Richard E. Cole
United States Air Force officer and participant in the Doolittle Raid / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Richard Eugene Cole (September 7, 1915 – April 9, 2019) was a United States Air Force colonel. During World War II, he was one of the airmen who took part in the Doolittle Raid on Tokyo, Japan, on April 18, 1942. He served as the co-pilot to Lieutenant Colonel Jimmy Doolittle in the lead airplane of the raid by sixteen B-25 bombers, which for the first time took off from an aircraft carrier on a bombing mission.
Richard E. Cole | |
---|---|
Birth name | Richard Eugene Cole |
Nickname(s) | "Dick" |
Born | (1915-09-07)September 7, 1915 Dayton, Ohio, U.S. |
Died | April 9, 2019(2019-04-09) (aged 103) San Antonio, Texas, U.S. |
Buried | |
Allegiance | United States |
Branch | United States Army Air Forces United States Air Force |
Years of service | 1940–1966 |
Rank | Lieutenant colonel Colonel (Posthumous) |
Unit | 17th Bomb Group 1st Air Commando Group |
Commands held | 831st Combat Support Group |
Battles/wars | World War II Korean War |
Awards | Distinguished Flying Cross (3) Bronze Star Medal Air Medal (2) |
Cole remained in China after the raid until June 1943, and served again in the China Burma India Theater from October 1943 until June 1944. He later served as operations advisor to the Venezuelan Air Force from 1959 to 1962. He retired from the Air Force in 1966 and became the last living Doolittle Raider in 2016[1]