Air Force Academy Football Team Celebrates Historic WWII Doolittle Raid on Japan; Leftists Predictably Go Crazy
Air Force Academy to field awesome uniforms for the Navy-Air Force football game this fall; the best part is the reaction by out-of-touch anti-war nincompoops
We have been tracking a number of disturbing issues at the service academies, such as CRT instruction, Our Study: Critical Race Theories Have “Established a Beachhead at the Military Service Academies”, the fact that the service academies continue to use race as a factor in admissions, even after the Supreme Court’s Students for Fair Admissions case, which outlawed such use at civilian colleges as unconstitutional, The Supreme Court Should Apply Its Affirmative Action Ruling to Military Academies, and the spread of “woke” ideologies, West Point Alum Warns the School is Going Woke.
Last December we even held an online seminar with Air Force Academy grad Matthew Lohmeier, a former Space Force Lieutenant Colonel squadron commander who was fired, forced to resign, and and subjected to an Inspector General investigation within the Pentagon after publishing his bestselling book, Irresistible Revolution: Marxism’s Goal of Conquest & the Unmaking of the American Military, which tore the lid off the military’s obsession with racist and radical “woke” ideologies.
The seminar we held, which is definitely worth watching, and was entitled Saving the Military Service Academies from Wokeness, can be viewed here:
Well after all that negativity, I finally have some good news to report: The Air Force Academy’s football team is going to be honoring the historic Doolittle raid on Tokyo during World War II with special football uniforms this year.
From Breitbart News: ‘War Crimes’: Leftists Attack Air Force Football for Uniforms Honoring 1942 Doolittle Raiders:
On Tuesday, Air Force Football revealed its new uniforms, which feature a tribute to the Doolittle Raid…
The Doolittle Raid, commanded by Air Force hero Lieutenant Colonel James Doolittle, took off on April 18, 1942, with 16 B-25 Mitchell medium bombers flown by 80 airmen to deliver their payload to the Greater Tokyo area and a few other Japanese cities. The raid was launched only four months after the sneak attack at Pearl [Harbor].
The airmen, though, knew that the raid could be a suicide mission because the planes did not have enough fuel to get back to their carriers. The pilots and crew knew that if they survived their bomb runs, they would have to ditch their planes in hostile territory because they could not get back.
Yet, they went anyway…
Of course, all 16 planes were lost, three U.S. airmen died during the raid, and eight were captured, with four of them dying in a Japanese POW prison. The rest escaped back to the U.S. after ditching their planes in Japanese-controlled Chinese territory and evading Japanese capture.
Lt. Col. Doolittle was awarded the Medal of Honor and was promoted straight to brigadier general for leading the raid.
I have personally always found the Doolittle Raid to be one of the highlights of World War II and literally one of the most heroic events in United States history. A couple of movie clips help to illustrate why:
First from the movie Pearl Harbor, with Doolittle (played by Alec Baldwin) explaining what he would do if his plane was damaged over Japan:
Next, from the movie Midway, with Doolittle (played by Aaron Eckhart) explaining that they have been ordered to launch despite being “too far” away from Japan (see also Dennis Quaid as Admiral “Bull” Halsey):
If you don’t realize how amazing this raid was, and honor the memory of it, there is something seriously wrong with your wiring. Having spent an entire seven month deployment aboard USS Forrestal (CV-59), I can tell you that aircraft carrier operations are fraught with danger for Navy aircraft, never mind Army aircraft. And the fact that they actually hit Tokyo….
So I was extremely pleasantly surprised when I heard that the Air Force Academy was going to honor the Doolittle Raiders with special football uniforms when they play the Naval Academy on October 21, 2023. Check it out:
“You have struck the hardest blow of the war directly at the enemy’s heart. You have made history.”
THE DOOLITTLE RAIDERS pic.twitter.com/Vd4aHhv0jw
— Air Force Football (@AF_Football) August 15, 2023
Of course, left-wingers are in a tizzy, because war is bad, or something:
Delete this. Do better!
