Sometimes, when a nation’s outlook seems darkest, men put their lives in critical danger to boost the spirits of the folks back home.
Not that the pilots and crews who braved fearsome odds in the Doolittle Raid in 1942 saw it necessarily as a “suicide mission,” but they took a shocking risk to accomplish something that would feel like payback after the Pearl Harbor attack and the fall of the Philippines, Wake Island and Guam. Several were killed or died in captivity, and every one of their 16 B-25s was lost.
Come to the South Carolina Confederate Relic Room and Military Museum to hear Bruce Cotner deliver a free lecture at noon on Friday, April 17. The program he calls “The Doolittle Raid and Midlands Myths” is part of the museum’s regular Noon Debrief program.
The “Midlands” part arises from our region’s proud association with the legendary mission. The Midlands played host to the Doolittle Raiders for a time during the preparation for their mission. They flew their B-25s over Lake Murray while stationed at Columbia Army Air Base (a site now known as Columbia Metropolitan Airport).
After the war, the survivors of the mission gathered for annual reunions, and several of those were held in Columbia before the last of those heroes died in 2019, at the age of 103.
As for the “myths” part of the title, Cotner does not seek in any way to diminish the pride that Columbians cherish regarding their community’s role in the Raid. There’s nothing mythical about the heroic mission, or Columbia’s share in the story. But he wants to make sure we remember it all correctly. Some of the jumbled “facts” that we think we know, and Cotner will address, include these:
- Jimmy Doolittle “dreamed up” the raid all on his own.
- Doolittle personally selected the volunteers for the raid, while here at Columbia Army Air Base.
- From the beginning of the planning, Doolittle was set to lead and fly in the mission.
There are several others, none of which undermine the glory of the achievement, the pride cherished by Americans (including Columbians), or the shock the raid was to the Japanese.
Bruce Cotner is a proud graduate of the University of South Carolina, and has lived in Columbia all of his adult life. He recently retired after a 40-year career in local law enforcement. He is a life member of the South Carolina Arms Collectors Association, and a founding member of the Celebrate Freedom Foundation, the South Carolina Historic Aviation Foundation and a military living history group: Military Timeline Impressions. He has been fascinated by military history since he was six years old.
He’s also a regular friend of the Noon Debriefs. Last year, he delivered his Doolittle talk to a record crowd at Richland Library.
Lt. Col. James “Jimmy” Doolittle’s B-25 takes off from the USS Hornet 650 miles from Japan.
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