Col. Travis Hoover, 86; Bomber Pilot in Doolittle’s Famed 1942 Raid on Tokyo

Retired Air Force Col. Travis Hoover, one of the famous Doolittle’s Raiders pilots who dropped bombs over Tokyo and three other cities in the first U.S. retaliatory raid on Japan after its Dec. 7, 1941, attack on Pearl Harbor, has died. He was 86.

Hoover died Jan. 17 in Webb City, Mo., after nearly a year of declining health and a recent battle with pneumonia. The former pilot had lived in Joplin, Mo., since 1988.

Doolittle’s daring raid on April 18, 1942, four months after Pearl Harbor brought the U.S. into World War II, inflicted little damage. But the mission proved that Japan was vulnerable to U.S. bombers and provided a badly needed psychological lift for Americans.

Hoover flew the second B-25 bomber, just behind then-Lt. Col. Jimmy Doolittle in the lead plane, off the deck of the aircraft carrier Hornet. Sixteen planes, each with a crew of five, bombed their industrial targets, then ran short of fuel before reaching their intended airfields deep inside China. Two of the 80 volunteers drowned, and of the eight men who were captured by Japanese, three were executed and one died in a prison camp.

Hoover’s death leaves 17 survivors, said Chase Nielsen, a survivor and president of the Doolittle Raiders Assn. Hoover was the last survivor of his own crew. One died in the war, another in 1981, and two more in 1994.

Their plane ran out of fuel as it neared the Chinese coast, but Hoover was able to make a wheels-up crash-landing in a muddy rice paddy. Hoover and his four crewmen survived the crash, but had to avoid detection by Japanese soldiers combing the area.

A young English-speaking Chinese aeronautical engineer, Tung Sheng Liu, now of Los Angeles, and Chinese guerrillas came to their aid, escorting them to the Doolittle rendezvous point in Chungking, where they arrived May 14.

Liu, who became a lifelong friend of Hoover, visited him in March and said at the time, “We are closer than friends. We are brothers.” He also traveled to Joplin to be with Hoover’s family after the pilot’s death.

A native of Melrose, N.M., Hoover grew up in Riverside, where he attended Riverside City College. He enlisted in the National Guard in November 1938 and joined the Army the next summer. After completing pilot training, he was commissioned as a second lieutenant.

After the raid, he flew B-25s, B-24s and P-38s in England, North Africa and Italy. Hoover remained in the military, serving around the world until his retirement in 1969 as commander of Keesler Air Force Base in Mississippi. His decorations included the Distinguished Flying Cross earned in the Doolittle Raid, and the Silver Star, Legion of Merit and Chinese army, U.S. Navy and Air Force medals.

He lived in San Antonio from 1970 to 1988, when he moved to Joplin.

Widowed in 1990, Hoover is survived by a stepdaughter, Beverly Zerkel of Joplin, five grandchildren and seven great-grandchildren.