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今天，2017年4月18日，是“杜立特突袭”75周年纪念。1942年4月18日清晨，在传奇飞行员杜立特中校带领下，80位志愿加入的美国飞行员驾驶16架B-25轰炸机，从美军航母“大黃蜂号”起飞，轰炸日本五座城市。这次勇敢进攻，是针对日本海军1941年12月7日偷袭珍珠港采取的报复行动。
今天，仅有一位杜立特突袭者依然在世，他就是现年101岁的科尔中校，杜立特的副驾驶。4月18日上午，在俄亥俄州代顿市的美国国家空军博物馆，在一场已闻名于现代航空界的私人年度纪念仪式上，科尔倒扣了我亡父、高级军士戴维·J·撒切尔的纯银高脚杯。我父亲已于2016年6月22日去世，享年94岁。他是杜立特突袭者幸存者中倒数第二位去世的。科尔会为此前离世的突袭队成员做最后一次祝酒。
时间流逝，杜利特突袭者纷纷辞别人世。像“最伟大一代”中的很多人一样，在那场重大危机中，他们奋起保卫美国和世界免受日本人的蹂躏。在那次空袭和第二次世界大战后，有61位突袭者活了下来。随后，事故、疾病、年龄和终老将他们带入天堂，今天仅有一位还在世。但他们的英勇壮举永垂不朽。
珍珠港事件后的四个月中，世界崩溃。战争在欧洲已持续两年。美国太平洋舰队大部葬身于珍珠港。日军在远东连连获胜，似乎势不可挡。美国人努力寻找来自战场上的任何好消息来激励士气。
日本突袭珍珠港后，罗斯福总统下令还击，杜立特选择了一队坚韧的志愿者来完成任务。美国急需一次胜利，杜立特和他的突袭者以惊人的方式痛击日本，并打破他们根植于心的不可战胜的信念——此前日本2600年历史上，没有外国军队能成功占领或者袭击日本本土。
参加突袭的16架轰炸机中的15架沿南日本海岸向西南飞行，然后越过中国东海飞向华东地区，那里有若干备降机场在等待。因燃油所剩无几，余下一架B-25超低空飞往距离更近的俄罗斯。
飞往中国途中，突袭者遭遇未知挑战：暗夜正在逼近，飞机燃油即将消耗殆尽，气象状况进一步恶化。意识到无法抵达预定目的地后，他们只好选择跳伞或者迫降在被日军占领的中国沿海地区。15架飞机迫降时均遭损毁。
中国的渔民和游击队遇见意外出现的突袭者时，伸出无私援助之手并且成功地将大多数美国飞行员带至安全地带。中国人民为这次营救付出惨重代价：据估计有25万名中国人此后死于日军的报复行动。
与战争后期B-29轰炸机对日本造成的巨大破坏相比，杜立特突袭并未造成多大实质性破坏。然而，此次突袭的消息一经披露，美国举国欢庆。这次突袭对战争进程也有战略意义。尽管此时环太平洋地区战事激烈，日军却被迫召回若干战斗机编队驻留本土进行防御。
被杜立特突袭所激怒，策划过偷袭珍珠港的山本五十六将军匆忙组织了中途岛之战，对美国实施报复，结果日军损失4艘航母、1艘驱逐舰、292架飞机、2500名士兵。日本帝国海军从此一蹶不振。
1946年12月，杜立特和他的突袭者聚会庆祝他的生日，此后每年4月18日前后他们都要聚会，而聚会地点有所不同。1959年聚会期间，亚利桑那州的图森市赠送给杜立特和突袭者们一套银杯，每只杯子上分别刻有参加突袭的80名队员的姓名。这套银杯放置在特制的密闭玻璃柜内。1961年在科罗拉多州的科罗拉多斯普林斯市聚会之后，杜立特把这套杯子赠送给位于该市的美国空军学院，由学院保管及平时展出。
1973年，科尔定制了一个移动式展柜，银杯可以很方便地运到不同聚会地。2005年，经在世的突袭者投票决定，银杯从美国国家空军学院送至美国国家空军博物馆永久存放和展出。与这些银杯一起展出的是一架修复完好的B-25轰炸机，代表当年杜立特乘坐的轰炸机。
处于运输状态时，80个闪闪发光的银杯安放在科尔设计的衬有蓝色天鹅绒的箱子里。该箱子有4个并排的隔柜，每个隔柜里安放20个银杯，五个为一组从上到下放置。4个隔柜从左到右的1至16个数字，代表16个机组起飞顺序。每组从上到下分别为：机长、副机长、领航员、投弹手和机枪手。每个杯子上一面正刻着突袭队员名字，另一面倒刻着名字，那样，无论银杯是正立或倒立，参观者都可读出他们的名字。
每次聚会，两名穿着正装的空军学院学员护送银杯至一个不向公众开放的房间，将银杯放在桌上，并在一旁守护。在4月18日上午，那些在世的突袭者会在银杯前安静集合并举行庄严仪式。点名过后，由戴着白手套的学员倒上科尼亚克白兰地酒，然后突袭者举杯为那些上一次聚会后去世的战友祈祷，喝完酒后再将去世者的银杯倒扣。
与维京时代骑士、罗马军团骑士和亚瑟王圆桌骑士使用的杯子相仿，这些银杯象征80名参加突袭行动的军人的责任、荣耀和勇气。镌刻在杜立特突袭官方徽章上的“勇入危地”这几个字，完美体现了这些特质。
去年6月我父亲去世后，科尔便成为80名突袭队员中最后一个在世者。谈到自己活到最后这个结果时，科尔说：“按数数字的方式来说，本不该是现在这个结果。我年纪更大，比戴维年长6岁，按博弈几率来说，戴维应该是最后一个。”
