GREAT FALLS, Mont. — One of the two remaining Doolittle Raiders died Wednesday morning in Missoula.
David Thatcher was 94.
Thatcher was a corporal during the 1942 mission and was an engineer/gunner in the back end of a B-25 bomber and a member of Flight Crew No. 7, according to the Air Force.
Thatcher’s bomber was one of 16 sent on the historic mission to bomb Japan. The raid on Tokyo, led by then-Lt. Col. Jimmy Doolittle, was the first U.S. strike on the Japanese islands during World War II.
Thatcher “inspired a nation and lived a life devoted to all we hold dear as airmen,” outgoing Air Force chief of staff Gen. Mark Welsh wrote in a Facebook post Wednesday.
In April, Thatcher visited Fairchild Air Force Base for a commemorative toast in honor of the 74th anniversary of the Doolittle Raid.
“The Doolittle Raid showed what we can accomplish when we work together to achieve a common goal,” Thatcher said during the event. “I hope that airmen will continue to honor the raid and remember what was done.”
Thatcher died from complications of a stroke he suffered Sunday, according to a Missoulian report.
There is now just one surviving Doolittle Raider — Lt. Col. Richard Cole — of the 80 who took off from an aircraft carrier to target factory areas and military installations in Japan on April 18, 1942. The raid stunned Japan and boosted U.S. morale.
Afterward, the planes headed for airfields in mainland China, realizing they would run out of fuel, according to the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force.
Thatcher was engineer-gunner aboard the plane nicknamed "The Ruptured Duck."
After the bombing, Thatcher's plane — running low on fuel — crash landed in the ocean near China. The plane flipped over and all the crew members except for Thatcher were seriously injured. Thatcher was knocked out, but soon regained consciousness, gathered the rest of the crew, administered first aid and convinced some Chinese guerrillas to take the crew to safety in inland China.
Thatcher received a Silver Star for gallantry in action.
The crew's crash-landing and evasion of Japanese troops in China was depicted in the movie Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo, based on the book written by the plane's pilot, Lt. Ted Lawson.
After his military career, Thatcher worked for the U.S. Postal Service for 30 years as a clerk and later a letter carrier. He retired in 1980. He stayed in contact with the surviving members of the Doolittle Raiders and attended nearly every reunion the group held through the Final Toast in November 2013.
The group received the Congressional Gold Medal last year, and donated it to the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force in Ohio.
Contributing: The Associated Press
