The Seal for the Next Generation
Effective August 1, 2026, the Children of the Doolittle Raiders introduced a new seal for the work of remembrance still ahead.
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From the Doolittle Raiders to the Raiders of Tomorrow
A new 90-second presentation connects the courage of the eighty Raiders with the responsibility to carry their story forward.
Watch the presentationThe story is still moving
History did not end when the engines went quiet.
The Doolittle Raid became a story of courage, survival, friendship, and memory. This archive follows that story from the deck of the Hornet to the Chinese communities that received the crews—and through the descendants carrying their legacy today.
18 April 1942
The raid in four frames
Four moments open the larger record. Each image leads to photographs, accounts, maps, and voices from the archive.
01
The deck
Sixteen aircraft. No room to turn back.
The bombers were launched earlier and farther from Japan than planned after the task force was sighted.
02
The route
Across Japan. Then west.
After striking their targets, the crews turned toward airfields in China with darkness and fuel closing in.
03
The forced landings
None reached the intended airfields.
Fifteen aircraft came down in or off China; the sixteenth landed near Vladivostok in the Soviet Union.
04
The rescue
Strangers became protectors.
Chinese civilians, soldiers, and medical workers sheltered, treated, and guided many Raiders toward safety.
The emotional center
The Sixteen
Eighty men become legible when we meet them as they flew: sixteen crews, each bound to one aircraft and one another.
Aircraft 01
Crew No. 1
- Aircraft
- 40-2344
- Unit
- 34th Bomb Squadron
- Outcome
- Bailed out over China
The lead aircraft crossed Japan first. With fuel exhausted over China, all five men bailed out and were guided to safety by local residents.
The crew
- James H. Doolittle
- Richard E. Cole
- Henry A. Potter
- Fred A. Braemer
- Paul J. Leonard
Not icons. People.
Faces we carry
Every profile restores a name, a face, a family, and the life that continued beyond one extraordinary mission.
Across the Pacific
A debt carried across generations.
When fifteen crews came down in or off China, local people risked their lives to shelter the wounded, hide the hunted, and guide survivors toward safety.
This is not a side story. The rescue, the devastating retaliation against Chinese communities, and the friendship descendants continue to honor are central human truths of the raid.
Follow the China story1942 to today
The living legacy
The mission is history. The work of remembrance is happening now.
Descendants
The family keeps gathering.
Reunions, commemorations, and new generations keep the relationships alive.
Tradition
The silver goblets
Eighty names. A ritual of remembrance unlike any other.
Tomorrow
Scholarship
The legacy becomes opportunity for descendants and students.
The collection
950 publication-cleared masters.
Thousands of ways in.
Begin with a person, a crew, a place, an object, or a single photograph. The archive will meet you there.
Have a photograph, story, or name that belongs here?