An American Hero Is Honored

The Doolite Raiders name is synonymous with American heroism. This band of brave World War II pilots flew missions few would even dare attempt. This weekend we lost another hero.

Retired Air Force Col. Travis Hoover (standing second from the left), a pilot who flew one of the bombers in the famous 1942 raid on Japan led by Jimmy Doolittle, passed away Saturday night. He was 86.

Hoover, who had lived in Joplin (MO) since 1988, died at the Webb City Health and Rehabilitation Center, said his son-in-law, Jim Zerkel. Zerkel said Hoover had been in failing health for about a year and was hospitalized recently for treatment of pneumonia.

Doolittle, then a lieutenant colonel, organized and trained a volunteer force for the raid on Japan in April 1942, just four months after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor brought the United States into World War II.Hoover, born in New Mexico, had entered military service with the National Guard in California in 1938, later becoming a cadet in what was then the Army Air Corps. He earned a commission as a lieutenant and learned to fly the B-25 bomber, the aircraft Doolittle chose for the raid on Japan.

Sixteen of the bombers, each with a crew of five, took off from the carrier USS Hornet on April 19, 1942. Doolittle's plane was the first in the air, and Hoover flew the second to take off.The planes bombed industrial areas in four Japanese cities in retaliation for the Pearl Harbor attack. Since the carrier had encountered Japanese boats that were able to broadcast warnings, the bombers took off farther out at sea than planned, and that left them short of fuel needed to reach airfields in China.

Most of the crews bailed out when their planes ran out of gas. Others crash-landed or ditched and one landed in Russia. Two of the 80 men drowned, and of eight who were captured, three were executed by the Japanese and one died in a prison camp.

Zerkel said Hoover's plane was flying low in bad weather approaching the Chinese coast, and as the fuel supply dwindled his engines quit when he tried to climb to get farther inland. He made a crash-landing in a rice paddy, and Hoover and his crew all got out safely, but in an area heavily occupied by the Japanese.

They encountered a young Chinese aeronautical engineer, Tung Sheng Liu, who helped them evade Japanese troops and reach safety.Liu, who now lives in California, had maintained contact with Hoover over the years, visiting him at nursing home last March.Liu and his son, Tom, arrived in Joplin on Monday to be with Hoover's family for services Tuesday afternoon at the Parker Mortuary. Burial with military honors will be Thursday at the Fort Sam Houston National Cemetery in Texas.

Hoover's death leaves 17 survivors from among the original 80, said Chase Nielsen, also one of them and president of the Doolittle Raiders Association.

Zerkel and his wife, Beverly, who was Hoover's stepdaughter, said he never considered himself a hero. "He was very humbly proud of his service," Zerkel said. "Just truly dedicated to the uniform and his country. He considered the guys who didn't get back the heroes."

FMI: www.doolittletokyoraiders.com