Lt Col Doolittle and Capt. Mitscher aboard USS Hornet
“For conspicuous leadership above the call of duty, involving personal valor and intrepidity at an extreme hazard to life. With the apparent certainty of being forced to land in enemy territory or to perish at sea, General Doolittle personally led a squadron of Army bombers, manned by volunteer crews, in a highly destructive raid on the Japanese mainland.”
—Medal of Honor citation of Brigadier General James H. Doolittle, as printed in the Congressional Document “Medal of Honor Recipients –1863-1963, page 135
At 10:00 in the morning on April 2, 1942 the USS Hornet passed beneath the Golden Gate Bridge carrying 16 B-25B Mitchell bombers, each equipped with four 500 pound bombs. According to Wikipedia, “…Three of these were high-explosive munitions and one was a bundle of incendiaries. The incendiaries were long tubes, wrapped together in order to be carried in the bomb bay but designed to separate and scatter over a wide area after release. Five bombs had Japanese “friendship” medals wired to them—medals awarded by the Japanese government to U.S. servicemen before the war…” [Note: those bombs were marked "returned with interest"]
