The Pilot And The Commando

Download or read book Dick Cole’s War written by Dennis R. Okerstrom and published by University of Missouri Press. This book was released on 2015-09-07 with total page 336 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: With American wartime morale at a low, the Japanese attack on Pearl harbor galvanized Americans to enter World War II combat operations. Four months later, on April 18, 1942, the first air assault on the Japanese Home Islands provided an important boost to American morale. That raid, immortalized in numerous films, became known as the Doolittle Raid. Sixteen bombers set out to bomb targets in Japan with a plan to land in China. All but three of the crew survived. Although every plane was lost, sixty-nine of the eighty members escaped capture or death, including Lieutenant Colonel Richard "Dick" Cole, one of two surviving members of the famous mission. The Doolittle Raiders were awarded the Congressional Gold Medal in May 2014. Doolittle's Raid was only opening act of Cole's flying career during the war. When that mission was complete, many of the survivors were assigned to combat units in Europe. Cole remained in India and was assigned to Ferrying Command, flying the Hump (the Himalayas) for a year in the world's worst weather, with inadequate aircraft, few aids to navigation, and inaccurate maps. More than six hundred aircraft with their crews were lost during this monumental effort to keep China in the war, but Cole survived and rotated home in 1943. He was home just a few months when he was recruited for the 1st Air Commandos and he returned to India to participate in Project 9, the aerial invasion of Burma. Dick Cole's War is the fascinating story of one American's yearning for adventure in the skies and unstinting service to country. -- Inside jacket flap.