Doolittle's Raiders

From the June 5, 2009 South Carolina The State.

Doolittle's Raiders returned to Columbia, South Carolina, for their 67th reunion. They also celebrated their 50th and 60th reunions in Columbia.

Columbia is important in Raider history because this is where they met Doolittle and began their training in 1942. As od 2009, there were eleven survivors of the raid, all in their late 80s and 90s. As many as seven plan to attend the ceremonies.

Richard Cole, 92, Doolittle's co-pilot on Plane No. 1 was one of sixteen five-man crews whom met Doolittle at Columbia Air Base, now Columbia Metropolitan Airport.

Three of the raiders were killed, eight were captured in Japanese-occupied China, three captives were executed and one died in prison. Sixty of the eighty continued to fight in the war.

The 60th Reunion was the first time the media was allowed to witness the Goblet ceremony where surviving Raiders toast those who lost their lives in the operation and those who had died since it. Special silver goblets are used.

There were three South Carolinians among the Raiders:

Darlington Farrow, pilot of No. 16, captured and executed.
Nolan Herndon- navigator of No. 8 who died in October 2008.
Horace "Sally" Crouch, navigator of No. 10 who died December 2005.

The Greatest Generation.