然而，科尔确实是最后一个在世者。当他在4月18日上午最后一次为先他而去的79位战友举起银杯时，突袭者们多年举办私人纪念聚会的这个传统就此结束。想当年，由普通士兵和军官组成的志愿者突袭队，训练有素，奋勇当先，将个人生死置之度外。他们之间的友谊，是在共赴国难中结成的，是在此后多年聚会中加深的。从此之后，再无聚会。
（本文图片由郑伟勇拍摄、提供）
The Last Silver Goblet
By Jeff Thatcher
Tuesday， April 18 will mark the 75th anniversary of the Doolittle Raid， a daring bombing attack upon five Japanese cities that occurred on April 18， 1942. Eighty volunteer American airmen flying 16 B-25 bombers， led by legendary aviator Lt. Col James H. “Jimmy” Doolittle， took off from the deck of the carrier USS Hornet early that morning and struck back at Japan in retaliation for the surprise attack on Pearl Harbor by the Imperial Japanese Navy on December 7， 1941. Today only one member of the Doolittle Raid remains， 101-year-old Lt. Col. Richard E. Cole， Doolittle’s co-pilot. On the morning of April 18 at the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force （NMUSAF） in Dayton， Ohio， in a private ceremony that has become famous in the annals of modern aviation， Cole will turn over the silver goblet of my late father， S. Sgt. David J. Thatcher， the second-to-last surviving member of the Doolittle Raid， who passed away on June 22， 2016 at the age of 94， and make one final toast to all the Raiders who have preceded him before drinking for the last time from his standing silver goblet.
The passage of time has taken its toll on the Raiders who， like so many other members of the Greatest Generation， stepped up during a period of major crisis to save the United States and the world from the brutal Japanese. Of the 61 Raiders who survived the Raid and World War II， accidents， disease， age and finally death have carried all but one into the afterlife. But the memory of their daring action lives on.
Of the 80 Raiders who bombed Japan， three were killed after exiting their aircraft on the night of the Raid； eight were captured by the Japanese – three of those were executed on October 15， 1942， one starved to death and four were held captive for 40 months； 10 were killed in action in Europe， North Africa and Indo-China； and two were killed in plane crashes in 1942 in the U.S.
