Doolittle Raiders

 It's the cup of brandy that no one wants to drink.

On Tuesday, in Fort Walton Beach , Florida , the surviving
Doolittle Raiders gathered publicly for the last time.

They once were among the most universally admired and revered
men in the United States . There were 80 of the Raiders in April 1942,
when they carried out one of the most courageous and heart-stirring
military operations in this nation's history. The mere mention of
their unit's name, in those years, would bring tears to the eyes of
grateful Americans.

Now only four survive.

After Japan 's sneak attack on Pearl Harbor, with the United
States reeling and wounded, something dramatic was needed to turn the
war effort around.

Even though there were no friendly airfields close enough to
Japan for the United States to launch a retaliation, a daring plan was
devised. Sixteen B-25s were modified so that they could take off from
the deck of an aircraft carrier. This had never before been tried --
sending such big, heavy bombers from a carrier.

The 16 five-man crews, under the command of Lt. Col. James
Doolittle, who himself flew the lead plane off the USS Hornet, knew
that they would not be able to return to the carrier. They would have
to hit Japan and then hope to make it to China for a safe landing.

But on the day of the raid, the Japanese military caught wind of
the plan. The Raiders were told that they would have to take off from
much farther out in the Pacific Ocean than they had counted on. They
were told that because of this they would not have enough fuel to make
it to safety.

And those men went anyway.

They bombed Tokyo , and then flew as far as they could. Four
planes crash-landed ; 11 more crews bailed out, and three of the
Raiders died. Eight more were captured ; three were executed. Another
died of starvation in a Japanese prison camp. One crew made it to
Russia .

The Doolittle Raid sent a message from the United States to its
enemies, and to the rest of the world: We will fight. And, no matter
what it takes, we will win.

Of the 80 Raiders, 62 survived the war. They were celebrated as
national heroes, models of bravery. Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer produced a
motion picture based on the raid ; "Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo,"
starring Spencer Tracy and Van Johnson, was a patriotic and emotional
box-office hit, and the phrase became part of the national lexicon. In
the movie-theater previews for the film, MGM proclaimed that it was
presenting the story "with supreme pride."

Beginning in 1946, the surviving Raiders have held a reunion
each April, to commemorate the mission. The reunion is in a different
city each year. In 1959, the city of Tucson , Arizona , as a gesture
of respect and gratitude, presented the Doolittle Raiders with a set
of 80 silver goblets. Each goblet was engraved with the name of a
Raider.

Every year, a wooden display case bearing all 80 goblets is
transported to the reunion city. Each time a Raider passes away, his
goblet is turned upside down in the case at the next reunion, as his
old friends bear solemn witness.

Also in the wooden case is a bottle of 1896 Hennessy Very
Special cognac. The year is not happenstance: 1896 was when Jim my
Doolittle was born.

There has always been a plan: When there are only two surviving
Raiders, they would open the bottle, at last drink from it, and toast
their comrades who preceded them in death.

As 2013 began, there were five living Raiders ; then, in
February, Tom Griffin passed away at age 96.

What a man he was. After bailing out of his plane over a
mountainous Chinese forest after the Tokyo raid, he became ill with
malaria, and almost died. When he recovered, he was sent to Europe to
fly more combat missions. He was shot down, captured, and spent 22
months in a German prisoner of war camp.

The selflessness of these men, the sheer guts ... there was a
passage in the Cincinnati Enquirer obituary for Mr. Griffin that, on
the surface, had nothing to do with the war, but that emblematizes the
depth of his sense of duty and devotion:
"When his wife became ill and needed to go into a nursing home,
he visited her every day. He walked from his house to the nursing
home, fed his wife and at the end of the day brought home her clothes.
At night, he washed and ironed her clothes. Then he walked them up to
her room the next morning. He did that for three years until her death
in 2005."

So now, out of the original 80, only four Raiders remain: Dick
Cole (Doolittle's co-pilot on the Tokyo raid), Robert Hite, Edward
Saylor and David Thatcher. All are in their 90s. They have decided
that there are too few of them for the public reunions to continue.

The events in Fort Walton Beach this week will mark the end. It
has come full circle ; Florida 's nearby Eglin Field was where the
Raiders trained in secrecy for the Tokyo mission. The town is planning
to do all it can to honor the men: a six-day celebration of their
valor, including luncheons, a dinner and a parade.

Do the men ever wonder if those of us for whom they helped save
the country have tended to it in a way that is worthy of their
sacrifice? They don't talk about that, at least not around other
people. But if you find yourself near Fort Walton Beach this week, and
if you should encounter any of the Raiders, you might want to offer
them a word of thanks. I can tell you from firsthand observation that
they appreciate hearing that they are remembered.

The men have decided that after this final public reunion they
will wait until a later date -- sometime this year -- to get together
once more, informally and in absolute privacy. That is when they will
open the bottle of brandy. The years are flowing by too swiftly now ;
they are not going to wait until there are only two of them.

They will fill the four remaining upturned goblets.
And raise them in a toast to those who are gone.