Hometown Doolittle Raider honored

One of the two surviving members of the renown Doolittle Raid will be recognized in a new exhibit at the Museum of the Beartooths.
David Thatcher, a 1939 graduate of Absarokee High School, was an engineer-gunner on the seventh B-25B to take off from the USS Hornet on April 18, 1942 for a daredevil bombing run on Japan – just four months after the surprise attack at Pearl Harbor that put the U.S. in the second world war.
“He volunteered to join Doolittle because he wanted more air time,” Museum Director Penny Redli said.

Local hero
Thatcher was born in Bridger and attended Patten School, a one-room schoolhouse near Springtime Road, before the family moved south of Absarokee.
Thatcher enlisted in the Army in December 1940 and completed an airplane and engine mechanic course in Lincoln, Neb., the next December. Then came Pearl Harbor.
The Doolittle Raid is legendary – best-selling books and Hollywood movies tell the story of 16 medium-range bombers taking off from an aircraft carrier at sea with the morale-boosting goal of hitting the Japanese homeland in revenge for Pearl Harbor.
One of the planes made it to Siberia, but the rest crash-landed in China. Of the 80 crewmen, 69 survived the crash-landings.
Thatcher was the only crew member in his plane, The Ruptured Duck, not injured in its crash-landing. Lt. Ted Lawson, the pilot, eventually lost his leg to gangrene but survived the crash, thanks to the efforts of Thatcher and Chinese guerillas.
The survivors traveled across China, over the Himalayas into India, then on to Africa, Brazil and Puerto Rico before finally returning to the U.S. Thatcher took two weeks leave and returned to work, flying 26 missions over North Africa, the Mediterranean and Italy.
Lawson went on to write a first-hand account of the raid one year later called “Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo.” MGM Studios’ movie by the same name received an Academy Award in 1945. Thatcher toured the movie set while on leave in January 1944 and met Robert Walker, the actor who played the engineer-gunner in the film.
For his service, Thatcher was awarded the Silver Star, Distinguished Flying Cross and Air Medal with 4 Oak Leaf Clusters. The Doolittle Raiders were belatedly recognized with the Congressional Gold Medal on May 23, 2014.
Madame Chiang Kai-shek personally awarded Thatcher and other Raiders with the Chinese Army, Navy and Air Corps Medal soon after the attack. To this day, the people of China honor the Raiders’ heroic effort – displays about the Raiders exist in an exhibition hall in Shipu and a city museum in Quozhou, near the area where the planes crash-landed.
Following the war, Thatcher married Dawn Goddard, a Stillwater native with relatives in the area. Now 94, Thatcher is a retired postman in Missoula. A close friend, Dick Cole, 100, of Comfort, Texas, is the only other living member of the Doolittle Raid. Cole was Lt. Col. James H.
 Doolittle’s co-pilot.

Museum exhibit
The creation of an exhibit honoring Thatcher and the Doolittle Raiders was a grassroots local effort.
Maurie Petterson, a member of the Columbus-Stillwater County Historical Commission, was searching the Internet when he came across Aero Trader, of Chino, Calif. and Carl Scholl, who owns two operable B-25 bombers and has flow them off four different U.S. aircraft carriers.
Redli called Scholl and told him the Museum of the Beartooths planned to build an exhibition about Thatcher and the Doolittle Raid. Scholl offered to donate an authentic twin .50-cal machine gun turret just like the one Thatcher operated at the top of The Ruptured Duck. Scholl also paid the freight.
“He’d do anything for the Raiders,” Redli said. “They’re his heroes.”
Redli, a Red Lodge native who spent 14 years in gallery work there, nine years as executive director at the Carbon County Museum and eight years directing the Museum of the Beartooths, also came up with an idea for the exhibit.
“We wanted to create a slice of the plane so people can experience where David was in The Ruptured Duck on April 18, 1942,” she said.
The project was handed off to local history buff and salt-flats car racer Doug Grieve and former auto shop owner and community leader Bob Kem. The two completed the exhibit in time for the museum’s grand opening on April 1 – including a replica bubble top for the turret. Woodworker John Matovich built a cabinet to house the artifacts that go along with the display.
Missoula author and publisher Stan Cohen will give a presentation on Thatcher and the Doolittle Raiders in the Columbus Middle School gym on Friday, April 1, at 6:30 p.m. The opening day reception will follow at the Museum of the Beartooths starting at 7:30 p.m.
To accompany the new exhibit, the museum will offer for sale at the opening house and in the gift shop 10 copies of Cohen’s new book “Destination Tokyo” and 60 copies of Lawson’s book “Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo” – all signed by Thatcher. The gift shop will also sell plastic models of the North American B-25 bomber, goblets from the National Air Force Museum and a beer glass with Thatcher’s signature.