[Nfbf-l] Doolittle's Raiders-'The Cup of Brandy No One Wants to Drink'

[BROOKE6358 at aol.com]

The cup of  brandy no one wants to drink: 
 
Recently, in Fort Walton Beach, Florida, the surviving Doolittle Raiders  
gathered publicly for the last time. 
 
They once were among the most 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 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 Jimmy 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 emblemizes 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. If you should ever 
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 -- some time 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. 
 
 
PLEASE SEND THIS ON, ESPECIALLY TO THOSE WHO WERE TOO YOUNG TO KNOW ABOUT  
THESE GUYS. THIS SHOULD BE READ BY EVERY KID IN GRADE AND HIGH SCHOOL SO 
THEY  KNOW OUR HISTORY.