goddard's work, and Charles Lindbergh, who encouraged Goddard's efforts, arranged for (then Major) Doolittle to discuss with Goddard a special blend of gasoline. Doolittle piloted himself to Roswell, New Mexico in October 1938 and was given a tour of Goddard's workshop and a "short course" in rocketry and space travel. He then wrote a memo, including a rather detailed description of Goddard's rocket. In closing he said, "interplanetary transportation is probably a dream of the very distant future, but with the moon only a quarter of a million miles away—who knows!"[32] In July 1941 he wrote Goddard that he was still interested in rocket propulsion research. The Army, however, was interested only in JATO at this point. Doolittle was concerned about the state of rocketry in the US and remained in touch with Goddard.[32]
: 1443 

Shortly after World War II, Doolittle spoke to an American Rocket Society conference at which a large number interested in rocketry attended. The topic was Robert Goddard's work. He later stated that at that time "... we [the aeronautics field in the US] had not given much credence to the tremendous potential of rocketry.[33]

In 1956, Doolittle was appointed chairman of the

Hugh Dryden and Stever selected committee members including Dr. Wernher von Braun from the Army Ballistic Missile Agency, Sam Hoffman of Rocketdyne, Abe Hyatt of the Office of Naval Research and Colonel Norman Appold from the USAF missile program, considering their potential contributions to US space programs and ability to educate NACA people in space science.[34]

Reserve status

On 5 January 1946, Doolittle reverted to inactive reserve status in the Army Air Forces in the grade of lieutenant general, a rarity in those days when reserve officers were usually limited to the rank of major general or rear admiral, a restriction that would not end in the US armed forces until the 21st century. He retired from the United States Army on 10 May 1946. On 18 September 1947, his reserve commission as a general officer was transferred to the newly established United States Air Force. Doolittle returned to Shell Oil as a vice president, and later as a director.

In the summer of 1946, Doolittle went to Stockholm where he consulted about the "ghost rockets" that had been observed over Scandinavia.[35]

In 1947, Doolittle became the first president of the

Air Force Association
, an organization which he helped create.

In 1948, Doolittle advocated the desegregation of the US military. He wrote "I am convinced that the solution to the situation is to forget that they are colored." Industry was in the process of integrating, Doolittle said, "and it is going to be forced on the military. You are merely postponing the inevitable and you might as well take it gracefully."[36]

In March 1951, Doolittle was appointed a special assistant to the Chief of Staff of the Air Force, serving as a civilian in scientific matters which led to Air Force ballistic missile and space programs. In 1952, following a string of three air crashes in two months at Elizabeth, New Jersey, the President of the United States, Harry S. Truman, appointed him to lead a presidential commission examining the safety of urban airports.[37] The report "Airports and Their Neighbors" led to zoning requirements for buildings near approaches, early noise control requirements, and initial work on "super airports" with 10,000 ft runways, suited to 150 ton aircraft.

Doolittle was appointed a life member of the

MIT Corporation, the university's board of trustees, an uncommon permanent appointment, and served as an MIT Corporation Member for 40 years.[38]

In 1954, President Dwight D. Eisenhower asked Doolittle to perform a study of the Central Intelligence Agency; the resulting work was known as the Doolittle Report, 1954, and was classified for a number of years.

From 1957 to 1958, he was

Explorer. He was the last person to hold this position, as the NACA was superseded by NASA. Doolittle was asked to serve as the first NASA administrator, but he turned it down.[39]

Doolittle retired from

Air Force Reserve duty on February 28, 1959. He remained active in other capacities, including chairman of the board of TRW Space Technology Laboratories. Doolittle Drive at TRW's Space Park
was named in his honor.