— Jonathan (@iampangean) August 18, 2023
Equating football to a literal war is a very bad thing.
— New Nature Boy (@net_elephant) August 18, 2023
This is awful taste.
— jake in salt lake (@trashpandamagoo) August 18, 2023
I’m saving this for when it’s inevitably deleted. Just an awe-inspiring lack of awareness. pic.twitter.com/VZ9nGCnI8y
— Nuttle (@NuttleNews) August 18, 2023
….. oh my god who approved this
— grapes (@bravegrapes) August 18, 2023
These comments are so bad they almost seem like self-parody, but I’ll be chuckling about them as I watch the game.
On the good side, I particularly like this comment, which is spot on:
I find it so funny how people post their opposing opinions on something like this. It’s interesting how few realize that we are allowed to openly express these opinions because of the people, such as the Doolittle Raiders, who put their lives on the line for this country.
— Coach H (@Coach_H_009) August 18, 2023
Just so.
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Comments
The Navy needs to come out with Hornet accented uniforms since it was the Navy that got them there. It would be a win-win set of uniforms…. in 1942 the Army Air Corps and the Navy BOTH won!
I returned to Alaska to start a medical practice , first in Wasilla and then a second center later in Anchorage. Since my house was in Girdwood, I needed to rent something in these two areas. Turns out I really lucked out when an elderly woman came to the first center looking for a professional to rent a room from her and her husband. This turned out to be a ten year experience that was even better … her husband had retained his condo in Anchorage after their marriage and I was allowed to stay at both places for the same monthly rent!!!
Sitting at the dinner table in Anchorage one night, I talked about FDR’s gamble with the Tokyo raid and the brave airman that flew it. Off the cuff as just so-so chitchat, Betty mentioned her brother was a Dolittle Raider as a pilot of one of the Doolittle planes…..
They trained here in Columbia, SC at what is now Columbia Metro. A local hardware store owner got curious after the same guy came in and bought all the heavy rope he had for three weeks.
Turns out Jimmy Doolittle was tying a B-25 to a stake driven in the ground, revving it to full throttle and someone would chop the rope with an axe. This was done to determine if it could lift off in the limited space of the aircraft carrier.
Took my 9 year old son to the Doolittle Raiders reunion in Columbia. Everyone else in line was my age or older. The Raiders, mostly grandfathers and great grandfathers pulled my son onto their side of the line and treated him like someone special.
They were good men of Character who loved their Country.
Truly awesome uniforms! ALL the Academies should be celebrating their HISTORIES!! Also – I live less than an HOUR from Columbia, SC – LIFE LONG for my 71 years – I had never heard anything about Doolittle Raiders training in Columbia!! How could this awesome part of HISTORY not be known to EVERYONE in SC?? I read a few hours per day on many websites – graduated from a college in SC – took many years of HISTORY – and never heard this before! Just ONE more thing to be proud of for my State!
Did you ever get to
Meet him?
That would be awesome!
Doolittle’s raid was agreat morale boost for the USA just months after imperial Japan sucker punched the US fleet at Pearl harbor. It confirmed the USA could bomb Japan, just like Japan bombed the USA.
If it wasn’t for Doolittle’s resolve to commit and complete the raid those woke nincompoops would all be speaking Japanese inside prison camps.
Doolittle had cemented his place in aviation history prior to WWII including winning with the Gee-Bee. When the B-26 was getting a bad reputation (One a day in Tampa Bay) Doolittle saved the plane through demonstration flights and training.
As an aside Paul Tibbets (Enola Gay) recruited WASPs to accompany him on demonstration/training flights of the B-29s. When the men saw women flying the bomber, this made it clear that they could (had to!) fly the bomber.
I went to high school with a girl whose mother was an Army WASP. Her job during WWII was the delivery of Aircraft to the Pacific front. She few everything from Corsairs to the bombers. She flew Air Mail for the USPS after the war for 33 years.