In the four months after Pearl Harbor， the world was crumbling. The war in Europe had been raging for two years. A significant portion of the U.S. Pacific Fleet sat at the bottom of Pearl Harbor and the Japanese seemed unstoppable， seizing victory after victory in the Far East. In the U.S.， morale was sinking and Americans were grasping for any good news.
Tasked with striking back at Japan for the attack on Pearl Harbor by President Franklin D. Roosevelt， Doolittle selected a band of gritty volunteers to accomplish the mission. America desperately needed a victory and Doolittle and his Raiders would deliver in stunning fashion， inflicting a blow upon Japan and shattering their belief in invincibility – which had been nurtured by no other successful invasion or attack of their homeland in the preceding 2，600 years.
The Raiders， along with supporting military personnel aboard the carrier USS Hornet， were part of an eight-ship taskforce that departed San Francisco Bay April 2， 1942. On April 13， well out into the Pacific Ocean， the task force merged with the eight-ship USS Enterprise Task Force， which had departed from Hawaii， to become the first joint full-scale operation between the Army Air Force and the U.S. Navy. Streaming toward Japan on a northern route to avoid detection， the 16-ship combined taskforce， consisting of 10，000 personnel， was discovered early April 18 by a Japanese patrol boat – well ahead of the planned departure by the 80 Raiders in their 16 B-25， twin-engine bombers. The discovery forced the Raiders to take off 12 hours earlier and 150 nautical miles further from Japan than planned. The weather conditions were miserable with rain， 20-knot gusting winds and huge waves crashing over the bow of the carrier. Yet， despite knowing they were likely embarking upon a suicide mission， the group of 80 volunteer American flyers never wavered.
One after another， each B-25 lumbered down the deck of the carrier and took off. Following each other single file and flying by dead reckoning just above the wave tops to avoid detection， they reached Japan at mid-day and fanned out to drop four 500-pound bombs each on military and industrial targets in Tokyo， Yokohama， Kobe， Osaka and Nagoya.
Although some of the B-25s encountered light antiaircraft fire and a few enemy fighters， none were shot down or severely damaged. Fifteen of the 16 planes then proceeded southwest along the southern coast of Japan and across the East China Sea toward eastern China， where recovery bases supposedly awaited them. The remaining B-25 ran extremely low on fuel and headed for Russia， which was closer.
The Raiders faced several unforeseen challenges during their flight to China： night was approaching， the planes were running low on fuel and the weather was rapidly deteriorating. Realizing they would not be able to reach their intended destinations， their options were to bail out over eastern China or crash land along the Chinese coast – areas occupied by the Japanese. When the dust settled， 15 planes had been destroyed in crashes. The crew that flew to Russia landed near Vladivostok， their B-25 confiscated and the crew interned until escaping in May 1943.
Chinese fishermen and guerillas who encountered the Raiders after they unexpectedly showed up， assisted the Raiders and selflessly guided most of them to safety. The Chinese paid dearly for their help. An estimated 250，000 Chinese were subsequently slaughtered by the Japanese.
Compared to the devastating B-29 fire bombing attacks against Japan later in the war， the Doolittle Raid did little material damage. Nevertheless， when news of the raid was released， American morale soared. The raid also had a strategic impact on the war. The Japanese military recalled many units back to the home islands for defense， where they remained while battles raged throughout the Pacific.
The Doolittle Raid also provoked Japanese Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto， architect of the raid on Pearl Harbor， to later attempt a hastily organized strike against Midway Island， resulting in the loss of four carriers， a cruiser， 292 aircraft and 2，500 casualties from which the Imperial Japanese Navy never recovered. In December 1946 Doolittle and his Raiders gathered to celebrate his birthday， inaugurating what later became annual reunions around April 18 in locations throughout the U.S. During their annual reunion in 1959 the city of Tucson， Arizona， presented the Raiders with a set of sterling silver goblets， each bearing the name of one of the 80 men who flew on the mission. The silver goblets were housed in a special glass-enclosed case. Following the April 1961 reunion in Colorado Springs， Colorado， Doolittle turned them over to the Air Force Academy， which is located there， for safekeeping and display between reunions.
