Airmen to honor last WWII Doolittle Raider at Texas service

April 13, 2019 at 3:03 a.m. | Updated April 13, 2019 at 3:05 a.m.

by Associated Press

In this April 16, 2013 file photo, Doolittle Raider Lt. Col. Dick Cole, stands in front of a B-25 at the Destin Airport in Destin, Fla. before a flight as part of the Doolittle Raider 71st Anniversary Reunion. Retired Lt. Col. Richard "Dick" Cole, the last of the 80 Doolittle Tokyo Raiders who carried out the daring U.S. attack on Japan during World War II, has died at a military hospital in Texas. He was 103. A spokesman says Cole died Tuesday, April 9, 2019, at Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio, Texas. (Nick Tomecek/Northwest Florida Daily News via AP, File)
In this April 16, 2013 file photo, Doolittle Raider Lt. Col. Dick Cole, stands in front of a B-25 at the Destin Airport in Destin, Fla. before a flight as part of the Doolittle Raider 71st Anniversary Reunion. Retired Lt. Col. Richard "Dick" Cole, the last of the 80 Doolittle Tokyo Raiders who carried out the daring U.S. attack on Japan during World War II, has died at a military hospital in Texas. He was 103. A spokesman says Cole died Tuesday, April 9, 2019, at Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio, Texas. (Nick Tomecek/Northwest Florida Daily News via AP, File)

SAN ANTONIO-Hundreds of airmen will line the main entrance of an Air Force base in Texas to salute as the family of the last of the 80 Doolittle Tokyo Raiders arrives for his memorial service.

Retired Lt. Col. Richard "Dick" Cole died Tuesday in San Antonio at the age of 103. The Air Force on Friday released details for a memorial being held on April 18 at Joint Base San Antonio-Randolph.

The memorial is being held on the 77th anniversary of the Doolittle Raid during World War II.

On April 18, 1942,
Cole was mission commander Jimmy Doolittle's co-pilot in the U.S.
attack on Japan less than five months after the Japanese bombing of Pearl
Harbor.

Cole, an Ohio native, will be buried at Arlington National Cemetery.

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