This Military Service Page was created/owned by
SSgt Robert Bruce McClelland, Jr.
to remember
Watson, Harold Francis, Lt Col USAF(Ret).
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Contact Info
Home Town Buffalo, New York
Last Address Inglewood, California
Date of Passing Sep 14, 1991
Official Badges
Unofficial Badges
Additional Information
Last Known Activity:
He was the pilot in crew #9 on the Doolittle raid. He was severely injured when he bailed out in China and spent almost a year recuperating in the States. He served in the USAAF and USAF until he retired Nov 1, 1961.
He was cremated; the location of his ashes is unknown.
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) Harold Francis Watson (ASN: 0-397797), United States Army Air Forces, for extraordinary achievement as 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 Watson 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
Division: Doolittle Tokyo Raider Force Crew #9 (Plane #40-2203, "Whirling Dervish", target Tokyo), 34th Bomb Sq. L-R:Lt. Thomas C. Griffin, navigator; Lt. Harold F. Watson, pilot; TSgt. Eldred V. Scott, flight engineer/gunner; Lt. James M. Parker Jr., copilot; Sgt. Wayne M. Bissell, bombardier. (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.
