Doolittle Tokyo Raiders focus of Colligan lecture Sept. 4

August 30, 2007

Lt. Gen. Thomas C. Griffin, USA (Ret.) of the famed Doolittle Tokyo Raiders will be the guest speaker for the first installment of this year’s Micheal J. Colligan Lecture Series at 7:30 p.m. Tues., Sept. 4, in the Harry T. Wilks Conference Center.

The event is free and open to the public. A reception will follow.

Griffin will provide a riveting, eyewitness account of the events of April 18, 1942, when Lt. Col. James H. “Jimmy” Doolittle led 16 crews of Army B-25 bombers on a surprise attack targeting military installations in five major Japanese cities including Tokyo. The planes took off from the Navy carrier Hornet.

“The raid on Imperial Japan by Col. James Doolittle and his famed Tokyo Raiders was one of World War II’s most daring undertakings. Tom Griffin will recount how Doolittle and his crews flew fearlessly and audaciously to strike at the heart of Japan just four months following Pearl Harbor,” said Dr. Michael Carrafiello, Assistant Dean and Director of the Michael J. Colligan History Project at Miami Hamilton.

Perhaps even more dramatic was the Raiders’ flight into occupied China following the raid, and the crews’ struggle to escape both the Imperial Japanese and hostile elements, according to Carrafiello.

“Historians now consider the Doolittle Raid a success in that it likely prevented an attack on Australia and so caused a series of miscalculations by the Imperial Japanese leadership that eventually contributed to America’s victory in the Pacific,” he said.

Griffin was a navigator for Crew #9. Only 13 of the 80 men who took part in the dangerous, top-secret mission are still alive.

In his most recent military assignment, Griffin was based in Naples, Italy, as Chief of Staff of Allied Forces, Southern Europe, in 1988.

For more information, contact LaDonna Hoskins, 513.785.3277, hoskinls@muohio.edu.