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Doolittle Raider dies
BRIGHAM CITY, Utah (AP) — Lt. Col. Chase J. Nielsen, a member of the famed “Doolittle Raiders” who bombed Japan in 1942, has died. Nielsen died Friday at his home of age-related causes, his family said. He was 90.
Nielsen was a navigator in one of the most daring air raids in American history, when 16 B-25 bombers took off from an aircraft carrier and bombed Tokyo on April 18, 1942. Nielsen and his crew ditched the plane, which was running out of fuel, off the coast of China and he spent more than three years as a Japanese prisoner of war. Nielsen was one of four POWs from the raid to survive. Four others died. The raid, planned by Lt. Col. Jimmy Doolittle, was the subject of the book and movie “Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo” and the book “Four Came Home,” which chronicled the story of Nielsen and the three other survivors.
Nielsen, who returned to China to testify at Japanese war crimes trials just months after he was released, was known for telling his story to anyone who asked. “They were always after him to tell his war stories,” Nielsen’s wife, Phyllis, told the Ogden Standard-Examiner. “He was a very well-thought-of man because he was just a nice person. He loved to help anybody that needed help.”
Nielsen’s death leaves 14 surviving “Doolittle Raiders,” according to the Web site www.doolittleraider.com. Visitation is scheduled for Tuesday night at the Allen Hall Mortuary in Logan, where Nielsen attended Utah State University and graduated in 1939. His funeral is scheduled for Wednesday.
On the Net: www.doolittleraider.com
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