Last of the ‘Doolittle Raiders’

SAN ANTONIO - Retired Air Force Lt. Col. Richard E. “Dick” Cole, the last living member of the daring WWII bombing mission by the Doolittle Radiers, died April 9 in Texas at the age of 103. Cole was one of 80 Army Air Corps personnel that volunteered for the mission, a team led by then-Lt. Col. James Doolittle to strike Japan on April 18, 1942, after the sneak attack on Pearl Harbor. Sixteen B-25 bombers’ daring raid was launched from the deck of the aircraft carrier USS Hornet. The team trained at Eglin Field in Florida (now Eglin AFB) for two weeks. Damage from the raid was slight, but showed that Japan was not beyond the reach of American air power. Cole was consistently humble about his role as Doolittle’s co-pilot. “I don’t think that the Raiders should be remembered any more than the millions of other people who took part in World War II,” Cole said in a 2018 interview at the Air Force Armament Museum at Eglin AFB. Seven of the raiders lost their lives in the mission. Cole bailed out of the B-25 after the raid, while trying to reach planned landings in China. Asked in the 2018 interview about a vivid memory of the raid, Cole said: “The thing I remember most is my parachute opening.” He will be interred at Arlington (Va.) National Cemetery. (Source: AF Special Operations Command 04/08/19) Cole also served a tour of duty in Jackson, Miss.