The Men: February 1942

To recruit fliers for his dangerous mission, Doolittle turned to the Army's first operational B-25 unit, the 17th Bombardment Group (Medium). Based at Pendleton Field, OR since June 1941, it consisted of the 34th, 37th and 95th Bomb Squadrons, plus the attached 89th Reconnaissance Squadron, with sixty-four Mitchells and 1,343 officers and enlisted men. After Pearl Harbor, the crews flew antisubmarine patrols off the Pacific Northwest coast from Pendleton and McChord Field, WA. In February 1942, the group was ordered to Columbia, SC to hunt U-boats in the Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico.

At the same time, the Army instructed the 17th's commanding officer, Lieutenant Colonel Mills to pass the word among his aircrews that volunteers were needed for a highly hazardous secret mission requiring great skill but of inestimable value to the war effort. All four squadron leaders, charged with choosing personnel for the "X-Mission," themselves volunteered, but Mills released only the 89th's Major John Hilger and his sole West Pointer, the 95th's Captain Edward "Ski" York. On Mills' recommendation, Doolittle picked Hilger as his deputy for the "Special Project" and told him more about it than the other volunteers.

Despite knowing almost nothing about the mystery mission, virtually every man who heard the call wanted in on it. Desire to strike back at the enemy motivated many; others were more afraid of looking cowardly than of death. Self-effacing hero Jake DeShazer, an "elderly" 29 year-old bombardier from central Oregon, said that he was last in a line of men asked to volunteer, and couldn't say no after all his buddies stepped forward.

By the time the 17th Bomb Group had transferred to South Carolina, twenty-four five-man crews and a requisite number of ground crew had been selected, about equally from each squadron. Aircrew numbered about 140 pilots, copilots, navigators, bombardiers and flight engineer/gunners. The volunteers were sent to Eglin Field on Florida's Gulf Coast for "special training."