Raiding Japan on Fumes in 1942, and Surviving to Tell How Fliers Did It

ENUMCLAW, Wash. — At age 93, Edward J. Saylor still works in his shop behind the house, making stained-glass art and retreating to a cozy armchair for some afternoon TV when the weather turns cold. He lives, he says, quietly in a quiet spot, among the pastures and fields of this community 40 miles south of Seattle.

But ask him about “the raid,” and all those pieces of a seemingly ordinary life fall away. A chapter of World War II, it turns out, is hiding in plain sight here in Enumclaw, part of a living history that is rapidly fading away.

In April 1942, just a few grim months after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Mr. Saylor, then a sergeant in the Army Air Forces, climbed aboard a B-25 bomber with four crew mates and helped open a new era in the war. The Doolittle Raiders, as they became known — 80 men in 16 bombers led by a swashbuckling lieutenant colonel, James H. Doolittle — launched themselves over the Pacific from the aircraft carrier Hornet, aiming to strike at Japan when few thought it could be done, at least with any hope of survival....