JAMES DOOLITTLE Biography - Famous Sports men and women

 
 

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JAMES DOOLITTLE

Name: James Doolittle                                                               
Nickname "Jimmy"                                                                     
Born: 14 December 1896 Alameda, California                                           
Died: 27 September 1993 California                                                   
                                                                                     
General James Harold "Jimmy" Doolittle, Sc.D. USAF (December 14, 1896 –           
September 27, 1993) was an American aviation pioneer. Doolittle served as a         
general in the United States Army Air Forces during the Second World War, after     
first earning the Medal of Honor as commander of the Doolittle Raid while a         
lieutenant colonel.                                                                 
                                                                                     
Doolittle was born in Alameda, California, and spent his youth in Nome, Alaska       
where he earned a reputation as a boxer. He attended Los Angeles City College       
after graduating from Manual Arts High School in Los Angeles, and won admission     
to the University of California, Berkeley where he studied in The School of         
Mines before taking a leave of absence in October 1917 to enlist in the Signal       
Corps Reserve as a flying cadet. In order to achieve extra pay Doolittle worked     
as a traveling salesman. Doolittle trained at the University of California           
School of Military Aeronautics at Rockwell Field, California, and was               
commissioned a second lieutenant in the Signal Corps' Aviation Section on March     
11, 1918. During World War I, Doolittle stayed in the United States as a flight     
instructor and performed his war service at Camp John Dick Aviation                 
Concentration Camp ("Camp Dick"), Texas; Wright Field, Ohio; Gerstner Field,         
Louisiana; Rockwell Field, California; Kelly Field, Texas; and Eagle Pass, Texas.   
                                                                                     
Doolittle's service at Rockwell Field consisted of duty as a flight leader and       
gunnery instructor. At Kelly Field, he served with the 104th Aero Squadron and       
the 90th Aero Squadron, and with the latter unit he served at Eagle Pass. The       
latter duty included the Border Patrol that had started prior to the Mexican         
Punitive Expedition of 1916, and which was turned over to the Department of the     
Treasury in 1921.                                                                   
                                                                                     
Qualifying for retention at the start of the reduction in force at the end of       
the war, 2nd Lieutenant Doolittle received a Regular Army commission, and was       
promoted to 1st Lieutenant on July 1, 1920. Subsequently, he attended the Air       
Service Mechanical School at Kelly Field and the Aeronautical Engineering Course     
at McCook Field, Ohio.                                                               
                                                                                     
Having at last returned to complete his college degree, he earned the Bachelor       
of Arts from the University of California, Berkeley in 1922. [1] He was a member     
of Lambda Chi Alpha fraternity.                                                     
                                                                                     
Doolittle was one of the most famous pilots during the inter-war period. In         
September 1922, he made the first of many pioneering flights, flying a               
DeHavilland DH-4 - which was equipped with early navigational instruments - in       
the first cross-country flight, from Pablo Beach, Florida, to Rockwell Field,       
San Diego, California, in 21 hours and 19 minutes, making only one refueling         
stop at Kelly Field. The U.S. Army awarded him a Distinguished Flying Cross.         
Afterward, Doolittle was awarded a Bachelor of Arts degree by the University of     
California, even though he had never finished his studies after leaving to           
enlist during World War I.                                                           
                                                                                     
In July 1923, after serving as a test pilot and aeronautical engineer at Mc.Cook     
Field, Doolittle entered the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. In March         
1924, he conducted aircraft acceleration tests at McCook Field, which became the     
basis of his master's thesis and led to his second Distinguished Flying Cross.       
He received his S.M. in Aeronautics from MIT in June 1924. Since the Army had       
given him two years to get his degree, and he had done it in only one, he           
immediately started working on his Sc.D. in Aeronautics, which he received in       
June 1925. He said that he considered his master's work more significant than       
his doctorate.