Doolittle 2001

Air Classics, Aug 2001 by O'Leary, Michael

INCREDIBLY HARD WORK BY A DEDICATED BAND Of VOLUNTEERS, A GROUP OF EXCELLENT SPONSORS, AND THE OWNERS, PILOTS, AND CREWS Of TWELVE B-25 MITCHELLS CAME TOGETHER TO CREATE AVIATION HISTORY

For Baby Boomers interested in aircraft while growing LIp in the 1950s and 1960s, late night television provided a virtual cornucopia of vintage black and white movies revolving around aviation and war. Those of you from that time period will certainly remember staying up to watch such World War Two flicks as Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo - and cheering as the Mitchells lifted off from the deck of the USS Homer for America's first strike against Japan.

Today, the movie does not appear all that often on television but it is easily available on video and DVD. Rewatching the 1944 MGM film today, one is struck by Van Johnson's pretty terrible acting but the scenes of the Mitchells still hold up quite well also it is interesting to note that the plot line is fairly accurate which is unusual considering the amount of wartime secrecy. A lot of

talent went into creating the film including a script written by

Dalton Trumbo and tight directing from Mervyn Le Roy. While being a bit of, naturally, a flag waver, Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo was well-received by critics and Bosley Crowther, writing for the New York Times stated "All of the production involving planes and technical action is so fine that the film has the tough and literal quality of an air force documentary." Critic James Agee wrote, "A big studio, big scale film, free of artistic pretensions, it is transformed by its not very imaginative but very dogged sincerity into something forceful, simple and thoroughly sympathetic."

Watching those flickering black and white images as a kid, and thoroughly captivated by the big and tough Mitchells, I figured that movie was about as close as I would ever come to a real B-25. However, life is nothing if not full of strange twists and turns.

On the hot afternoon of 9 May, I was pulling down the entrance hatch to Pacific Princess in preparation for strapping in and heading off on a great adventure. Before climbing up the short ladder, I looked around and saw our companions for the mission. Neatly arranged on the bright white concrete Petersen Aviation ramp (which was rapidly gaining some pools of very black oil from the dripping Wrights) at Van Nuys Airport, were another seven pristine B-25 Mitchells (Top Secret, Heavenly Body, Guardian of Freedom, Betty's Dream, Martha Jean, Apache Princess, Miss Mitchell) with crews strapped in and ready for takeoff.

Petersen Aviation had generously supplied 4000 gallons of avgas for the visiting Mitchells and Van Nuys was an ideal stopover for our intended target -- Fresno, California. Why Fresno? Well, Joe Davis and the volunteers from Eagle Field at Dos Palos (Eagle Field is a WWII primary training base that is being restored back to original condition by Joe and his group) had been burning the midnight oil for months to stage a gathering of Mitchells at Fresno Yosemite International Airport to honor the 59th anniversary of the Doolittle Raid on Japan.

Such an undertaking is not taken lightly and it is an endeavor that can soon have the most stout of individuals pulling out their hair and screaming. For example, to help defray the huge costs, sponsors had to be found and in today's tightening economy this was no easy task (please check our sidebar on the sponsors and support them when you get a chance Doolittle 2001 would not have happened without them). Also, extensive travel arrangements had to be made for the surviving Doolittle Raiders that wished to attend the event while preparations were undertaken for the care and feeding of the Mitchells that were expected.

All across the country, planning was underway. Bill Klaers at Rialto, California, was doing a lot of the work with B-25 owners and pilots and Carl Scholl at nearby Chino was doing the same. Greg Vallero was undertaking the responsibility of getting the midwest B-25s to Fresno and he was able to get significant fuel discounts at the planned stops. Joe Davis commented, "These B-25s are all sound, reliable Warbirds but stuff happens. We planned to have fuel and oil at the event but we instructed crews to each put together a care package including, hydraulic fluid, plugs, exhaust stacks (which were needed!), 500-mph tape, safety wire, tie-wraps, tools, etc." Carl Scholl fitted out a trailer with a spare main wheel and tire (which came in very useful when Sunday Punch developed a leak in the left main), spare nose wheel and tire, front and rear cylinder changes, jacks, brakes, and other stuff needed to keep Mitchells going.

While all this was going on, a big wrench was thrown into the plans and it came from an unexpected source - Disney. It was planned to have Doolittle 2001 over the weekend of 19-20 May but Disney objected. Why, you may ask? Actually for a fairly good reason - Disney was planning to have a $5,000,000 (yes, that's the correct figure - imagine the Warbird airshow you could put together on that budget) preview party for their Pearl Harbor film in Hawaii on the same weekend and Disney wanted to have as many Doolittle Raiders as possible on hand for the festivities. An agreement was worked out that saw Doolittle 2001 moved to the earlier weekend and this, of course, caused even more work for the small group of volunteers.