Cole, Thatcher and Saylor — three of the four surviving crew members from the history-making bombing run — are at Eglin for a final public reunion of the Doolittle Raiders. They decided to meet at Eglin because it is where they trained for their top-secret mission in the winter of 1942, just weeks after the Japanese devastated the American fleet at Pearl Harbor.
The fourth surviving raider, 93-year-old Robert Hite, could not make the event.
Doolittle Raider Lt. Col. Dick Cole stands April 16 in front of a B-25 at the Destin Airport in Destin, Fla., before a flight as part of the Doolittle Raider 71st Anniversary Reunion. Cole was Lt. Col. Jimmy Doolittle's co-pilot during the Doolittle Tokyo Raid, a notable attack on the Japanese during World War II using B-25s. The B-25 pilots trained to take off from an aircraft carrier, which the plane was not designed to do. Nick Tomecek / Northwest Florida Daily News via AP
Doolittle Raider Lt. Col. Dick Cole stands April 16 in front of a B-25 at the Destin Airport in Destin, Fla., before a flight as part of the Doolittle Raider 71st Anniversary Reunion. Cole was Lt. Col. Jimmy Doolittle's co-pilot during the Doolittle Tokyo Raid, a notable attack on the Japanese during World War II using B-25s. The B-25 pilots trained to take off from an aircraft carrier, which the plane was not designed to do. Nick Tomecek / Northwest Florida Daily News via AP
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