[Vision2020] Fw: Final Toast.
lfalen
lfalen at turbonet.com
Tue Jul 9 11:38:41 PDT 2013
<div dir="ltr" style=""><div>Thanks Sue</div><div>Roger<br /><br /><br /><br />
<br />
>-----Original Message-----<br />
>Subject: [Vision2020] Fw: Final Toast.<br />
>From: "Sue Hovey" <suehovey at moscow.com><br />
>To: "Vision 2020" <vision2020 at moscow.com>, "Bill Frye" <frye3407 at att.net><br />
>Date: 07/09/13 02:45:46<br />
><br />
>The following is from a friend of ours who was in the Navy during WWII. He <br />
>is 93 and doing pretty well. I thought some of you might appreciate it.<br />
><br />
>Sue Hovey<br />
><br />
>-----Original Message----- <br />
>From: OL' DOUG<br />
>Sent: Sunday, July 07, 2013 5:15 PM<br />
>To: undisclosed-recipients:<br />
>Subject: Final Toast.<br />
><br />
>.<br />
>>><br />
>>><br />
>>> Subject: Final Toast.<br />
>>><br />
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>>> The cup of brandy that no one wants to drink.<br />
>>><br />
>>> Recently, in Fort Walton Beach, Florida, the surviving Doolittle Raiders <br />
>>> gathered publicly for the last time.<br />
>>><br />
>>> They once were among the most revered men in the United States. There <br />
>>> were 80 of the Raiders in April 1942, when they carried out one of the <br />
>>> most courageous and heart-stirring military operations in this nation's <br />
>>> history. The mere mention of their unit's name, in those years, would <br />
>>> bring tears to the eyes of grateful Americans.<br />
>>><br />
>>> Now only four survive.<br />
>>><br />
>>> After Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor, with the United States reeling and <br />
>>> wounded, something dramatic was needed to turn the war effort around.<br />
>>><br />
>>> Even though there were no friendly airfields close enough to Japan for <br />
>>> the United States to launch a retaliation, a daring plan was devised. <br />
>>> Sixteen B-25s were modified so that they could take off from the deck of <br />
>>> an aircraft carrier. This had never before been tried -- sending such <br />
>>> big, heavy bombers from a carrier.<br />
>>><br />
>>> The 16 five-man crews, under the command of Lt. Col. James Doolittle, who <br />
>>> himself flew the lead plane off the USS Hornet, knew that they would not <br />
>>> be able to return to the carrier. They would have to hit Japan and then <br />
>>> hope to make it to China for a safe landing.<br />
>>><br />
>>> But on the day of the raid, the Japanese military caught wind of the <br />
>>> plan. The Raiders were told that they would have to take off from much <br />
>>> farther out in the Pacific Ocean than they had counted on. They were told <br />
>>> that because of this they would not have enough fuel to make it to <br />
>>> safety.<br />
>>><br />
>>> And those men went anyway.<br />
>>><br />
>>> They bombed Tokyo, and then flew as far as they could. Four planes <br />
>>> crash-landed; 11 more crews bailed out, and three of the Raiders died. <br />
>>> Eight more were captured; three were executed. Another died of starvation <br />
>>> in a Japanese prison camp. One crew made it to Russia.<br />
>>><br />
>>> The Doolittle Raid sent a message from the United States to its enemies, <br />
>>> and to the rest of the world: We will fight. And, no matter what it <br />
>>> takes, we will win.<br />
>>><br />
>>> Of the 80 Raiders, 62 survived the war. They were celebrated as national <br />
>>> heroes, models of bravery. Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer produced a motion picture <br />
>>> based on the raid; "Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo," starring Spencer Tracy <br />
>>> and Van Johnson, was a patriotic and emotional box-office hit, and the <br />
>>> phrase became part of the national lexicon. In the movie-theater previews <br />
>>> for the film, MGM proclaimed that it was presenting the story "with <br />
>>> supreme pride."<br />
>>><br />
>>> Beginning in 1946, the surviving Raiders have held a reunion each April, <br />
>>> to commemorate the mission. The reunion is in a different city each year. <br />