Personal life

Doolittle photographed in 1986

Doolittle married Josephine "Joe" E. Daniels on December 24, 1917. At a dinner celebration after Jimmy Doolittle's first all-instrument flight in 1929, Josephine Doolittle asked her guests to sign her white damask tablecloth. Later, she embroidered the names in black. She continued this tradition, collecting hundreds of signatures from the aviation world. The tablecloth was donated to the Smithsonian Institution. Married for exactly 71 years, Josephine Doolittle died on December 24, 1988, five years before her husband.[40]

The Doolittles had two sons, James Jr., and John. Both became military officers and pilots. James Jr. was an

F-101 Voodoo.[42]

The other son, John P. Doolittle, retired from the Air Force as a colonel, and his grandson, Colonel James H. Doolittle III, was the vice commander of the Air Force Flight Test Center at Edwards Air Force Base, California.

James H. "Jimmy" Doolittle died from a

B-25 Mitchell, and USAF Eighth Air Force bombers from Barksdale Air Force Base, Louisiana. After a brief graveside service, fellow Doolittle Raider Bill Bower began the final tribute on the bugle. When emotion took over, Doolittle's great-grandson, Paul Dean Crane, Jr., played Taps.[44]

Doolittle was initiated to the

33rd degree,[47][48] becoming also a Shriner.[49]

Dates of military rank

Insignia Rank Service and components Date
No insignia Aviation Cadet United States Army Reserve (
Signal Corps (United States Army)
 6 October 1917
No insignia
Private First Class
 United States Army Reserve (Enlisted Reserve Corps) 10 November 1917
 
Second Lieutenant
 United States Army Reserve (
Officers Reserve Corps
)
(Signal Corps) 		11 March 1918
 Second Lieutenant
Regular Army (United States Army Air Service
) 		1 July (accepted 19 September) 1920
 
First Lieutenant
 Regular Army (United States Army Air Service) 1 July 1920
Resigned 15 February 1930
 Major United States Army Reserve (Specialist Reserve Corps) 5 March 1930
 Major United States Army Reserve (United States Army Air Corps) 1 July 1940
 Lieutenant Colonel Army of the United States (United States Army Air Forces) 2 January 1942
 Brigadier General Army of the United States (United States Army Air Forces) 23 April 1942
 Major General Army of the United States (United States Army Air Forces) 20 November 1942
 Lieutenant General Army of the United States (United States Army Air Forces) 13 March 1944
 Lieutenant General Army of the United States (United States Army Air Forces Reserve) 5 January 1946
 Brigadier General Regular Army (United States Army Air Forces) 1 May 1946
 Lieutenant General United States Army Air Forces 10 May 1946
 Lieutenant General United States Air Force

Air Force Reserve Command

 18 September 1947
 Lieutenant General United States Air Force

Air Force Reserve Command

Retired List

28 February 1959
 General (Honorary) United States Air Force

Air Force Reserve Command

Retired List

4 April 1985
Source:[50][51][52][53][54]

Honors and awards

Doolittle is awarded a fourth star, pinned on by President Ronald Reagan (left) and Senator Barry Goldwater (right), April 10, 1985.

On April 4, 1985, President

Air Force Reserve Major General Barry Goldwater pinned on Doolittle's four-star insignia. Later, in 1986, the Comptroller General ruled that the promotion was unlawful for pay or benefit purposes due to the lack of implementing legislation.[56]
This effectively made it entirely honorary.

In addition to his

Distinguished Flying Crosses, the Bronze Star Medal, four Air Medals, and decorations from Belgium, China, Ecuador, France, Great Britain, and Poland. He was the first American to be awarded both the Medal of Honor and the Medal of Freedom. He is also one of only two persons (the other being Douglas MacArthur) to receive both the Medal of Honor and a British knighthood, when he was appointed an honorary Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath
.

Bronze oak leaf cluster
Bronze oak leaf cluster
Bronze oak leaf cluster
Bronze oak leaf cluster
Bronze oak leaf cluster
Bronze oak leaf cluster
Bronze star
Bronze star
Silver star
Bronze star
Bronze star
Bronze star
Bronze oak leaf cluster
Bronze oak leaf cluster
Bronze oak leaf cluster
Bronze oak leaf cluster
U.S. Air Force Command Pilot Badge
Honorary Naval Aviator Badge (1981)[57]
Medal of Honor
Army Distinguished Service Medal
with bronze oak leaf cluster
 Silver Star
Distinguished Flying Cross
with two bronze oak leaf clusters
Bronze Star
 Air Medal
with three bronze oak leaf clusters
Presidential Medal of Freedom World War I Victory Medal Army of Occupation of Germany Medal
American Defense Service Medal
with one service star 		American Campaign Medal
campaign star
campaign stars
World War II Victory Medal
hourglass device
Air Force Longevity Service Award

