Raiders to return to Eglin area

FORT WALTON BEACH, Fla. -- Surviving members of the Doolittle Raiders will hold their 71st reunion in Fort Walton Beach next year, according to the Northwest Florida Daily News. The last time Fort Walton Beach hosted the reunion was 1968. Eglin Field is where the Raiders trained for the daring April 1942 mission to bomb Japan. They launched B-25 medium bombers from the deck of the carrier USS Hornet four months after the Dec. 7, 1941 Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. (Source: Northwest Florida Daily News, 04/18/12) The 70th reunion was held this week at the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force near Dayton, Ohio. Four of the five surviving members of the bomber crews attended the event. The raid boosted American morale and showed the Japanese populace the homeland was not invulnerable. (Sources: Reuters, 04/18/12, Washington Times, 04/19/12)