James Harold Doolittle was an American pilot, a Reserve officer in the United States Army Air Corps. He was recalled to active duty during World War II.
Background
Doolittle was born on 14 December 1896 in Alameda, California, and spent his youth in Nome, Alaska, where he earned a reputation as a boxer. His parents were Frank Henry Doolittle, a carpenter, and Rosa Shephard Doolittle. They had two sons.
Education
Most of his youth James Doolittle was spent in Nome, Alaska, and Los Angeles, where he graduated from Manual Arts High School in 1914.
His enthusiasm for homemade gliders developed into a lifelong commitment to aviation. After two years at Los Angeles Junior College, Doolittle enrolled at the University of California at Berkeley to study mining engineering.
He never completed his studies (several years later he was awarded a bachelor's degree, however), for in September 1917 he enrolled in the Signal Corps of the U. S. Army hoping to become a pilot.
Career
Doolittle saw no overseas duty during World War I, but remained in the service after the war ended and received a first lieutenant's commission in the Regular Army in 1920.
During the 19206 and early 19306 Doolittle, both as a student and as a pilot, made several important contributions to the advancement of aviation.
In 1922 Doolittle was the first man to fly across the continent in less than a day.
He won the Schneider Trophy Race, an international speed competition, in England in 1925.
In 1930 he won the Harmon Trophy for his experiments in "blind" flying.
In 1931 Doolittle won the Bendix Trophy and in 1932 the Thompson Trophy in a race in which he broke the world speed record.
He was recalled to active duty by the army in May 1940.
In World War II Doolittle was the leader of the first U. S. bombers to raid the Japanese mainland, in April 1942, and for this action he was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor and promoted to the rank of brigadier general.
In 1942 he was transferred to England, where he became head of the United States air forces, which he trained for the North African campaign.
In November 1943 Doolittle became commander of the air force in North Africa.
He afterward returned to England to head the Eighth Air Force, which he commanded during the Normandy invasion.
He left the army in January 1946 and rejoined the Shell Oil Company.
Doolittle won the Harmon International Aviation Award for the decade 1940-1949, and in 1952 he was awarded the Wright Brothers Memorial Trophy.
Achievements
Connections
Doolittle married Josephine "Joe" E. Daniels on 24 December 1917. Married for over 70 years, Josephine Doolittle died in 1988, five years before her husband.
The Doolittles had two sons, James Jr. , and John. Both became military officers and pilots. James Jr. was an A-26 Invader pilot in the United States Army Air Forces during World War II and later a fighter pilot in the U. S. Air Force in the late 1940s through the late 1950s. He committed suicide at the age of thirty-eight in 1958. At the time of his death, James Jr. was a Major and commander of the 524th Fighter-Bomber Squadron, piloting the F-101 Voodoo.
His 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.