USS Hornet Event Honors World War II Pilots

Bay City News Service--Three surviving pilots who took part in a World War II aerial attack on Tokyo will help celebrate the 70th anniversary of the raid today at an event on the in Alameda.

The pilots were part of a squadron of 16 Army B-25 bombers that took off from the flight deck of the aircraft carrier Hornet CV-8, the predecessor of the U.S.S. Hornet, on April 18, 1942, in a daring attack on Tokyo, according to officials with the U.S.S. Hornet Museum.

Today's day-long event will honor not only the pilots, known as the Doolittle Raiders, but the man who planned and led the attack and gave the group his name, Alameda native and University of California at Berkeley graduate Gen. Jimmy Doolittle.

Doolittle was an aviation pioneer who helped develop the artificial horizon and directional gyroscope, flew the first transcontinental flight in less than 24 hours at age 26 and became the first pilot to fly an airplane relying solely on flight instruments, museum officials said.

Those taking part in today's event on board the U.S.S. Hornet include three of the surviving Doolittle Raiders, Doolittle's son and granddaughter and two of the sailors on board the Hornet at the time of the raid.

In addition, Lt. Col. Chu Chen, who as a teenager helped rescue the Doolittle raiders when they were forced to bail out over China, will attend.

Today's event is presented by the U.S.S. Hornet Museum and the Jimmy Doolittle Air & Space Museum in Fairfield.

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