Last living Doolittle Raider recalls attack

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On April 18, 1942, Doolittle and co-pilot Richard E. "Dick" Cole sat in the cockpit of their B-25 going over a preflight check list with the engines running.

"I was setting the engine cowl flaps and watching to make sure the engines didn't overheat," said Cole, now 101 years old and a retired Air Force lieutenant colonel.

"It was a bit hectic," he said, because crews were scrambling. The mission launch was moved up by 12 hours because of fears that Tokyo had been tipped off.
As a result, the B-25s would have to take off hundreds of miles farther from Japan than planned. That meant the planes wouldn't have enough fuel to guarantee they'd land safely in China.

"We were the first plane," Cole said. "I remember I was hoping that we had done everything that we needed to do to make the takeoff. "

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