2017 Warbirds in Review- Richard E. Cole and the North American B-25 "Panchito"

Warbirds in Review - 24 July 2017, 10:00am, Warbird Alley, AirVenture OSH. Richard E. Cole and the North American B-25 "Panchito." Lt. Col. Dick Cole, 101 yrs old, has long stood in the powerful spotlight of fame that has followed him since his B-25 was launched from a Navy carrier and flown toward Japan just four months after the attack on Pearl Harbor. In recognition, the tremendous boost Doolittle’s Raid gave American morale, members of The Tokyo Doolittle Raiders were awarded the Congressional Gold Medal in May 2014. Doolittle’s Raid was only the opening act of Cole’s flying career during the war. When that mission was complete and all of the 16 aircraft had crash-landed in China, many of the survivors were assigned to combat units in Europe. Cole remained in India after their rescue and was assigned to Ferrying Command, flying the Hump of the Himalayas for a year in the world’s worst weather, with inadequate aircraft, few aids to navigation, and inaccurate maps. More than 600 aircraft with their crews were lost during this monumental effort to keep China in the war, but Cole survived and rotated home in 1943. He was home just a few months when he was recruited for the First Air Commandos and he returned to India to participate in Project 9, the aerial invasion of Burma. The North American B-25 was one of the most famous twin-engine medium bombers used during World War II and the only combat airplane to see action in every front of every theater of the war. With some versions having as many as eighteen (18) .50 caliber machine guns, it was the most heavily armed aircraft of WWII. It was produced in greater numbers than any other American twin-engine combat aircraft. No doubt part of it’s heroic stature derives from its namesake, the outspoken Gen. Billy Mitchell who proved once and for all that bombers could destroy targets, and that wars would nevermore be decided only on land or sea. The B-25 achieved worldwide fame on April 18, 1942 when sixteen B-25's under the command of Lt. Col. James Doolittle were launched from the aircraft carrier HORNET and attacked five Japanese cities in a daring raid that brought attacks to the Japanese homeland for the first time in 2600 years. This B-25 was delivered to the USAAF too late to see any action in World War II but was used in various duties until assigned to Air Training Command in 1948 where it was used until 1954. In 1955 it was put through the Hughes conversion to a TB25N configuration and served with various Air National Guard units until being retired to Davis-Monthan AFB in 1958. The B-25 was sold to its first civilian owner in 1959 and was used as a fire bomber in Arizona, and then later as an orange grove sprayer in Florida. It was immaculately restored to original WWII condition by Tom Reilly Vintage Aircraft ("Bombertown") in Kissimmee Florida in 1986 and finished as “Panchito”, a B-25J S/N 43-28147 that served with the 396 Bomb Squadron, 41st Bomb Group, 7th Air force, stationed in the Central Pacific. “Panchito” was scheduled for its 13th bombing run to Japan on the day the Japanese surrendered. If the Japanese had not surrendered, it would have been involved in the invasion of mainland Japan. Instead, all of the 396 BG airplanes were flown to Clark Field in the Philippines and scrapped. Total number of B-25's built: 9,816 Number flyable in the World today: 36. Photos Courtest: Robert Seale