In 1973 Cole built a portable display case for the goblets so they could more easily be transported to the reunions. In 2005 the surviving Raiders voted to move the goblets from the Air Force Academy to the NMUSAF where they are now permanently displayed alongside an exhibit featuring a restored B-25 bomber representing Doolittle’s plane.
When transported， the 80 gleaming silver goblets were placed in Cole’s blue velvet-lined case， consisting of four separate panels. Twenty goblets stand in each panel’s compartment， placed five high and four across. Left to right they represent the crews – 1 to 16 – based upon their takeoff position in the Raid. Each column from top to bottom consists of the pilot， co-pilot， navigator， bombardier and gunner. Each goblet has the Raider’s name engraved twice – so it can be read right side up or upside down.
At each reunion， two uniformed Air Force cadets accompanied the goblets， placed them in a private room atop a table and stood guard over them. On the morning of April 18， the surviving Raiders would meet privately in front of the goblets to conduct their solemn ceremony. After calling the roll and toasting the Raiders who had died since their last reunion with cognac poured into the goblets by the white-gloved cadets， they would turn the deceased Raiders’ goblets upside down.
Like the goblets harkening back to the times of the Vikings， Roman legions and King Arthur’s Knights of the Round Table， the Raider goblets symbolize the attributes of the 80 men who participated in the mission – duty， honor and courage. Those attributes are personified by the words inscribed on the official Doolittle Raider crest： “Toujours au Danger” – “Always into Danger.”
In discussing his position last June as the last man standing among the 80 Doolittle Raiders after my father had passed away， Cole said： “Mathematically， it shouldn’t have worked out this way. I was quite a bit older， six years older， than David. Figuring the way gamblers figure， he would have been the last man.”
Instead Dick Cole is the last man standing. And when he raises his silver goblet for the final time to toast his 79 departed comrades on the morning of April 18， the longstanding tradition of the Raiders’ private ceremony， which cemented the bond between the courageous volunteers， both enlisted men and officers， into a well-trained group who placed their collective duty as Americans above their individual lives， will end.
（Jeff Thatcher is the son of the late Doolittle Raider David J. Thatcher and president of the Children of the Doolittle Raiders， Inc. a non-profit group dedicated to keeping the legacy of the Doolittle Raiders alive.）
今天，仅有一位杜立特突袭者依然在世，他就是现年101岁的科尔中校，杜立特的副驾驶。4月18日上午，在俄亥俄州代顿市的美国国家空军博物馆，在一场已闻名于现代航空界的私人年度纪念仪式上，科尔倒扣了我亡父、高级军士戴维·J·撒切尔的纯银高脚杯。我父亲已于2016年6月22日去世，享年94岁。他是杜立特突袭者幸存者中倒数第二位去世的。科尔会为此前离世的突袭队成员做最后一次祝酒。
时间流逝，杜利特突袭者纷纷辞别人世。像“最伟大一代”中的很多人一样，在那场重大危机中，他们奋起保卫美国和世界免受日本人的蹂躏。在那次空袭和第二次世界大战后，有61位突袭者活了下来。随后，事故、疾病、年龄和终老将他们带入天堂，今天仅有一位还在世。但他们的英勇壮举永垂不朽。
