LAST FOUR BRANDIES

On Tuesday, in Fort Walton Beach , Florida , the  surviving
Doolittle Raiders gathered publicly for the last  time.

They once were among the most universally admired and  revered men in the
United States . There were 80 of the Raiders in  April 1942, when they
carried out one of the most courageous and  heart-stirring military
operations in this nation's history. The  mere mention of their unit's
name, in those years, would bring  tears to the eyes of grateful  Americans.

         Now  only four  survive.

         After  Japan 's sneak attack on Pearl Harbor, with the United
States  reeling and wounded, something dramatic was needed to turn the
war  effort around.

          Even though there were no friendly airfields close enough to
Japan  for the United States to launch a retaliation, a daring plan was
devised. Sixteen B-25s were modified so that they could take off  from
the deck of an aircraft carrier. This had never before been  tried --
sending such big, heavy bombers from a  carrier.

         The  16 five-man crews, under the command of Lt. Col. James
Doolittle,  who himself flew the lead plane off the USS Hornet, knew that
they  would not be able to return to the carrier. They would have to hit
Japan and then hope to make it to China for a safe  landing.

         But  on the day of the raid, the Japanese military caught wind
of the  plan. The Raiders were told that they would have to take off from
much farther out in the Pacific Ocean than they had counted on.  They
were told that because of this they would not have enough  fuel to make
it to  safety.

         And  those men went  anyway.

         They  bombed Tokyo , and then flew as far as they could. Four
planes  crash-landed; 11 more crews bailed out, and three of the Raiders
died. Eight more were captured; three were executed.
Another  died of starvation in a Japanese prison camp. One crew made it
to  Russia .

         The  Doolittle Raid sent a message from the United States to its
enemies, and to the rest of the world: We will fight. And, no  matter
what it takes, we will  win.

         Of the 80  Raiders, 62 survived the war. They were celebrated as
national  heroes, models of bravery. Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer produced a
motion  picture based on the raid; "Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo," starring
Spencer Tracy and Van Johnson, was a patriotic and emotional  box-office
hit, and the phrase became part of the national  lexicon. In the
movie-theater previews for the film, MGM  proclaimed that it was
presenting the story "with supreme  pride."

          Beginning in 1946, the surviving Raiders have held a reunion
each  April, to commemorate the mission. The reunion is in a different
city each year. In 1959, the city of Tucson , Arizona , as a  gesture of
respect and gratitude, presented the Doolittle Raiders  with a set of 80
silver goblets. Each goblet was engraved with the  name of a  Raider.

         Every  year, a wooden display case bearing all 80 goblets is
transported  to the reunion city. Each time a Raider passes away, his
goblet is  turned upside down in the case at the next reunion, as his old
friends bear solemn  witness.

         Also  in the wooden case is a bottle of 1896 Hennessy Very
Special  cognac. The year is not happenstance: 1896 was when Jimmy
Doolittle was  born.

         There  has always been a plan: When there are only two surviving
Raiders,  they would open the bottle, at last drink from it, and toast
their  comrades who preceded them in  death.

         As 2013  began, there were five living Raiders; then, in
February, Tom  Griffin passed away at age  96.

         What a man  he was. After bailing out of his plane over a
mountainous Chinese  forest after the Tokyo raid, he became ill with
malaria, and  almost died. When he recovered, he was sent to Europe to
fly more  combat missions. He was shot down, captured,
and spent 22 months in  a German prisoner of war  camp.

         The  selflessness of these men, the sheer guts ... there was a
passage  in the Cincinnati Enquirer obituary for Mr. Griffin that, on the
surface, had nothing to do with the war, but that emblematizes the  depth
of his sense of duty and  devotion:
         "When  his wife became ill and needed to go into a nursing home,
he  visited her every day. He walked from his house to the nursing home,
fed his wife and at the end of the day brought home her clothes.  At
night, he washed and ironed her clothes. Then he walked them up  to her
room the next morning. He did that for three years until  her death in  2005."

         So now,  out of the original 80, only four Raiders remain: Dick
Cole  (Doolittle's co-pilot on the Tokyo raid), Robert Hite, Edward
Saylor and David Thatcher. All are in their 90s. They have decided  that
there are too few of them for the public reunions to  continue.

         The  events in Fort Walton Beach this week will mark the end. It
has  come full circle; Florida 's nearby Eglin Field was where the Raiders
trained in secrecy for the Tokyo mission. The town is planning to  do all
it can to honor the men: a six-day celebration of their  valor, including
luncheons, a dinner and a  parade.

         Do the  men ever wonder if those of us for whom they helped save
the  country have tended to it in a way that is worthy of their
sacrifice? They don't talk about that, at least not around other  people.
But if you find yourself near Fort Walton Beach this week,  and if you
should encounter any of the Raiders, you might want to  offer them a word
of thanks. I can tell you from  firsthandobservation that they appreciate
hearing that they are  remembered.

          The men have decided that after this final public reunion they
will wait until a later date -- sometime this year -- to get  together
once more, informally and in absolute privacy. That is  when they will
open the bottle of brandy. The years are flowing by  too swiftly now;
they are not going to wait until there are only  two of them.

          They will fill the four remaining upturned  goblets.
         And raise  them in a toast to those who are  gone.

         PLEASE  SEND THIS ON TO EVERYONE IN YOUR ADDRESS BOOK, ESPECIALLY
TO THOSE  WHO WERE TOO YOUNG TO KNOW ABOUT THESE GUYS. THIS SHOULD
BE READ BY  EVERY KID IN GRADE AND HIGH SCHOOL SO THEY KNOW  WHAT
HAPPENED.
http://www.doolittlereunion.com/