LTC Nielsen, Doolittle Raider, gone

[Story]

Utah Vet Who Fought Back Against Japan Dies
Slideshow: The 'Doolittle Raid' - April 1942

BRIGHAM CITY - Lt. Col. Chase J. Nielsen, a Utah man and member of the famed "Doolittle Raiders" who bombed Japan in 1942 -- in a retaliation attack from Pearl Harbor -- passed away on Friday at the age of 90.
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Nielsen and his crew -- named "Crew 6," because of the order in which they left the aircraft carrier -- ditched the plane off the coast of China after it ran out of fuel. He then spent more than three years as a Japanese prisoner of war. Nielsen was the only member of "Crew 6" to survive the war.
http://kutv.com/local/local_story_084215726.html

 

[Stony]

Sorry to hear about Mr. Nielsen as I got to meet him a few years ago when we had a "Doolittle Raiders" event at the museum where I work. I also got to meet Mr. Thatcher, the turret gunner on "Rutured Duck" of the "Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo" book/movie fame.
Our WWII vets are declining at a fast pace, and before too long, they will all be gone.

 

[Mr. Steve]

Thank you for the post.

What a loss. This history is going away to fast.

 

[Story]

B-25s flock to San Marcos for anniversary of U.S. raid on Japan
Only 15 men from historic World War II attack are alive today.

By Molly Bloom
AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF
Monday, April 16, 2007

SAN MARCOS — One April morning 65 years ago, James Doolittle launched his B-25 bomber from the seesawing deck of an aircraft carrier in the Pacific Ocean. Fifteen bombers followed in the first U.S. air raid on Japan in World War II.

Reports of the raid buoyed American morale just four months after the attack on Pearl Harbor and showed the world that Japan, which had been rapidly advancing across the Pacific, was not invincible. The story of bomber crews flying at wave-top level toward their targets, knowing their fuel would run out before they reached their landing strips in China, still resonates.

On Sunday, restored B-25s and other vintage airplanes flew into the San Marcos Municipal Airport to begin a weeklong celebration of the Doolittle Raiders and their April 18, 1942, attack.

Only 15 of Doolittle's 80 men are alive today, and none attended the San Marcos event. The survivors, now 84 to 93 years old, will gather in the San Antonio area this week for five days of speeches and other events. Three of the raiders died ditching their bombers after the attack, and four died in Japanese custody. Doolittle himself died in 1993 after a successful career in the military and with Shell Oil Co.

On the San Marcos tarmac Sunday, Ken Udcoff, a retired airline pilot from Dallas, gave tours of a B-25 whose side sported a painting of a blonde wearing cowboy boots and little else.

Udcoff crawled through a shoulder-width tunnel leading to the bomber's clear nose cone. Today it's the best seat in the plane for a midday flight from Georgetown to San Marcos — a far cry, he said, from the terrifying perch it must have been during the war.

Former San Marcos resident Alvin Heath, 83, was six months away from enlisting in the Marines when he heard reports of the Doolittle Raid, he said.

Later, Heath flew training missions in preparation for an invasion of Japan that never came.

The cockpits were always too hot or too cold, and the roar of propellers and pistons firing louder than a pistol made conversation impossible, Heath said.

"We were fearless," he said of his crewmates. "Or too dumb to know better."

Eleven-year-old Dakota Burkland and his family spent Sunday afternoon exploring the vintage airplanes and World War II memorabilia on display. Dakota, who wants to be a pilot, pored over photographs of the Doolittle Raiders and accounts of their exploits.

"I hope I don't have to do that," he said.

On the tarmac, a restored B-25 that military buffs rescued from a career as a crop-duster made an emergency landing moments after taking off, possibly because of a fire in one of its engines, pilots said.

The old bomber sat seething on the runway, waiting for repairs to make one more sortie in honor of the Doolittle Raiders.

 

[PADDY]

Another Doolittle hero fades away

They are getting less-and-less. Thanks for posting this Story.

 

[Hondo]

Thanks for posting this, and may Lt. Col. Chase J. Nielsen R.I.P.

 

[Benny Holiday]

ANZAC Day is next Wednesday, April 25. It's awful to think of the ranks of these amazing men and women, the generation who fought and endured for us in such unspeakable conditions, thinning the way they are.

Lt Col Nielsen, rest in peace. Lest we forget.

 

[Diamondback]

LTC Nielsen, vaya con Dios.

"To the Earth, we commit his body; to God, we commit his spirit; to ourselves, we commit his memory."--President Bennett (Donald Moffat), Clear and Present Danger (cinematic version)

And the world darkens a little more with one less brave soul lighting the way for us.