珍珠港事件后的四个月中，世界崩溃。战争在欧洲已持续两年。美国太平洋舰队大部葬身于珍珠港。日军在远东连连获胜，似乎势不可挡。美国人努力寻找来自战场上的任何好消息来激励士气。
日本突袭珍珠港后，罗斯福总统下令还击，杜立特选择了一队坚韧的志愿者来完成任务。美国急需一次胜利，杜立特和他的突袭者以惊人的方式痛击日本，并打破他们根植于心的不可战胜的信念——此前日本2600年历史上，没有外国军队能成功占领或者袭击日本本土。
参加突袭的16架轰炸机中的15架沿南日本海岸向西南飞行，然后越过中国东海飞向华东地区，那里有若干备降机场在等待。因燃油所剩无几，余下一架B-25超低空飞往距离更近的俄罗斯。
飞往中国途中，突袭者遭遇未知挑战：暗夜正在逼近，飞机燃油即将消耗殆尽，气象状况进一步恶化。意识到无法抵达预定目的地后，他们只好选择跳伞或者迫降在被日军占领的中国沿海地区。15架飞机迫降时均遭损毁。
中国的渔民和游击队遇见意外出现的突袭者时，伸出无私援助之手并且成功地将大多数美国飞行员带至安全地带。中国人民为这次营救付出惨重代价：据估计有25万名中国人此后死于日军的报复行动。
与战争后期B-29轰炸机对日本造成的巨大破坏相比，杜立特突袭并未造成多大实质性破坏。然而，此次突袭的消息一经披露，美国举国欢庆。这次突袭对战争进程也有战略意义。尽管此时环太平洋地区战事激烈，日军却被迫召回若干战斗机编队驻留本土进行防御。
被杜立特突袭所激怒，策划过偷袭珍珠港的山本五十六将军匆忙组织了中途岛之战，对美国实施报复，结果日军损失4艘航母、1艘驱逐舰、292架飞机、2500名士兵。日本帝国海军从此一蹶不振。
1946年12月，杜立特和他的突袭者聚会庆祝他的生日，此后每年4月18日前后他们都要聚会，而聚会地点有所不同。1959年聚会期间，亚利桑那州的图森市赠送给杜立特和突袭者们一套银杯，每只杯子上分别刻有参加突袭的80名队员的姓名。这套银杯放置在特制的密闭玻璃柜内。1961年在科罗拉多州的科罗拉多斯普林斯市聚会之后，杜立特把这套杯子赠送给位于该市的美国空军学院，由学院保管及平时展出。
1973年，科尔定制了一个移动式展柜，银杯可以很方便地运到不同聚会地。2005年，经在世的突袭者投票决定，银杯从美国国家空军学院送至美国国家空军博物馆永久存放和展出。与这些银杯一起展出的是一架修复完好的B-25轰炸机，代表当年杜立特乘坐的轰炸机。
处于运输状态时，80个闪闪发光的银杯安放在科尔设计的衬有蓝色天鹅绒的箱子里。该箱子有4个并排的隔柜，每个隔柜里安放20个银杯，五个为一组从上到下放置。4个隔柜从左到右的1至16个数字，代表16个机组起飞顺序。每组从上到下分别为：机长、副机长、领航员、投弹手和机枪手。每个杯子上一面正刻着突袭队员名字，另一面倒刻着名字，那样，无论银杯是正立或倒立，参观者都可读出他们的名字。
每次聚会，两名穿着正装的空军学院学员护送银杯至一个不向公众开放的房间，将银杯放在桌上，并在一旁守护。在4月18日上午，那些在世的突袭者会在银杯前安静集合并举行庄严仪式。点名过后，由戴着白手套的学员倒上科尼亚克白兰地酒，然后突袭者举杯为那些上一次聚会后去世的战友祈祷，喝完酒后再将去世者的银杯倒扣。
与维京时代骑士、罗马军团骑士和亚瑟王圆桌骑士使用的杯子相仿，这些银杯象征80名参加突袭行动的军人的责任、荣耀和勇气。镌刻在杜立特突袭官方徽章上的“勇入危地”这几个字，完美体现了这些特质。
去年6月我父亲去世后，科尔便成为80名突袭队员中最后一个在世者。谈到自己活到最后这个结果时，科尔说：“按数数字的方式来说，本不该是现在这个结果。我年纪更大，比戴维年长6岁，按博弈几率来说，戴维应该是最后一个。”
然而，科尔确实是最后一个在世者。当他在4月18日上午最后一次为先他而去的79位战友举起银杯时，突袭者们多年举办私人纪念聚会的这个传统就此结束。想当年，由普通士兵和军官组成的志愿者突袭队，训练有素，奋勇当先，将个人生死置之度外。他们之间的友谊，是在共赴国难中结成的，是在此后多年聚会中加深的。从此之后，再无聚会。
（本文图片由郑伟勇拍摄、提供）
The Last Silver Goblet
By Jeff Thatcher
Tuesday， April 18 will mark the 75th anniversary of the Doolittle Raid， a daring bombing attack upon five Japanese cities that occurred on April 18， 1942. Eighty volunteer American airmen flying 16 B-25 bombers， led by legendary aviator Lt. Col James H. “Jimmy” Doolittle， took off from the deck of the carrier USS Hornet early that morning and struck back at Japan in retaliation for the surprise attack on Pearl Harbor by the Imperial Japanese Navy on December 7， 1941. Today only one member of the Doolittle Raid remains， 101-year-old Lt. Col. Richard E. Cole， Doolittle’s co-pilot. On the morning of April 18 at the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force （NMUSAF） in Dayton， Ohio， in a private ceremony that has become famous in the annals of modern aviation， Cole will turn over the silver goblet of my late father， S. Sgt. David J. Thatcher， the second-to-last surviving member of the Doolittle Raid， who passed away on June 22， 2016 at the age of 94， and make one final toast to all the Raiders who have preceded him before drinking for the last time from his standing silver goblet.