Three cheers for Santiago Blue and Silver!
My mother loved to fly, we called her Sky Queen,
If you remember the tv series Sky King…
A lot of people celebrate the great achievements by generations past in defending the United States of America without being in favor of America’s modern wars of choice.
We had no choice about WW2, little choice about WW1 (unless you are fine with trade interdiction of this country), going back to our first foreign war Thomas Jefferson was not given a choice by pirates serving corrupt piratical governments that loved taking other peoples money and ships under the extortion that it stops if you give them a bribe.
We should become more like traditional America before crusader frenzy took the nation during the 21st century and live up to the kind of ideals that the men who conducted the Doolittle raid held.
I’m not sure what to think of your comment, but I thank you for writing it.
I take it your observation regarding Thomas Jefferson and piratical governments refers to the Muslim Barbary Pirates of Libya, for which our Navy was born, and which you correctly demonize.
But then you demonize the ‘crusaders’ which is an explicit reference to Christians, so it leaves me a bit confused.
The young men who carried out the Doolittle raids may have indeed been Christian, but they were not on a crusade, as the Japanese were, and are still not, Muslims. They have their own religion, Shinto, with a smattering of Buddhism.
I welcome any corrections to my understanding.
Erronius
Just a guess but I believe he’s referring to modern America’s notion of being world police, a practice we should look to curtail.
Also, the crusades were mostly a bloody failure set about by a corrupt church-state.
The First Crusade was hardly a corrupt church-state affair.
healthguyfsu was right about what I meant by the term crusader frenzy. It had nothing to do with the original medieval crusaders but the term in it’s modern usage.
About the original crusaders I have a higher view of them than healthguy does but those crusaders aren’t particularly relevant to today (at least no more relevant than the wars of Cesare Borgia, or murder of Maurice I by Phocas).
I am glad to clear that up however, by crusader I meant in the way it is used today not the original way.
Consider that the first planes had less deck to use. Doolittle was first off leading the way.
big shiny brass ones
Air Corps, my friend. They were big shiny silver ones. 😉
we are allowed to openly express opinions because of the people, such as the Doolittle Raiders
That’s precisely why the modern left despises the Doolittle Raiders.
An excellent point. Thanks for commenting.
Exactly so. Whether we attribute it to Orwell or Churchill the notion that our freedoms were purchased and maintained by ‘rough men who stand ready to do violence on our behalf’ remains true.
This current generation is so historically ignorant that they most likely think the Doolittle Raid was a zoological attack on the good doctor’s animal friends.
It is great to see that patriotism still has life atthe Air Force Academy
The biggest effect was on the Japanese even though the damage was minimal. A rearrangement of priorities.
How long will it take for Gen. Charles “CQ” Brown to express his anger at those responsible for this show of patriotism?
Not long
That. Was. Awesome. Rarely does a commercial give me chills.
Now I’m in a quandary. I grew up rooting for Navy (dad, grandpa, uncle, brother, nephew all served), but now I have a niece who served in the AF and a great-nephew currently serving. I guess it’s a win no matter how the game turns out.
I am always astonished at the ignorance of journalists. It was not the lack of fuel that prevented the Raiders from returning to the carriers: the B-25 could not land on a carrier. It had no landing hook.
Actually, it was both. The fuel situation forced several to ditch between Japan and China. It was only with the best of luck and planning that any reached deep enough into China to meet friendly forces.
Also, it wasn’t just the lack of landing hook – it was that the B-25 was just too dang big to land on the carriers of the time. They had almost no room for the wings, even. They couldn’t get them below decks. One plane might land – but then the second wouldn’t have anywhere to land except almost on top of the previous one.
Air Corps trivia: The B-25s used by the Raiders were heavily modified — stripped of anything non-essential to reduce weight, extra fuel tanks installed in any available space. Even their tail guns were fake — a pair of broomsticks painted black, to deter enemy fighters attacking from the rear.
Payment: a quarter-million Chinese lives.
