CHALLENGE #20 – ANSWERED – What am I?

Its been a while since I have thrown out a really tough challenge. So, let this be the week. Due to the level of difficulty, I will offer up some clues. This is one of my favorite pieces of WWII history. One cup for every hero that launched themselves into one of the greatest missions of their time.

What am I?

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Short Answer

As I was happy to see, there were no correct answers to this CHALLENGE from “eligible” readers. It would be embarrassing if I said it was a difficult CHALLENGE, then everyone knew what it was. For my ANSWER, I will offer the short answer…with just the basic facts. Below that, there will be the longer answer for those that like a bit of WWII history. Be that as it may…

The picture shows the case, the 80 engraved goblets (79 of which are inverted), and traditional bottle of Cognac used during the annual reunion for the Doolittle Raiders, which is currently on display at the US Air Force Museum in Dayton, OH.

A bit more information for those interested…

On April 18, 1942, Lieutenant Colonel James Doolittle led an air raid on Tokyo, Japan. This raid is usually referred to as Doolittle’s Raid or the Tokyo Raid. It was the first successful raid on the actual Japanese islands. Obviously, there were many things of note about this mission. But, right there at the top is the fact that this was the first time bombers had been launched on a mission from an aircraft carrier. Typically, loaded bombers were too heavy to be launched from the carrier deck. Doolittle and his team developed a way to launch these bombers from the carrier deck. Thus, the Japanese archipelago was now within range of our bombers. Doolittle’s Raid served as an answer to the Japanese raid on Pearl Harbor. The successful bombing of Tokyo was a major moral boost for the USA in the War in the Pacific.

Personally, I think the most amazing and brave part of this story was that Doolittle’s Raiders did not have adequate fuel to return to the aircraft carrier following the bombing. Instead, after dumping their payload on Tokyo, the bombers mostly landed/crashed their planes in China. While China was mostly our ally, it was also a country occupied by the Japanese. So, the stories of the survival and escape of most of the raiders is yet another tribute to the extreme bravery of these heroes.

80 men in 16 bombers flew this mission to Tokyo. From the late 1940s until 2013, the survivors of the Doolittle Raid would gather together for a reunion. During this reunion, there was a private, solemn ceremony where they took a role call of the Doolittle Raiders. Then, the surviving members toasted (using Cognac) the other members that had died in previous years. Each name of a raider was on one of the goblets. When the raiders had passed, their goblet was kept in the case inverted. At the time that I took this photo, only one goblet remained up right. That goblet was for Lt. Col. Richard E. Cole was was the last surviving member of Doolittle’s Raiders, dying April 9, 2019. PT