Originally published in 1943, this is a biography of Jimmy Doolittle (1896-1993), a highly decorated officer in the United States Army Air Corps who pioneered in all phases of aeronautical achievement and commanded the Doolittle Raid on ...

On April 18, 1942, Lt. Col. Jimmy Doolittle led a flight of sixteen B-25 bombers off the flight deck of the USS Hornet on one of the most daring raids in U.S. military history, a low-level strike on Tokyo and other Japanese cities.

Finalist for the 2016 Pulitzer Prize in History "Like Lauren Hillebrand's Unbroken…Target Tokyo brings to life an indelible era." —Ben Cosgrove, The Daily Beast On April 18, 1942, sixteen U.S. Army bombers under the command of daredevil ...

The First Heroes is the story of that mission.

That zest for life has kept Doolittle and his wife going strong even now, as they approach their eighties. It's that spirit that makes his biography more than just the story of an ace pilot."--jacket flap.

Now, for the first time, here is his life story — modest, revealing, and candid as only Doolittle himself can tell it.

In April, 1942, President Roosevelt urged the military high command to prepare a devastating carrier-launch raid against the Japanese home islands.

This updated edition contains a new foreword written by Richard P. Hallion, a new afterword written by Clarence E. "Bud" Anderson, and a new introduction by author Jonna Doolittle Hoppes.