“I fear all we have done is to awaken a sleeping giant and fill him with a terrible resolve.”
Quite the interesting place to find a history lesson.
So today my news feeder filled in a with an article from The Chive (self-proclaimed “Probably the best site in the World”). Breaking from their usual fare, they had an article about yesterday’s passing of WWII Hero Lt. Col. Richard E. Cook at 103. The final living member of the Doolittle Raiders.
Chive Article: https://thechive.com/2019/04/10/last-doolittle-raider-passes-away-at-103-yrs-old-9-photos/
I felt like I had heard of Doolittle Raiders but didn’t remember much about it. And the Chive educated me that the Doolittle Raiders were the first to personify the famous Japanese Admiral’s statement after Pearl Harbor: “I fear all we have done is to awaken a sleeping giant and fill him with a terrible resolve.”
On April 18, 1942, the Doolittle Raiders were a group of 16 B-25B Mitchell medium bombers that launched from The USS Cornet, each with a crew of 5 men. Their mission was to bomb Tokyo, Japan. Which Emperor Hirohito had decreed as “invincible.”
Here’s the thing: they had completely stripped the planes of everything but bombs. They VOLUNTEERED for this mission knowing that they didn’t have enough fuel to return. The BEST CASE SCENARIO plan was to ditch their planes over China.
Wow! What did you consider “tough decisions” at 26………….36……………today?