with four bronze oak leaf clusters 		National Defense Service Medal Order of the Bath
Knight Commander (KCB)
(United Kingdom)
Order of the Condor of the Andes
Officer
(Bolivia) 		Order of Abdon Calderón
1st Class
(Ecuador) 		Order of Ouissam Alaouite
Knight
(Morocco)
Order of Polonia Restituta
(Krzyż Kawalerski)
(Poland) 		Légion d'honneur
Grand-Cross
(France)
WWII Croix de Guerre

with bronze Palm
(France)
WWII Croix de Guerre
with bronze Palm
(Belgium
)
Republic of China
) 		Medal of the Armed Forces
A-1
(Republic of China)

In 1972, Doolittle received the Tony Jannus Award for his distinguished contributions to commercial aviation, in recognition of the development of instrument flight.

Doolittle was awarded the

National Academy of Sciences in 1959.[58] In 1983, he was awarded the United States Military Academy's Sylvanus Thayer Award. He was inducted in the Motorsports Hall of Fame of America as the only member of the air racing category in the inaugural class of 1989, and into the Aerospace Walk of Honor in the inaugural class of 1990.[59]

Medal of Honor citation

For conspicuous leadership above the call of duty, involving personal valor and intrepidity at an extreme hazard to life. With the apparent certainty of being forced to land in enemy territory or to perish at sea, Gen. Doolittle personally led a squadron of Army bombers, manned by volunteer crews, in a highly destructive raid on the Japanese mainland.[60]

Other awards

  • In 1972, he was awarded the
    Horatio Alger Award, given to dedicated community leaders who demonstrate individual initiative and a commitment to excellence; as exemplified by remarkable achievements accomplished through honesty, hard work, self-reliance and perseverance over adversity. The Horatio Alger Association of Distinguished Americans, Inc. bears the name of the renowned author Horatio Alger, Jr., whose tales of overcoming adversity through unyielding perseverance and basic moral principles captivated the public in the late 19th century.[61]
  • In 1977, Doolittle received the Golden Plate Award of the American Academy of Achievement.[62]
  • On December 11, 1981, Doolittle was awarded Honorary Naval Aviator wings in recognition of his many years of support of military aviation by Chief of Naval Operations Admiral Thomas B. Hayward.[63]
  • In 1983, Doolittle was awarded the Sylvanus Thayer Award.

Honors

Namesakes

Street named after Jimmy Doolittle at TRW's Space Park in Redondo Beach, California where he served on the board of directors during the 1960s.

Many US Air Force bases have facilities and streets named for Doolittle, such as the Jimmy Doolittle Event Center[70] at Minot Air Force Base and the Doolittle Lounge[71] at Goodfellow Air Force Base.

The headquarters of the United States Air Force Academy Association of Graduates (AOG) on the grounds of the United States Air Force Academy is named Doolittle Hall.[72]

Achievement 6 of the United States Air Force Auxiliary, also known as Civil Air Patrol, is named the Doolittle Award.

