2005.24.55

Full color photograph of General Jimmy Doolittle in civilian clothing, standing in the middle of a circle of admiring men (also in civilian clothing). Doolittle is wearing a gray suit, white shirt, a navy blue or black necktie and a white handkerchief in the breast pocket of his coat. He is balding, with gray close cut hair at his ears.

James Harold Doolittle (Jimmy Doolittle) was born in Alameda, CA, Dec. 14, 1986. He enlisted in the Signal Corps Reserve as a flying cadet in October 1917, commissioned as a second lieutenant in the Signal Corps' Aviation Secotion, March 11, 1918. During WW I he was a flight instructor in the United States (at several Fields in Texas, Louisana, Ohio and) at Rockwell Field, California. He received a Regualr Army commission and promoted to First Lieutenant on July 1, 1920. In September 1922, he flew a DeHavilland DH-4 in the first cross-country flight, from Pablo Beach, Florida to San Diego, California in 21 hours, 19 minutes (with only on refueling stop in Texas). For this historic flight he earned The US Army Distinguished Flying Cross. He then completed his BA at the University of California [Berkeley]. (He earned a Master of Science in Engineering from MIT in 1924 and started work on his Doctoarate of Science in Aeronautics. In the mid 1920, stationed in Washington, DC and New York, he attempted many speed records, winning the Schneider Cup race in a Curtis R3C in 1925, average speed 232 MPH. Awarded the Mackay Trophy in 1926. In 1927 he was the first to perform 'an outside loop." His most important contribution to aeronatutical technology was the development of instrument flying. (The first pilot to take off, fly and land an airplane using instruments alone.) He won the Harmon Trophy for "blind flying." He served as the manager of the Aviation Department of Shell Oil Company, conducting many aviation tests in 1930. He won the Bendix Trophy in 1931 in a Laird Super Stallion Biplane in a race from Burbank, California to Cleveland, Ohio. The Thompson Tropy was his in 1932, when he set the world's speed record for land planes doing 252 MPH in the Gee Bee R-1 racer, in the Cleveland, Ohio race. In April 1934 he became a member of the Army Board to study Air Corps organization. In 1935 he was transferred to the Air Corps Reserve. He became president of the Institute of Aeronatutical Science in 1940, returning to active duty July 1, 1940. January 2, 1942 he was promoted to lieutenant colonel. He volunteered and received the approval of General Hap Arnold to lead an attack on Japan from the aircraft carrier Hornet. (Targets were in Tokyo, Kobe, Osaka and Nagoya.) The mission was successful and boosted America's war hopes early in WW II. Doolittle bailed out of his B-25 over a rice field in China; some of the men in the fifteen other planes lost their lives. Doolittle was awarded the Medal of Honor by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt for this operation. His citation reads: "For conspicuous leadership above and beyond the call of duty, involving personal valor and intrepidity at an extreme hazard to life. With the apparent certainty of being forced to land in enemy territory or to perish at sea, Lt. Col. Doolittle personally led a squadron of Army bombers, manned by volunteers crews, in a highly destructive raid on the Japanese mainland." In addition Doolittle also received two Distinguished Service Medals, the Silver Star, three Distinguished Flying Crosses, four Air Medals and decorations from Great Britain, France, Belgium, Poland, China and Ecuador. Promoted during WW II he served in several battle theaters, taking command 15th Air Force in the Mediterranean Theater in November 1943; from January 1944 to September 1945 he commanded the 8th Air Force in Europe and the Pacific until the war ended, and was made lieutenant general on March 13, 1944. He went back to inactive reserve status on May 10, 1946 and returned to the Shell Oil Company as a vice president, and later a director. In 1947 he served as the first President of the Air Force Association, and assisted in the development of the organization. In March 1951 he was appointed special assistent to the Air Force chief of staff, servings as a civilian in scientific matters leading to Air Force ballistic missle and space programs. On February 28, 1959 he retired from Air Force duty but continued as chairman of the board of Space Technology Laboratories. Congress advanced him to full general on the Air Force retired list on April 4, 1985. President Ronald Reagan and Senator Barry Goldwater piined on his four-star insignia at a cermenoy, making him the first person in Air Force Reserve history to wear four stars. He died in California, September 27, 1993 and is buried at Arlington National Cemetary in Virginia.