Training: March 1942

Doolittle warned the volunteers not to speak to anyone about the dangerous mission or to speculate about it among themselves. On March 3, he said that anyone who wanted to bow out now could do so with no questions asked. No one took him up on the offer.

Major Jack Hilger suggested that the Navy assign a flight instructor to teach the Army pilots how to make short-field takeoffs. Doolittle agreed and Lieutenant Henry Miller arrived from Naval Air Station, Pensacola, FL. The goal was to take off an overloaded bomber in 350 feet into a forty-knot wind. Miller placed flags every fifty feet along the runway to help fliers gauge the minimum distance required to get their planes airborne. They repeatedly practiced ramming the engines to full power, taking off at sixty-five knots in a 500-foot run with no head wind. If neither engine skipped a beat, the feat proved possible.

Pilots and bombardiers practiced low-level bombing runs across the hills of Texas, New Mexico and Kansas, flying under power lines. They learned to pop up to 1500 feet to drop bombs, then dip back down to the deck. Leaky fuel tanks severely restricted day and night training, but most pilots were superior and achieved proficiency in the limited time available. Doolittle put himself through the same rigorous practice schedule and qualified at the short runs as his handpicked personnel.

Navigators gained experience in open water flights over the Gulf of Mexico. To aid in expected night navigation, glass replaced Plexiglas in celestial observation windows. Since the B-model was new, most gunners had never fired a .50 cal. heavy machinegun nor operated a power turret. Gunnery practice proceeded along with flight training and continued modification and mechanical tweaking of the aircraft, one of which crashed and another was damaged.

Flight Surgeon Lt. Thomas White asked to join the mission. While a doctor was welcome, he could take part only as a full-fledged crewmember. With emergency gunnery training, "Doc" White earned assignment as gunner/surgeon on Lt. Donald Smith's 89th Squadron crew.