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Politics : Foreign Policy Discussion Thread -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Hawkmoon who wrote (7166)	12/23/2005 8:27:13 AM
From: paret	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 15987

Member of the Doolittle Raiders dies thestate.com ^ COLUMBIA, S.C. - Lt. Col. Horace "Sally" Crouch of Columbia, who participated in the Doolittle Raiders' daring bombing run over Japan during World War II, died this week at age 87. Crouch was one of 80 airmen aboard 16 B-25 bombers who made the daylight raid over Japan on April 18, 1942. He died of complications from pneumonia in Providence Hospital at 11:45 a.m. Wednesday. "A real giant has passed," said Columbia Mayor Bob Coble. Crouch's death leaves just 16 surviving Raiders. "The World War II heroes are fading," C.V. Glines, a Doolittle biographer and Raider historian, said from Dallas. "It's sad but inevitable." For his valor, Crouch was awarded the Silver Star, the Distinguished Flying Cross and the Air Medal with an oak leaf cluster. The Raiders, who took off from the aircraft carrier USS Hornet even though they were designed to take off from land, were led by legendary aviator Jimmy Doolittle. They bombed Japanese military targets before crashing or bailing out over China. The raid was designed as payback for Pearl Harbor four months earlier. Many considered it a suicide mission. Three airmen died in the raid and eight were captured. Three of the captives were executed. Crouch, a graduate of Columbia High School and The Citadel, enlisted in the Army Air Corps just months before World War II and married the late Mary Epting just days before Pearl Harbor. "I thought, 'I now have a wife and an enemy,'" he said in a 2002 interview with The State. Crouch and the other Raiders volunteered for secret, dangerous duty while stationed at the Columbia Air Base, now the Columbia Metropolitan Airport. They did not know their target until they boarded the Navy aircraft carrier. Crouch was among five men in a plane that flew more than 2,000 miles that day. His plane, No. 10, endured some of the heaviest anti-aircraft fire and sustained some of the worst damage of the raid's bombers. The crew was credited with shooting down two Japanese Zero fighters and successfully bombing their target before bailing out near Chuchow, a town in China's Hunan province. Chinese guerillas rescued them. Crouch served as a navigator, bombardier and nose gunner. He remained in China for about a year after the raid, flying more B-25 missions in the Pacific Theater. He retired from the military in 1962 and taught in Columbia schools for about 25 years. Since 1946, the Raiders have gathered yearly to drink to their fallen comrades from silver cups bearing their names. The men celebrated their 50th and 60th reunions in Columbia. Crouch's toast in 2002 marked his last public appearance. The cups are guarded by cadets at the U.S. Air Force Academy at Colorado Springs, Colo., and inverted in their case after a Raider dies. "Next year, I will offer the toast to him," said Master Sgt. Edwin Horton, of Fort Walton Beach, Fla., Crouch's last surviving crewmate. "I guess I'll be the one to turn his cup over." Visitation will be from 6-8 p.m. Wednesday at North Trenholm Baptist Church in Columbia. Services will be at 3 p.m. Thursday at the church, with interment in Greenlawn Memorial Park. He is survived by a son and daughter.