Retired Lt. Col. Richard E. Cole, the last surviving Doolittle Raider, has died. He was 103.
"We're going to miss Col. Cole," Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. David Goldfein said Tuesday.
Goldfein, who was speaking at the 35th Space Symposium in Colorado Tuesday afternoon, said he'd visited Cole in the hospital Monday night. Some of the planes were ditched at sea. Cole was among several pilots who ditched their aircraft in China. He parachuted to safety, but was tangled in a tree. He was able to cut himself down by the morning, took out his compass and started heading west, because he said in 2014 that the Raiders knew if they walked west they would be getting away from Japanese-occupied territories. In the late afternoon, he found a small camp of Chinese Nationalist guerrillas, U.S. allies, and made contact.
After World War II, Cole continued his Air Force career and was stationed in Tokyo during the Korean War. In 2014, President Barack Obama signed the law awarding Cole and three other living Doolittle Raiders the Congressional Gold Medal in a ceremony at the White House. The medal -- the highest civilian recognition Congress can bestow -- was presented to the Doolittle Raiders on April 15, 2015 at the U.S. Capitol.
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