Dick Cole’s War: Doolittle Raider, Hump Pilot, Air Commando

With the 100th anniversary of his birth on September 7, 2015, Dick Cole stands in the powerful spotlight that has followed him since his B-25 was launched from a Navy carrier and flown toward Japan just four months after the attack on Pearl Harbor. Participating in Doolittle’s Raid and crash-landing in China might have been enough for some, butCole went on to India and was assigned to Ferrying Command, flying the Hump (the Himalayas) for a year in the world’s worst weather, with inadequate aircraft, few aids to navigation, and inaccurate maps. He survived this dangerous assignment and rotated home in 1943. A few months later, Cole was recruited for the First Air Commandos and he returned to India to participate in Project 9, the aerial invasion of Burma.