{"id":1636,"date":"2015-02-02T17:41:10","date_gmt":"2015-02-03T00:41:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/garyglynn.com\/wordpress\/?p=1636"},"modified":"2015-02-02T17:56:12","modified_gmt":"2015-02-03T00:56:12","slug":"edward-saylor-doolittle-raider","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/garyglynn.com\/wordpress\/edward-saylor-doolittle-raider\/","title":{"rendered":"Edward Saylor: Doolittle Raider"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ed. Note – Lt. Col. Edward Saylor passed away last weekend at the age of 94 in Sumner, Washington. <\/em><\/h2>\n
Saylor was one of two Montana men who were ‘Doolittle Raiders,” along with David Thatcher. The two men were among the last four Raiders and participated in the final reunion in 2013.<\/em><\/h6>\n

On April 18, 1942 Col. James Doolittle led a daring raid of sixteen
\nB-25 bombers which took off from an aircraft carrier and
\nbombed several Japanese cities. Two of the 80 “Raiders”
\nwere Montanans, David Thatcher of Billings and Edward
\nSaylor of Brusett, who had been a member of the Civilian Conservation Corps stationed at Ninemile. Both survived the raid and the subsequent crash landings in China and returned to Montana as heroes. Thatcher, a modest man who saved the lives of
\nthe other four members of his crew, suddenly found himself
\na celebrity. “When we were first told that the ‘special
\nmission’ was to be, I just thought it would be a lot of fun,
\nbut I honestly never expected to come back.” After a harrowing
\ntake-off from the deck of the USS Hornet, Thatcher
\nwatched as his B-25, piloted by Lt. Ted Lawson,
\nskimmed over the ocean. They were flying so low that Japanese
\nswimmers waved as they passed over the beach and
\nheaded for their target, the Nippon machinery works and
\nsteel factory. “As we let go our first load I saw a great
\ncolumn of black smoke and debris shoot into the air… The
\nantiaircraft fire was pretty heavy. It jarred the plane around
\nit was so close, but I’m sure we weren’t hit.” Flying on,
\ntheir B-25 eventually ran short of fuel and crashed in the
\nocean just short of the China coast. All five members of
\nthe crew made it to shore, but except for Thatcher they
\nwere all badly injured. The young corporal from Billings
\nperformed first aid on the four officers and found shelter
\nfor them.
\nChinese guerrillas helped the fliers elude the Japanese
\npatrols sent to find them, and all of the crew eventually
\nreached safety, but Lawson’s leg was so badly infected that
\nit had to be amputated along the way. Lawson wrote down
\nhis experiences in the best-selling, “Thirty Seconds Over
\nTokyo,” which was soon made into a major Hollywood
\nfilm starring Spencer Tracy and Robert Mitchum. Robert
\nWalker played the part of David Thatcher, the teenaged
\nflier from Billings. Thatcher won a Silver Star for his actions,
\nand according to an official War Department release,
\n“All this plane’s crew were either saved from capture or
\ndeath as a result of Corporal Thatcher’s initiative and courage
\nin assuming responsibility and tending the wounds himself
\nday and night and arranging for the transportation of
\nhis companions.”
\nGen. Henry “Hap” Arnold, chief of the Army Air
\nForces, pinned the Distinguished Flying Cross on Thatcher
\nand Sgt. Edward Saylor of Brusett in Washington D.C. on June 28, 1942, before the two men returned to Montana in July. Edward
\nSaylor received a warm welcome as the guest of honor at a
\nHeroes Day parade and war bond rally at Dornblaser Field
\nin Missoula, while 1,000 people watched from the lawn of
\nthe Billings courthouse as the Silver Star was pinned on
\nThatcher. “Real heroes, it seems, are always modest,” said
\nthe Billings Gazette. “For the uncrowned champion of the
\nModest Heroes League, we raise to nominate Sergeant David
\nJ. Thatcher, late of Shangri-la and Tokyo.” Thatcher
\nreplied that “It’s funny to see my name in the paper. We
\nsaw plenty of action over Japan, all right,” but added that
\nhe would like to, “go over again.” After the war Thatcher
\nbecame a postman in Missoula. He attended the annual
\nDoolittle Raiders reunion including the last one in 2013.<\/p>\n

Read more about Edward Saylor: Doolittle Raider and Montana’s Home Front During World War II<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ed. Note – Lt. Col. Edward Saylor passed away last weekend at the age of 94 in Sumner, Washington. Saylor was one of two Montana men who were ‘Doolittle Raiders,” along with David Thatcher. The two men were among the last four Raiders and participated in the final reunion in 2013. On April 18, 1942 … Continue reading Edward Saylor: Doolittle Raider<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1168,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[3,140],"tags":[144,172,145],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/garyglynn.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1636"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/garyglynn.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/garyglynn.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/garyglynn.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/garyglynn.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1636"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"http:\/\/garyglynn.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1636\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1643,"href":"http:\/\/garyglynn.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1636\/revisions\/1643"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/garyglynn.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1168"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/garyglynn.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1636"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/garyglynn.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1636"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/garyglynn.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1636"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}