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Contact Info
Home Town Bridger, Montana
Last Address Missoula, Montana
Date of Passing Jun 22, 2016
Location of Interment Sunset Memorial Gardens - Billings, Montana
He was the flight engineer/gunner in crew #7 on the Doolittle Raid. He was the only member of his crew not injured in the ditching of their aircraft. He was of great help to his crewmates and was awarded the Silver Star for his efforts. Later he served in England and North Africa but his units are unknown.
(Citation Needed) - SYNOPSIS: Corporal David J. Thatcher (ASN: 19019573), United States Army Air Forces, was awarded the Silver Star for conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity in action against the enemy while serving with the 1st Special Aviation Project (Doolittle Raider Force), on 18 April 1942, in China. Corporal Thatcher aided the crew of Lieutenant Lawson's bomber evade Japanese troops following their crash-landing in China subsequent to the raid.
Division: Doolittle Tokyo Raider Force Crew No. 7 (Plane #40-2261, "The Ruptured Duck", target Tokyo) 95th Bomb Sq. L-R: Lt. Charles L. McClure, navigator; Lt. Ted W. Lawson, pilot; Lt. Robert S. Clever, bombardier; Lt. Dean Davenport, copilot; Sgt. David J. Thatcher, flight engineer/gunner. (U.S. Air Force photo)
The President of the United States of America, authorized by Act of Congress, July 2, 1926, takes pleasure in presenting the Distinguished Flying Cross to Corporal David J. Thatcher (ASN: 19019573), United States Army Air Forces, for extraordinary achievement as Engineer/Gunner of a B-25 Bomber of the 1st Special Aviation Project (Doolittle Raider Force), while participating in a highly destructive raid on the Japanese mainland on 18 April 1942. Corporal Thatcher with 79 other officers and enlisted men volunteered for this mission knowing full well that the chances of survival were extremely remote, and executed his part in it with great skill and daring. This achievement reflects high credit on himself and the military service.
Description The plan of the Pacific subseries was determined by the geography, strategy, and the military organization of a theater largely oceanic. Two independent, coordinate commands, one in the Southwest Pacific under General of the Army Douglas MacArthur and the other in the Central, South, and North Pacific (Pacific Ocean Areas) under Fleet Admiral Chester W. Nimitz, were created early in the war. Except in the South and Southwest Pacific, each conducted its own operations with its own ground, air, and naval forces in widely separated areas. These operations required at first only a relatively small number of troops whose efforts often yielded strategic gains which cannot be measured by the size of the forces involved. Indeed, the nature of the objectivesùsmall islands, coral atolls, and jungle-bound harbors and airstrips, made the employment of large ground forces impossible and highlighted the importance of air and naval operations. Thus, until 1945, the war in the Pacific progressed by a double series of amphibious operations each of which fitted into a strategic pattern developed in Washington.
21 Named Campaigns were recognized in the Asiatic Pacific Theater with Battle Streamers and Asiatic Pacific Campaign Medals.
