This Military Service Page was created/owned by
SSgt Robert Bruce McClelland, Jr.
to remember
Bither, Waldo James, Sr., Maj USAF(Ret).
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Contact Info
Home Town Houlton, Maine
Last Address Fort Worth, Texas
Date of Passing Feb 25, 1988
Location of Interment Greenwood Memorial Park and Mausoleum - Ft Worth, Texas
He was the bombardier in crew #12 on the Doolittle Raid. After the raid he was commissioned and went on to serve as a maintenance officer in the USAAF and USAF at bases in the US, Europe, and Japan until he retired Jan 31, 1954.
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 Sergeant Waldo J. Bither (ASN: 6101457), United States Army Air Forces, for extraordinary achievement as Bombardier 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. Sergeant Bither 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 #12 (Plane #40-2278, "Fickle Finger of Fate", target Yokohama): 37th Bomb Sq. L-R: Lt. William R. Pound Jr., navigator; Lt. William M. Bower, pilot; SSgt. Omer A. Duquette, flight engineer/gunner; Lt. Thadd H. Blanton, copilot; TSgt. Waldo J. Bither, 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.