81 Facts About Jimmy Doolittle

James Harold Doolittle was an American military general and aviation pioneer who received the Medal of Honor for his daring raid on Japan during World War II.

Jimmy Doolittle made early coast-to-coast flights, record-breaking speed flights, won many flying races, and helped develop and flight-test instrument flying.

Jimmy Doolittle earned a doctorate in aeronautics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1925, the first issued in the United States.

Jimmy Doolittle was a flying instructor during World War I and a reserve officer in the United States Army Air Corps, but he was recalled to active duty during World War II.

Jimmy Doolittle was awarded the Medal of Honor for personal valor and leadership as commander of the Doolittle Raid, a bold long-range retaliatory air raid on some of the Japanese main islands on April 18,1942, four months after the attack on Pearl Harbor.

Jimmy Doolittle was promoted to lieutenant general and commanded the Twelfth Air Force over North Africa, the Fifteenth Air Force over the Mediterranean, and the Eighth Air Force over Europe.

Jimmy Doolittle retired from the Air Force in 1959 but remained active in many technical fields.

Jimmy Doolittle was inducted into the National Aviation Hall of Fame in 1967, eight years after retirement and only five years after the Hall was founded.

Jimmy Doolittle was eventually promoted to general in 1985, presented to him by President Ronald Reagan 43 years after the Doolittle Raid.

Jimmy Doolittle died in 1993 at the age of 96, and was buried at Arlington National Cemetery.

Jimmy Doolittle was born December 14,1896, in Alameda, California, and spent his youth in Nome, Alaska, where he earned a reputation as a boxer.

Jimmy Doolittle's parents were Frank Henry Doolittle and Rosa Cerenah Doolittle.

When his school attended the 1910 Los Angeles International Air Meet at Dominguez Field, Jimmy Doolittle saw his first airplane.

Jimmy Doolittle attended Los Angeles City College after graduating from Manual Arts High School, together with later film director Frank Capra, in Los Angeles, and later won admission to the University of California, Berkeley where he studied at the College of Mines.

Jimmy Doolittle was a member of Theta Kappa Nu fraternity, which would merge into Lambda Chi Alpha during the later stages of the Great Depression.

Jimmy Doolittle took a leave of absence in October 1917 to enlist in the Signal Corps Reserve as a flying cadet; he received ground training at the School of Military Aeronautics on the campus of the University of California, and flight-trained at Rockwell Field, California.

Jimmy Doolittle received his Reserve Military Aviator rating and was commissioned a second lieutenant in the Signal Officers Reserve Corps of the US Army on March 11,1918.

Jimmy Doolittle served at Rockwell as a flight leader and gunnery instructor.

The oil pressure of the new motor was inadequate and Jimmy Doolittle requested two pressure gauges, using carrier pigeons to communicate.

The additional parts were dropped by air and installed, and Jimmy Doolittle flew the plane to Del Rio, Texas himself, taking off from a 400-yard airstrip hacked out of the canyon floor.

Jimmy Doolittle was one of the most famous pilots during the inter-war period.

In July 1923, after serving as a test pilot and aeronautical engineer at McCook Field, Jimmy Doolittle entered the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Jimmy Doolittle received his MS degree in Aeronautics from MIT in June 1924.

Jimmy Doolittle said that he considered his master's work more significant than his doctorate.

Jimmy Doolittle won the Schneider Cup race in a Curtiss R3C in 1925 with an average speed of 232 MPH.

Jimmy Doolittle returned to the United States, and was confined to Walter Reed Army Hospital for his injuries until April 1927.

Jimmy Doolittle was then assigned to McCook Field for experimental work, with additional duty as an instructor pilot to the 385th Bomb Squadron of the Air Corps Reserve.

Jimmy Doolittle was the first to recognize that true operational freedom in the air could not be achieved until pilots developed the ability to control and navigate aircraft in flight from takeoff run to landing rollout, regardless of the range of vision from the cockpit.

Jimmy Doolittle was the first to envision that a pilot could be trained to use instruments to fly through fog, clouds, precipitation of all forms, darkness, or any other impediment to visibility; and in spite of the pilot's own possibly convoluted motion sense inputs.

Jimmy Doolittle initiated the study of the relationships between the psychological effects of visual cues and motion senses.

Jimmy Doolittle's research resulted in programs that trained pilots to read and understand navigational instruments.

Jimmy Doolittle helped develop, and was then the first to test, the now universally used artificial horizon and directional gyroscope.

Jimmy Doolittle attracted wide newspaper attention with this feat of "blind" flying and later received the Harmon Trophy for conducting the experiments.

Jimmy Doolittle resigned his regular commission on February 15,1930, and was commissioned a Major in the Air Reserve Corps a month later, being named manager of the Aviation Department of Shell Oil Company, in which capacity he conducted numerous aviation tests.

Jimmy Doolittle helped influence Shell Oil Company to produce the first quantities of 100 octane aviation gasoline.

In 1931, Jimmy Doolittle won the first Bendix Trophy race from Burbank, California, to Cleveland, in a Laird Super Solution biplane.

In 1932, Jimmy Doolittle set the world's high-speed record for land planes at 296 miles per hour in the Shell Speed Dash.

The development of 100-octane aviation gasoline on an economic scale was due in part to Jimmy Doolittle, who had become aviation manager of Shell Oil Company.

Jimmy Doolittle returned to active duty in the US Army Air Corps on July 1,1940, with the rank of Major.

