By Den Ardinger 32° KCCH

James “Jimmy” Harold Doolittle (1896-1993) was born in Alameda, California on December 14, 1896.  He was the son of Frank Henry Doolittle and his wife, Rosa Cerenah Shephard. His younger years were spent in Nome, Alaska but the family returned to Los Angeles by 1910 where he attended high school.  It was here that he saw his first airplane and he was hooked for life for a career in aviation.

He attended Los Angeles City College along with film director Frank Capra.  When World War I broke out in 1917, he took a leave of absence and enlisted in the Signal Corps Reserve as a flying cadet.  He married Josephine E. Daniels on December 24, 1917.  He was commissioned a second lieutenant and received his Reserve Military Aviator rating in the U. S. Army on March 18, 1918.  During much of World War I he was a flying instructor. After the war he graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1922.  In was in that year he made the first transcontinental cross-country flight from Jacksonville, Florida to San Diego, California in 21 hours and 19 minutes. For this achievement he was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross.  In 1923 he entered Massachusetts Institute of Aeronautics where he conducted aircraft acceleration tests that he used to complete his Master’s Degree and be awarded his second Distinguished Flying Cross.  In 1925, he was awarded a doctorate in aeronautics from the Massachusetts Institute of Aeronautics, the first ever issued in the United States.

Doolittle continued to pioneer in aviation.  In 1927 he performed the first outside loop of an aircraft which at that time was considered highly dangerous.  In 1929 he pioneered “blind flying” using instruments only which opened commercial aviation by maintaining regular scheduled flights.  He later won the Harmon Trophy for showing that all weather flying was practical.

He returned to active duty on July 1, 1940, at the rank of Major just before World War II broke out in December 1941.  On April 18, 1942, he commanded the famous Doolittle Raid on the Japanese home islands after taking off from the aircraft carrier Hornet with 16 medium bombers.  For this daring raid, the first of the war, he was awarded the Medal of Honor and promoted to the rank of brigadier general.  He was by now a national hero.

He continued to fly combat missions during the war and by 1945 was a 3-star Lieutenant General commanding the Eighth Air Force in England. 

After the war, Doolittle reverted to reserve status but headed numerous committees on aviation and the early space program. He advocated desegregation of the military.  He was a special assistant to the Air Force Chief of Staff for the Air Force’s ballistic missile and space programs.  He retired from reserve status in 1959.  He was promoted by President Reagan in 1985 to the honorary rank of four-star General.

Jimmy and Josephine had two sons, James and John, and both became military officers and pilots.  Josephine died December 24, 1988, after 71 years of marriage. Jimmy died September 27, 1993, in Pebble Beach, California at the age of 96.  He was buried with full military honors in Arlington National Cemetery.

Jimmy Doolittle was a Master Mason, Shriner, and a 33rd Degree Inspector General Honorary in the Scottish Rite.  His list of honors, awards, and medals is legendary.

General Jimmy Doolittle, more than a man, a Mason.