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Contact Info
Home Town Taylor, Texas
Last Address Dallas, Texas
Date of Passing Jun 06, 1964
Location of Interment Taylor City Cemetery - Taylor, Texas
He was the co-pilot in crew #5 on the Doolittle Raid. Earlier he had been the co-pilot of a B-25 that had spotted and sunk a Japanese submarine at the mouth of the Columbia River. Later he would command a B-25 unit in England, North Africa and the Mediterranean.
His DFC citation: Awarded for actions during World War II 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 First Lieutenant (Air Corps) Ross Rodney Wilder, United States Army Air Forces, for extraordinary achievement as Co-Pilot 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. Lieutenant Wilder 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. Action Date: April 18, 1942 Service: Army Air Forces Rank: First Lieutenant Company: 1st Special Aviation Project Division: Doolittle Tokyo Raider Force
Crew #5 (Plane #40-2283, target Tokyo): 95th Bomb Sq. L-R: Lt. Eugene F. McGurl, navigator; Capt. David M. Jones, pilot; Lt. Denver V. Truelove, bombardier; Lt. Ross R. Wilder, copilot; Sgt. Joseph W. Manske, flight engineer/gunner. (U.S. Air Force photo)
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.