Jimmy Doolittle was assigned as the assistant district supervisor of the Central Air Corps Procurement District at Indianapolis and Detroit, where he worked with large auto manufacturers on the conversion of their plants to aircraft production.

Jimmy Doolittle came down in a rice paddy near Chuchow.

Jimmy Doolittle thought he would be court martialed due to having to launch the raid ahead of schedule after being spotted by a Japanese patrol boat and the loss of all the aircraft.

Jimmy Doolittle went on to fly more combat missions as commander of the 12th Air Force in North Africa, for which he was awarded four Air Medals.

Jimmy Doolittle later commanded the 12th, 15th and 8th Air Forces in Europe.

The other surviving members of the Jimmy Doolittle raid went on to new assignments.

Jimmy Doolittle personally led a squadron of Army bombers, manned by volunteer crews, in a highly destructive raid on the Japanese mainland.

The Jimmy Doolittle Raid is viewed by historians as a major morale-building victory for the United States.

Major General Frank Andrews first turned down the position, and, offered a choice between George Kenney and Jimmy Doolittle, MacArthur chose Kenney.

Jimmy Doolittle was promoted to major general in November 1942, and in March 1943 became commanding general of the Northwest African Strategic Air Force, a unified command of US Army Air Force and Royal Air Force units.

Jimmy Doolittle took command of the Fifteenth Air Force in the Mediterranean Theater of Operations in November 1943.

Jimmy Doolittle continued to fly, despite the risk of capture, while being privy to the Ultra secret, which was that the German encryption systems had been broken by the British.

Jimmy Doolittle became acquainted with the field of space science in its infancy.

Jimmy Doolittle piloted himself to Roswell, New Mexico in October 1938 and was given a tour of Goddard's workshop and a "short course" in rocketry and space travel.

Jimmy Doolittle then wrote a memo, including a rather detailed description of Goddard's rocket.

Jimmy Doolittle was concerned about the state of rocketry in the US and remained in touch with Goddard.

Shortly after World War II, Jimmy Doolittle spoke to an American Rocket Society conference at which a large number interested in rocketry attended.

In 1956, Doolittle was appointed chairman of the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics because the previous chairman, Jerome C Hunsaker, thought Doolittle to be more sympathetic to the rocket, which was increasing in importance as a scientific tool as well as a weapon.

On 5 January 1946, Jimmy Doolittle reverted to inactive reserve status in the Army Air Forces in the grade of lieutenant general, a rarity in those days when reserve officers were usually limited to the rank of major general or rear admiral, a restriction that would not end in the US armed forces until the 21st century.

Jimmy Doolittle retired from the United States Army on 10 May 1946.

Jimmy Doolittle returned to Shell Oil as a vice president, and later as a director.

In 1947, Jimmy Doolittle became the first president of the Air Force Association, an organization which he helped create.

In 1948, Jimmy Doolittle advocated the desegregation of the US military.

In March 1951, Jimmy Doolittle was appointed a special assistant to the Chief of Staff of the Air Force, serving as a civilian in scientific matters which led to Air Force ballistic missile and space programs.

Jimmy Doolittle was appointed a life member of the MIT Corporation, the university's board of trustees, an uncommon permanent appointment, and served as an MIT Corporation Member for 40 years.

In 1954, President Dwight D Eisenhower asked Doolittle to perform a study of the Central Intelligence Agency; the resulting work was known as the Doolittle Report, 1954, and was classified for a number of years.

In January 1956, Eisenhower asked Jimmy Doolittle to serve as a member on the first edition of the President's Board of Consultants on Foreign Intelligence Activities which, years later, would become known as the President's Intelligence Advisory Board.

Jimmy Doolittle was the last person to hold this position, as the NACA was superseded by NASA.

Jimmy Doolittle was asked to serve as the first NASA administrator, but he turned it down.

Jimmy Doolittle retired from Air Force Reserve duty on February 28,1959.

Jimmy Doolittle remained active in other capacities, including chairman of the board of TRW Space Technology Laboratories.

Jimmy Doolittle continued this tradition, collecting hundreds of signatures from the aviation world.

The other son, John P Doolittle, retired from the Air Force as a colonel, and his grandson, Colonel James H Doolittle III, was the vice commander of the Air Force Flight Test Center at Edwards Air Force Base, California.

James H "Jimmy" Doolittle died from a stroke at the age of 96 in Pebble Beach, California, on September 27,1993, and is buried at Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia, near Washington, DC, next to his wife.

Jimmy Doolittle was initiated to the Scottish Rite Freemasonry, where he took the 33rd degree, becoming a Shriner.

Jimmy Doolittle was the first American to be awarded both the Medal of Honor and the Medal of Freedom.

Jimmy Doolittle is one of only two persons to receive both the Medal of Honor and a British knighthood, when he was appointed an honorary Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath.

In 1972, Jimmy Doolittle received the Tony Jannus Award for his distinguished contributions to commercial aviation, in recognition of the development of instrument flight.

Jimmy Doolittle was awarded the Public Welfare Medal from the National Academy of Sciences in 1959.

Jimmy Doolittle was inducted in the Motorsports Hall of Fame of America as the only member of the air racing category in the inaugural class of 1989, and into the Aerospace Walk of Honor in the inaugural class of 1990.

Jimmy Doolittle personally led a squadron of Army bombers, manned by volunteer crews, in a highly destructive raid on the Japanese mainland.

Several surviving members of the Jimmy Doolittle Raid were in attendance during the ribbon-cutting ceremony.