In popular culture

See also

References

  1. ^ Fogerty, Robert P. (1953). "Biographical Data on Air Force General Officers, 1917-1952, Volume 1 – A thru L" (PDF). Air Force Historical Research Agency. pp. 476–480. USAF historical studies: no. 91. Archived (PDF) from the original on August 31, 2021. Retrieved November 9, 2021.
  2. ^ a b "General James Harold Doolittle > U.S. Air Force > Biography Display". www.af.mil. Retrieved July 6, 2019.
  3. ISSN 0458-3035
    . Retrieved July 6, 2019.
  4. ^ "Jimmy Doolittle Given Fourth Star by Reagan". Associated Press. June 14, 1985 – via LA Times.
  5. ^ a b "10 All-Time Great Pilots". Air & Space. 2003.
  6. ^ a b "51 Heroes of Aviation". Flying Magazine. 2013.
  7. ^ "Alameda: City recognizes World War II aviator Jimmy Doolittle". The Mercury News. December 18, 2014. Retrieved December 25, 2023.
  8. ^ "General James Jimmy" (PDF).[permanent dead link]
  9. Air & Space
    . 24 (6): 37.
  10. ^ Doolittle, James H., with Carroll V. Glines. 1991. I Could Never Be So Lucky Again: An Autobiography. Random House Publishing Group. Kindle Edition; p. 73.
  11. ^ Quigley, Samantha L. "Detroit Defied Reality to Help Win World War II". United Service Organizations. Retrieved January 8, 2016.
  12. ^ Doolittle (1991), p. 90.
  13. ^ "The 1925 Schneider Trophy Race". Flight. October 29, 1925. p. 703. Archived from the original (PDF) on December 8, 2008.
  14. ^ "An American Hero". Air Force Magazine. Retrieved April 20, 2021.
  15. ^ Preston, Edmund (ed.). "FAA Historical Chronology: Civil Aviation and the Federal Government, 1926–1996" (PDF). Repository and Open Science Access Portal; National Transportation Library; United States Department of Transportation. United States Federal Aviation Administration. p. 9. Retrieved October 5, 2020. Sep 24, 1929: At Mitchel Field, N.Y., Army Lt. James H. Doolittle became the first pilot to use only instrument guidance to take off, fly a set course, and land. Doolittle received directional guidance from a radio range course aligned with the airport runway, while radio marker beacons indicated his distance from the runway. [...] He flew in a hooded cockpit, but was accompanied by a check pilot who could have intervened in an emergency.
  16. ^ Donald M. Pattillo. A History in the Making: 80 Turbulent Years in the American General Aviation Industry. p. 16.
  17. ^ "Defense Jimmy Doolittle" (PDF).
  18. ^ Schlaifer, Robert (April 10, 1950). "Development of Aircraft Engines: Two Studies of Relations Between Government and Business". Division of Research, Graduate School of Business Administration, Harvard University – via Google Books.
  19. ISBN 978-1-4000-6964-4
    .
  20. ^ a b c "From Shangri-La to Tokyo: The Doolittle Raid, April 18, 1942". www.army.mil.
  21. ^ "Last of WW2 'Doolittle Raiders' Dick Cole dies aged 103". BBC News. April 9, 2019.
  22. ^ Wolk 2003, pp. 21–22.
  23. ISBN 978-0-7538-2824-3
    .
  24. ^ G. H. Spaulding, CAPT, USN (Ret). "Enigmatic Man". Archived from the original on October 19, 2019. Retrieved November 20, 2010.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  25. ^ "WWII 8thAAF COMBAT CHRONOLOGY - JANUARY 1944 THROUGH JUNE 1944". July 28, 2012. Archived from the original on July 28, 2012. Retrieved November 2, 2021. THURSDAY, 6 JANUARY 1944 - STRATEGIC OPERATIONS (Eighth Air Force): Lieutenant General James H Doolittle assumes command, replacing Lieutenant General Ira C Eaker who will go to Italy as Commanding General Mediterranean Allied Air Force (MAAF).
  26. ^ "Effect of the North American P-51 Mustang On the Air War in Europe". www.combatsim.com. Retrieved December 18, 2019.
  27. ^ s (August 21, 2018). "James H. Doolittle". HISTORY. Retrieved December 18, 2019.
  28. ^ Brown, Jerold E. (2001). Historical Dictionary of the U.S. Army. Greenwood Publishing Group. p. 154.
  29. ^ Zellers, Larry (November 1, 1999). In Enemy Hands: A Prisoner in North Korea. University Press of Kentucky. p. 105.
  30. ^ Bogle, Lori L. (October 12, 2004). The Pentagon's Battle for the American Mind: The Early Cold War. Texas A&M University Press. p. 51.
  31. ^
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