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James H Doolittle Facts

James H Doolittle Facts
James H. Doolittle was an American Army general and aviation pioneer who helped modernize the United States Army Airforce, which eventually became the United States Air Force in 1947. His name has become known for the "Doolittle Raid," which was a United States air raid on Tokyo, Japan he organized on April 18, 1942, less than six months after the Japanese attack of Pearl Harbor. Doolittle was born on December 14, 1896 to Frank and Rosa Doolittle in Alameda, California. Unlike most American World War II generals, Doolittle did not attend a service academy but instead attended the University of California, Berkley. He trained American pilots stateside during World War I beginning in 1917 and married his wife, Josephine that same year. The couple had two sons.
Interesting James H Doolittle Facts:
Doolittle was particularly active between the world wars in aviation.
During the 1920s, Doolittle attended the prestigious Massachusetts Institute of Technology to study aeronautics. He showed a particular aptitude in that field, working in both private industry and the military before World War II.
In 1929, Doolittle became the first pilot to take, fly, and land an airplane using only instruments. Before that time, pilots relied primarily on their senses, particularly sight, which could be quite limiting and at times dangerous.
After briefly serving in the reserves, Doolittle was promoted to major in June 1940.
Doolittle was promoted to lieutenant colonel in January 1942, just after the Pearl Harbor attacks.
Doolittle received the Congressional Medal of Honor and was promoted to Brigadier General for his planning of the Doolittle Raid.
Doolittle personally flew one of the planes during the mission.
All sixteen of the B-25 bombers used in the Doolittle Raid were lost. Fifteen were captured by the Japanese and one by the Soviet Union.
All but eight of the men involved in the Doolittle Raid parachuted to safety in China.
Doolittle was passed over for further promotion by General Douglass MacArthur. He was quickly transferred, though, to the European Theater of operations where he made the commanding general of the Northwest African Strategic Airforce in 1943.
He continued to fly missions over Italy late in the war.
His largest command was over the Eight Air Force in Europe.
In terms of air strategies, Doolittle was remembered for giving his fighter planes great latitude. He often ordered them from their escorts of bombers to fly ahead and engage German fighters and bombers in order to gain air supremacy.
Doolittle served as chairman of the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACAA) in the 1950s. The NACAA was the predecessor of NASA.
At President Dwight D. Eisenhower's request, Doolittle conducted a study of the what was at the time new Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). The 1954 classified report was titled the Doolittle Report. The report advocated the use of subversion in foreign countries in order to stop the spread of communism.
Doolittle died on September 27, 1993 at the age of ninety-six in Pebble Beach, California. He was buried at the Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia.


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