The Greatest Generation is passing on. Time is inexorable.
http://www.dailycamera.com/boulder-county-news/ci_17061321?source=rss
Retired Col. Bill Bower, the last surviving pilot among the Doolittle Raiders, has died in Boulder, Colo. Boulder's Daily Camera reports that Bower died Monday in his south Boulder home at age 93. "He was an exceptional human being," said his son Jim Bower. As a first lieutenant, Bower piloted Fickle Finger, the 12th of 16 B-25 bombers that took off from the deck of the aircraft carrier USS Hornet on April 18, 1942, to bomb Tokyo, just four months after Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor. He and his crew bailed out over China and reached safety after the mission. Bower continued to serve during World War II and remained in the Air Force until 1966. With his death, there are now five surviving Doolittle Raiders, including two co-pilots. The most recent Doolittle Raiders reunion took place last April in Dayton, Ohio.
Wow, Maj Richard Winters and now Col. Bower. Blue skies gents. We are here because of men like you.
Did he get to drink the "Last Man" bottle?
Quote from: JohnKachenmeister on January 12, 2011, 08:20:17 PM
Did he get to drink the "Last Man" bottle?
there are still five more. He was just the last pilot (aircraft commander) to die.
That whole mission is still such an impressive and amazing undertaking, even by todays standards.
What's really important here is not that these gentlemen are in the sunsets of their lives, it is the example they set with their actions and how they lived their lives afterward. We should all learn from their example and try to mirror it in our own lives.
That their actions will continue to live on in our memory is quite a testiment. Think how that example could change CAP.