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On April 18, 1942, eighty men achieved the unimaginable when they took off from an aircraft carrier on a top secret mission to bomb Japan. These men, led by  Lt. Col. "Jimmy" Doolittle, came to be known as the Doolittle Tokyo Raiders. On November 9, 2013 the four remaining made their final toast to their fallen comrades.

With a final toast made, all 80 silver goblets, will  

 now rest upside down…in what is known as the “Goblet Ceremony.”  Over the years, these goblets have held a highly symbolic place in the history of military aviation.  What began in December 1946, when Gen. James “Jimmy” Doolittle and his fellow Raiders gathered to celebrate his birthday, had turned into an annual reunion.  In 1959 the city of Tucson, Arizona presented the Doolittle Raiders with their own set of silver goblets, each bearing the name of one of the 80 men who flew on the mission.  Every reunion since, the surviving Raiders met privately to conduct their solemn “Goblet          Ceremony.”  After toasting the Raiders who died since their last meeting, they would turn the deceased men’s goblets upside down.  Each goblet has the Raider’s name engraved twice—so that it can be read if the goblet is right side up or upside down.  The Doolittle Tokyo Raid had 3 real purposes; to give the folks at home the first good news since the onset of World War II, to cause the Japanese to question their warlords, and to force the Japanese to redirect their aircraft in defense of their home islands rather than utilize them in the South Pacific where the war was going on.  The date was April 18, 1942—just 4 months after the attack on Pearl Harbor, and America desperately needed a victory to boost its morale.  Following that dreadful December attack, Lt. Col. James Doolittle was selected to lead Special Aviation Project No. 1— the bombing of Japan.  

Read the article in its entirety in the 6-page November 2014 Bevil newsletter, which accompanies the cover.