US Coins

Doolittle Tokyo Raider passing drops survivors to two

By Paul Gilkes

Published: Mar 30, 2015, 12 PM

Lt, Col. Robert L. Hite, in the pilot's seat with son, Wally, in the cockpit of a B-25 bomber during the 67th reunion of the Doolittle Tokyo Raiders in Columbia, S.C.

Image courtesy of the Doolittle Tokyo Raiders.

Lt. Robert L. Hite, co-pilot of Crew No. 16, in 1942, the year of the raid on the Japanese capital of Tokyo.

Image courtesy of the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force.

Lt. Col. Robert L. Hite, 95, died March 29 at a Nashville nursing home, leaving the number of surviving Doolittle Tokyo Raiders at just two.

Hite was a co-pilot of Crew No. 16 and one of four Doolittle Tokyo Raiders who made it home after imprisonment in a Japanese prisoner of war camp. Hite spent 40 months in captivity.

The surviving members are Lt. Col. Richard E. Cole, 99, co-pilot to Lt. Col. James H. "Jimmy" Doolittle in the lead plane, and Staff Sgt. David J. Thatcher, 93, engineer-gunner on Crew No. 7.

Hite's death comes two weeks before the congressional leadership is to present a congressional gold medal April 15 recognizing the heroic efforts of the Doolittle Tokyo Raiders. There were 80 Raiders split into five-man crews that took off in 16 B-25 medium bombers from the flight deck of the USS Hornet on what was billed as a suicide mission to bomb the Japanese capital of Tokyo.

On April 18, 2015, the 73rd anniversary of the mission, the congressional gold medal is to be flown aboard a B-25 from Andrews Air Force Base for presentation to the National Musum of the U.S. Air Force at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton, Ohio, where it will formally join a public exhibit on the Raiders and their missions.

Collectors will be able to purchase 1.5-inch and 3-inch bronze duplicates of the gold medal. The obverse and reverse designs of the medal won't be publicized until the April 15 medal presentation ceremony in Washington, D.C.

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