The passage of time has taken its toll on the Raiders who， like so many other members of the Greatest Generation， stepped up during a period of major crisis to save the United States and the world from the brutal Japanese. Of the 61 Raiders who survived the Raid and World War II， accidents， disease， age and finally death have carried all but one into the afterlife. But the memory of their daring action lives on.
Of the 80 Raiders who bombed Japan， three were killed after exiting their aircraft on the night of the Raid； eight were captured by the Japanese – three of those were executed on October 15， 1942， one starved to death and four were held captive for 40 months； 10 were killed in action in Europe， North Africa and Indo-China； and two were killed in plane crashes in 1942 in the U.S.
In the four months after Pearl Harbor， the world was crumbling. The war in Europe had been raging for two years. A significant portion of the U.S. Pacific Fleet sat at the bottom of Pearl Harbor and the Japanese seemed unstoppable， seizing victory after victory in the Far East. In the U.S.， morale was sinking and Americans were grasping for any good news.
Tasked with striking back at Japan for the attack on Pearl Harbor by President Franklin D. Roosevelt， Doolittle selected a band of gritty volunteers to accomplish the mission. America desperately needed a victory and Doolittle and his Raiders would deliver in stunning fashion， inflicting a blow upon Japan and shattering their belief in invincibility – which had been nurtured by no other successful invasion or attack of their homeland in the preceding 2，600 years.
The Raiders， along with supporting military personnel aboard the carrier USS Hornet， were part of an eight-ship taskforce that departed San Francisco Bay April 2， 1942. On April 13， well out into the Pacific Ocean， the task force merged with the eight-ship USS Enterprise Task Force， which had departed from Hawaii， to become the first joint full-scale operation between the Army Air Force and the U.S. Navy. Streaming toward Japan on a northern route to avoid detection， the 16-ship combined taskforce， consisting of 10，000 personnel， was discovered early April 18 by a Japanese patrol boat – well ahead of the planned departure by the 80 Raiders in their 16 B-25， twin-engine bombers. The discovery forced the Raiders to take off 12 hours earlier and 150 nautical miles further from Japan than planned. The weather conditions were miserable with rain， 20-knot gusting winds and huge waves crashing over the bow of the carrier. Yet， despite knowing they were likely embarking upon a suicide mission， the group of 80 volunteer American flyers never wavered.
One after another， each B-25 lumbered down the deck of the carrier and took off. Following each other single file and flying by dead reckoning just above the wave tops to avoid detection， they reached Japan at mid-day and fanned out to drop four 500-pound bombs each on military and industrial targets in Tokyo， Yokohama， Kobe， Osaka and Nagoya.
Although some of the B-25s encountered light antiaircraft fire and a few enemy fighters， none were shot down or severely damaged. Fifteen of the 16 planes then proceeded southwest along the southern coast of Japan and across the East China Sea toward eastern China， where recovery bases supposedly awaited them. The remaining B-25 ran extremely low on fuel and headed for Russia， which was closer.
