MIflyer
1st Lieutenant
That was Paul Revere's ride. But on the 18th of April 1942 16 B-25B's launched from the USS Hornet, under the command of Lt Col Jimmy Doolittle.
And on board plane #10, piloted by Joyce, was my high school math and mechanical drawing teacher, Horace E. Crouch. He was a native of my hometown, Columbia SC, which also happened to be the place where Lt Col Doolittle came to get his crews. Of course, they had to launch early after being spotted by a Japanese ship but Lt. Crouch, Bomb/Nav for Plane #10, still managed to get them to the correct spot to cross the Japanese course, the only airplane that managed that.
It originally was supposed to be only 15 B-25's launching from the USS Hornet. Two pilots left the Doolittle training at Eglin AAF to go pick up a B-25. When they go back they found that the rest of the team had left. It was highly classified but they manged top figure out where they were going. When they showed up with their B-25, Doolittle exploded, telling them that in order to maintain security both them and their airplane were coming along. But they had no crew. During the voyage they managed to put together a crew from extra personnel and launch on the raid, The end up landing in Vladivostok and their airplane was seized by the Soviets. They eventually managed to escape to Iran.
When I moved into my house in 1993 my next door neighbor was a man who had flown B-25's in the Med. His squadron commander was McClure, Ted Lawson's Co-pilot. He told him that in the film "A Guy named Joe" some of the extras were the real Doolittle Raiders. Of course Spencer Tracy and Van Johnson appeared in both 30 Sec Over Tokyo and A Guy Named Joe.
And on board plane #10, piloted by Joyce, was my high school math and mechanical drawing teacher, Horace E. Crouch. He was a native of my hometown, Columbia SC, which also happened to be the place where Lt Col Doolittle came to get his crews. Of course, they had to launch early after being spotted by a Japanese ship but Lt. Crouch, Bomb/Nav for Plane #10, still managed to get them to the correct spot to cross the Japanese course, the only airplane that managed that.
It originally was supposed to be only 15 B-25's launching from the USS Hornet. Two pilots left the Doolittle training at Eglin AAF to go pick up a B-25. When they go back they found that the rest of the team had left. It was highly classified but they manged top figure out where they were going. When they showed up with their B-25, Doolittle exploded, telling them that in order to maintain security both them and their airplane were coming along. But they had no crew. During the voyage they managed to put together a crew from extra personnel and launch on the raid, The end up landing in Vladivostok and their airplane was seized by the Soviets. They eventually managed to escape to Iran.
When I moved into my house in 1993 my next door neighbor was a man who had flown B-25's in the Med. His squadron commander was McClure, Ted Lawson's Co-pilot. He told him that in the film "A Guy named Joe" some of the extras were the real Doolittle Raiders. Of course Spencer Tracy and Van Johnson appeared in both 30 Sec Over Tokyo and A Guy Named Joe.