The loss of civilian lives was the highest ever in WWII over any other wars… courtesy of Japan and Germany. For those that want to argue over two bombs in August 1945….. just your point alone is so important.
Japan had been at war in China for years. Nanking was done. any attempt to link Chinese deaths to Doolittle is creative at best
Equating football to a literal war is a very bad thing.
Well, guess I should unlearn this quote, then:
That’s one you have to memorize at the Air Force Academy*. I’m glad to see them taking it to heart.
(* At least I hope they still do.)
USAFA is very tightly linked to the Doolittle Raid. The recreation center (Arnold Hall) had* a display of the cups of the Doolittle Raiders. There was a tradition that the surviving Doolittle Raiders got together each year and drank from the cups. When it was down to the last two they would open the bottle in the display case and drink to all of their comrades.
Unfortunately, the next to last died before they could do that. And the last refused to open the bottle if he couldn’t drink with at least one comrade. They have now all passed, IIRC. And the bottle sits* as testament to the bravery and determination of that band of brothers who once slipped the surly bonds.
I am so glad the Academy is doing this, despite all the other cultural problems they are experiencing. Thank you, USAFA.
(* I believe the display got moved in the early aughts to a different location. It used to be right in the main hallway of Arnold Hall.)
Football contains most elements of war and of masculine nature.
The Doolittle raid is a reminder of what was normal for previous generations: heroism and manly courage. Such a notion today would cause much gnashing of teeth and wetting of pants in some quarters..
How the heck did all the comments end up down the side of the page? Eek!
You noticed too?
The problem seems to have been corrected, at least in my browsers (Brave and Firefox).
.
Yeah we “fixed the glitch”: it had something to do with importing Tweets into the post – hopefully it won’t happen again (crosses fingers)
Thank you!
Much better now.
My mother was a 15-y.o. student in a high school physics class, and after the news broke about the Doolittle Raiders, she and her fellow students spent several days trying to figure out how the Doolittle Raiders bombed Japan. Their conclusion: that the airplanes must have launched from aircraft carriers, except that was “impossible.”
one of the best first-person accounts is “thirty seconds over tokyo” written by a pilot on the raid by the name of lawson–the japanese overflew the hornet battle group and, as the element of surprise was presumably lost, was decided to launch the attack immediately to prevent the possible destruction of the battle group–three to four hundred miles further from the target if memory serves–because of this, all of the pilots KNEW it was probable they would not be able to reach safe harbor in china and would likely ditch in the sea or come down in enemy territory–undeterred, they took off anyway carrying a message from the american people
may they rest in peace
If I recall from history, the raid actually did little damage to Tokyo itself, however, it reminded the Japanese people that they were actually at war with attacks coming more and more frequently as the war progressed.
Pearl Harbor, Singapore, Wake, et al in those first few months of the war was the high-tide mark for Japan. After Midway, they pretty much played defense for the rest of the war.
The raid was just what the American people needed too.
Let’s hope there are still men and women with such courage today!!
It told the Japanese, “We can reach out and touch you. You are not immune to the consequences of war.”
Then we went to work making that sort of thing more possible – island by island.
My daughter was offered a full scholarship to play Basketball at Air Force
I wouldn’t let her go, it was during the. Bush years, Iraq, I didn’t want her to graduate and get her legs blown off
I don’t have any second guessing, didn’t trust the man and my only daughter was not going to be food for a war I didn’t believe in.
She would have made a great AirWoman.
Jean Shepherd told the story of a band competing against a football team with a known drug problem performing a heroin syringe formation with a plunger and drug spurting out. Everything’s gone so bland since then that this is controversial.
One of the effects of the Doolittle raid was that it prompted the Japanese to attack midway earlier than they would have otherwise planned. (Per Mitsuo Fuchida’s biography- he was the lead pilot at Pearl attack and was on board the Akagi at Midway and had to be evacuated with broken ankles when it went down. )Midway became the turning point of the Pacific theater.