>>> In 1959, the city of Tucson, Arizona, as a gesture of respect and <br />
>>> gratitude, presented the Doolittle Raiders with a set of 80 silver <br />
>>> goblets. Each goblet was engraved with the name of a Raider.<br />
>>><br />
>>> Every year, a wooden display case bearing all 80 goblets is transported <br />
>>> to the reunion city. Each time a Raider passes away, his goblet is turned <br />
>>> upside down in the case at the next reunion, as his old friends bear <br />
>>> solemn witness.<br />
>>><br />
>>> Also in the wooden case is a bottle of 1896 Hennessy Very Special cognac. <br />
>>> The year is not happenstance: 1896 was when Jimmy Doolittle was born.<br />
>>><br />
>>> There has always been a plan: When there are only two surviving Raiders, <br />
>>> they would open the bottle, at last drink from it, and toast their <br />
>>> comrades who preceded them in death.<br />
>>><br />
>>> As 2013 began, there were five living Raiders; then, in February, Tom <br />
>>> Griffin passed away at age 96.<br />
>>><br />
>>> What a man he was. After bailing out of his plane over a mountainous <br />
>>> Chinese forest after the Tokyo raid, he became ill with malaria, and <br />
>>> almost died. When he recovered, he was sent to Europe to fly more combat <br />
>>> missions. He was shot down, captured, and spent 22 months in a German <br />
>>> prisoner of war camp.<br />
>>><br />
>>> The selflessness of these men, the sheer guts ... there was a passage in <br />
>>> the Cincinnati Enquirer obituary for Mr. Griffin that, on the surface, <br />
>>> had nothing to do with the war, but that emblematizes the depth of his <br />
>>> sense of duty and devotion:<br />
>>> "When his wife became ill and needed to go into a nursing home, he <br />
>>> visited her every day. He walked from his house to the nursing home, fed <br />
>>> his wife and at the end of the day brought home her clothes. At night, he <br />
>>> washed and ironed her clothes. Then he walked them up to her room the <br />
>>> next morning. He did that for three years until her death in 2005."<br />
>>><br />
>>> So now, out of the original 80, only four Raiders remain: Dick Cole <br />
>>> (Doolittle's co-pilot on the Tokyo raid), Robert Hite, Edward Saylor and <br />
>>> David Thatcher. All are in their 90s. They have decided that there are <br />
>>> too few of them for the public reunions to continue.<br />
>>><br />
>>> The events in Fort Walton Beach this week will mark the end. It has come <br />
>>> full circle; Florida's nearby Eglin Field was where the Raiders trained <br />
>>> in secrecy for the Tokyo mission. The town is planning to do all it can <br />
>>> to honor the men: a six-day celebration of their valor, including <br />
>>> luncheons, a dinner and a parade.<br />
>>><br />
>>> Do the men ever wonder if those of us for whom they helped save the <br />
>>> country have tended to it in a way that is worthy of their sacrifice? <br />
>>> They don't talk about that, at least not around other people. But if you <br />
>>> find yourself near Fort Walton Beach this week, and if you should <br />
>>> encounter any of the Raiders, you might want to offer them a word of <br />
>>> thanks. I can tell you from firsthand observation that they appreciate <br />
>>> hearing that they are remembered.<br />
>>><br />
>>> The men have decided that after this final public reunion they will wait <br />
>>> until a later date -- some time this year -- to get together once more, <br />
>>> informally and in absolute privacy. That is when they will open the <br />
>>> bottle of brandy. The years are flowing by too swiftly now; they are not <br />
>>> going to wait until there are only two of them.<br />
>>><br />
>>> They will fill the four remaining upturned goblets.<br />
>>> And raise them in a toast to those who are gone.<br />
>>><br />
>>> PLEASE SEND THIS ON, ESPECIALLY TO THOSE WHO WERE TOO YOUNG TO KNOW ABOUT <br />
>>> THESE GUYS. THIS SHOULD BE READ BY EVERY KID IN GRADE AND HIGH SCHOOL SO <br />
>>> THEY KNOW OUR HISTORY.<br />
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