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Richard E. Cole Quotes

Richard Eugene Cole was a United States Air Force colonel. During World War II, he was one of the airmen who took part in the Doolittle Raid on Tokyo, Japan, on April 18, 1942. He served as the co-pilot to Lieutenant Colonel Jimmy Doolittle in the lead airplane of the raid by sixteen B-25 bombers, which for the first time took off from an aircraft carrier on a bombing mission.

Cole remained in China after the raid until June 1943, and served again in the China Burma India Theater from October 1943 until June 1944. He later served as operations advisor to the Venezuelan Air Force from 1959 to 1962. He retired from the Air Force in 1966 and became the last living Doolittle Raider in 2016. Wikipedia  

✵ 7. September 1915 – 9. April 2019
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Richard E. Cole: 3   quotes 0   likes

Famous Richard E. Cole Quotes

“Our airplane had incendiary bombs. Our mission was to light up Tokyo.”

Richard E. Cole

On the bombload the aircraft carried for the raid.
Interview with HistoryNet (2019)

“To the gentlemen we lost on the mission and to those who have passed away since, thank you very much and may they rest in peace.”

Richard E. Cole

"Richard Cole, 103, Last Survivor of Doolittle Raid on Japan, Dies" in The New York Times https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/09/obituaries/richard-cole-dead.html (9 April 2019)

“When I think about it, the mission was not a highly dangerous affair. You could do something about it if there was a problem. But, looking back, I’d say we were pretty lucky.”

Richard E. Cole

"Dick Cole: The Last Doolittle Raider" https://veteransbreakfastclub.org/dick-cole-the-last-doolittle-raider/ (2017)

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