Remembering a Veteran: Jimmy Doolittle's World War I

General James Harold “Jimmy” Doolittle (1896–1993) was a pioneering pilot, aeronautical engineer, combat leader and military strategist whose career stretched from World War I to the height of the Cold War. He is most famous for leading a daring bombing raid over Tokyo in 1942, the first American attack on the Japanese mainland.

Doolittle Around the Time of World War One

Born in Alameda, California, he spent much of his childhood in western Alaska. His father, Frank, was a gold prospector and carpenter in Nome, where young Jimmy learned to fight bullies and pilot a dogsled. Eventually Rosa and Jimmy Doolittle returned to California, leaving Frank behind.

Jimmy attended high school in Los Angeles, where he distinguished himself as a gymnast and boxer. He then began courses at the University of California, Berkeley, School of Mines, but the war drew him to military service. He originally left his junior year at Berkeley in October 1917 to enlist as a flying cadet in the Signal Corps Reserve. A natural, he was soon soloing and earned his commission in March 1918. Initially he served as a flight gunnery instructor. He later requested a transfer to the European theater, but the Armistice dashed his dreams of combat.

Due to his high performance, three officers recommended he be retained in the Air Service after demobilization; he subsequently received a Regular Army commission in 1920. Doolittle worked at the Army’s Kelly Field in San Antonio, Texas, before returning to Berkeley to complete his degree. In 1922 he became the first pilot to fly coast to coast in under 24 hours, making the journey from Pablo Beach (now Jacksonville Beach) Florida to Rockwell Field, Coronado, California, with just one stop in Texas to refuel. The Army next sent him to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he earned master’s and doctoral degrees in aeronautical engineering.

On 24 September 1929 Lieutenant Doolittle Made History's First Completely
Blind (Instrument Only) Takeoff and Landing in History on this Aircraft 

He spent the rest of the decade working as a test pilot for military and civilian planes, setting air race records and helping to develop instruments that allowed pilots to fly in whiteout conditions. In 1930 he left the army for higher-paying work at the Shell Oil Company, where he pressed for the adoption of advanced aviation fuel. Returning to the army full-time in 1940, Doolittle continued his test pilot work until January of 1942, when he was summoned by General Henry H. “Hap” Arnold to lead a raid on the Japanese mainland.  The rest is history.

A Tale from "My Old Man" Collection of Stories.

My father, George Hanlon (1905–1991), has made previous appearances on Roads to the Great War (See Preparedness Day Bombing, Jack London, and Influenza) and is now ready for a return visit. Here's another story he shared with me when I was growing up.

In the 1930s, the family trucking business in San Francisco was located adjacent to an aviation shop run by a German WWI veteran.  The mechanics there were apparently cutting edge and had recently provided support for the filming of Howard Hughes's Hell's Angels. They also attracted the interest of Jimmy Doolittle, who was checking up on  aviation developments during his civilian period between the wars. The Old Man drove trucks for my grandfather between his construction jobs and met Doolittle next-door several times while on coffee break visits. Apparently, Dad and the future general got on a friendly, first-name basis for a brief period, but they soon went their separate ways for a decade or so.

In 1942, the Old Man was a  civilian leaderman rigger at the Alameda Naval Air Station at the same dock where the second USS Hornet is now moored as a museum ship. One day, the original USS Hornet arrived unexpectedly. An announcement soon went out that all non-military employees were to leave the base for the next  72 hours. Being a supervisor, Dad was one of the last to leave the ship. Walking off the pier, he spied the Navy captain commanding the docks with an Army officer at the end of the pier. As he drew closer he recognized his old acquaintance, and called out, "Hi, Jimmy," who responded, "Hi, Skinny" (OM's nickname) and they shook hands. According to Dad,  the naval officer looked shocked, as if a major security breach had occurred, but said nothing. A day  or so later, Dad was riding to San Francisco on the Key System train that used to run on the lower level of the Bay Bridge, when the Hornet sailed underneath with a full load of Army bombers on its deck. He told me he knew immediately something interesting was up but kept it to himself for a long time, even after President Roosevelt announced the mission had been launched from Shangri-La.