This Military Service Page was created/owned by
SSgt Robert Bruce McClelland, Jr.
to remember
Cole, Richard Eugene, Lt Col USAF(Ret).
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Contact Info
Home Town Dayton, Ohio
Last Address San Antonio, Texas
Date of Passing Apr 08, 2019
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Additional Information
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Take Off Order
1 Tail # 40- 2344 Target: Tokyo
Lieutenant Colonel Doolittle's bomber was the first over Japan and the first to drop its bomb load. The four incendiaries fell at 12:30 p.m. (Tokyo time) to incinerate a large factory. Doolittle then flew west to reach the coast of China after dark. By 9:30 fuel was low and unable to find an airfield in the heavy fog, Doolittle ordered his crew to bail out among the mountains of China. He then followed them into the night, his B-25 crashing on a nearby mountainside. The only injury sustained by any of the crew was a sprained ankle. Local Chinese escorted the Americans to Chuchow from where they eventually returned home safely.
English: Doolittle Tokyo Raiders, Crew No. 1 Crew No. 1 (Plane #40-2344, target Tokyo): 34th Bombardment Squadron, Lt. Col. James H. Doolittle, pilot; Lt. Richard E. Cole, copilot; Lt. Henry A. Potter, navigator; SSgt. Fred A. Braemer, bombardier; SSgt. Paul J. Leonard, flight engineer/gunner. (U.S. Air Force photo)
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