Ad: This forum contains affiliate links to products on Amazon and eBay. More information in Terms and rules
The East Coast of the US is also several thousand miles long and every hundred to 200 mile stretch is going to be clamoring for it's "own" interceptor squadron/s. Many of the training schools were either inland or on the west coast where the weather is better for year round flying. Some were on the east coast but not enough and using trainees as "interceptor" pilots may not have gone down well with the politicians on the east coast. Look at the movements of US squadrons right after Pearl Harbor when several squadrons ( and we didn't have that many to begin with) were sent cross country (2500-3000miles) to help guard against a Japanese Invasion ( or raids on California). When the Japanese (except for a few subs) hadn't gotten within 3000 miles of California.
The Japanese tried this method of attack against Pearl Harbor. See:
Operation K - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
A simultaneous attack on targets several hundred miles apart, say from Savannah Georgia to Hampton Virginia by even 6 planes might have meant a disruption in planned deployments of squadrons for weeks if not months. Not to mention the deployment of AA guns and radar units.
It would be a great propaganda victory and if could hit some populated areas ( a market,a hospital, a university or a school ) would give the americans a taste of their own reciepe. However it would be a suicide mission because there ,certainly , would be a massive american reaction.
No crewman could expect that would survive alive such a mission
Jim - with due respect, why do you think a LW crew in uniform would not survive capture? Do you truly believe that Americans would kill LW crew like German civilians murdered American crews in Germany? If so, distinguish why Americans in your opinion would treat downed LW crews any different from Brits? or why Americans were more like the Japanese in treatment of POWs?
Have you even discussed with former LW or Wermacht POWs, housed in the South (US) during WWII, what they expected and ultimately how they were treated?