The Raiders faced several unforeseen challenges during their flight to China： night was approaching， the planes were running low on fuel and the weather was rapidly deteriorating. Realizing they would not be able to reach their intended destinations， their options were to bail out over eastern China or crash land along the Chinese coast – areas occupied by the Japanese. When the dust settled， 15 planes had been destroyed in crashes. The crew that flew to Russia landed near Vladivostok， their B-25 confiscated and the crew interned until escaping in May 1943.
Chinese fishermen and guerillas who encountered the Raiders after they unexpectedly showed up， assisted the Raiders and selflessly guided most of them to safety. The Chinese paid dearly for their help. An estimated 250，000 Chinese were subsequently slaughtered by the Japanese.
Compared to the devastating B-29 fire bombing attacks against Japan later in the war， the Doolittle Raid did little material damage. Nevertheless， when news of the raid was released， American morale soared. The raid also had a strategic impact on the war. The Japanese military recalled many units back to the home islands for defense， where they remained while battles raged throughout the Pacific.
The Doolittle Raid also provoked Japanese Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto， architect of the raid on Pearl Harbor， to later attempt a hastily organized strike against Midway Island， resulting in the loss of four carriers， a cruiser， 292 aircraft and 2，500 casualties from which the Imperial Japanese Navy never recovered. In December 1946 Doolittle and his Raiders gathered to celebrate his birthday， inaugurating what later became annual reunions around April 18 in locations throughout the U.S. During their annual reunion in 1959 the city of Tucson， Arizona， presented the Raiders with a set of sterling silver goblets， each bearing the name of one of the 80 men who flew on the mission. The silver goblets were housed in a special glass-enclosed case. Following the April 1961 reunion in Colorado Springs， Colorado， Doolittle turned them over to the Air Force Academy， which is located there， for safekeeping and display between reunions.
In 1973 Cole built a portable display case for the goblets so they could more easily be transported to the reunions. In 2005 the surviving Raiders voted to move the goblets from the Air Force Academy to the NMUSAF where they are now permanently displayed alongside an exhibit featuring a restored B-25 bomber representing Doolittle’s plane.
When transported， the 80 gleaming silver goblets were placed in Cole’s blue velvet-lined case， consisting of four separate panels. Twenty goblets stand in each panel’s compartment， placed five high and four across. Left to right they represent the crews – 1 to 16 – based upon their takeoff position in the Raid. Each column from top to bottom consists of the pilot， co-pilot， navigator， bombardier and gunner. Each goblet has the Raider’s name engraved twice – so it can be read right side up or upside down.
At each reunion， two uniformed Air Force cadets accompanied the goblets， placed them in a private room atop a table and stood guard over them. On the morning of April 18， the surviving Raiders would meet privately in front of the goblets to conduct their solemn ceremony. After calling the roll and toasting the Raiders who had died since their last reunion with cognac poured into the goblets by the white-gloved cadets， they would turn the deceased Raiders’ goblets upside down.
Like the goblets harkening back to the times of the Vikings， Roman legions and King Arthur’s Knights of the Round Table， the Raider goblets symbolize the attributes of the 80 men who participated in the mission – duty， honor and courage. Those attributes are personified by the words inscribed on the official Doolittle Raider crest： “Toujours au Danger” – “Always into Danger.”
In discussing his position last June as the last man standing among the 80 Doolittle Raiders after my father had passed away， Cole said： “Mathematically， it shouldn’t have worked out this way. I was quite a bit older， six years older， than David. Figuring the way gamblers figure， he would have been the last man.”
Instead Dick Cole is the last man standing. And when he raises his silver goblet for the final time to toast his 79 departed comrades on the morning of April 18， the longstanding tradition of the Raiders’ private ceremony， which cemented the bond between the courageous volunteers， both enlisted men and officers， into a well-trained group who placed their collective duty as Americans above their individual lives， will end.
（Jeff Thatcher is the son of the late Doolittle Raider David J. Thatcher and president of the Children of the Doolittle Raiders， Inc. a non-profit group dedicated to keeping the legacy of the Doolittle Raiders alive.）