Nolan A. "Sue" Herndon, a member of the Doolittle Raiders who was held captive in the Soviet Union after participating in the audacious bombing run on Japan that gave Americans a much-needed morale boost only four months after the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, has died. He was 88.
Herndon, who was a navigator-bombardier in the Army Air Forces, died Oct. 7 of pneumonia at the William Jennings Bryan Dorn-VA Medical Center in Columbia, S.C., his family said.
For The Record
Los Angeles Times Thursday, October 18, 2007 Home Edition Main News Part A Page 2 National Desk 1 inches; 61 words Type of Material: Correction
Herndon obituary: The obituary of Doolittle Raider Nolan A. Herndon in Monday's California section gave his nickname as Sue. In fact, he was known only as Nolan Anderson Herndon. In addition, his sons were listed as Nolan A. "Sue" Herndon Jr. and James M. "Debbie" Herndon. Neither son goes by those nicknames; Sue and Debbie are the names of their wives.
Historians have called the April 18, 1942, attack a key event in World War II that pushed the Japanese to make strategic errors and lifted U.S. spirits when there had been little to cheer about during the early days of the conflict.
Herndon's plane was the only one of 16 B-25 bombers to stray from then-Lt. Col. James H. Doolittle's orders to fly to China after striking Tokyo and other cities. Officially, the War Department blamed a shortage of fuel for the plane's landing on a Soviet airstrip outside Vladivostok.
But late in life, Herndon -- by then the sole survivor of his plane's crew -- began sharing another theory: His plane had been on a classified mission to catalog airfields that might be used for attacks on Japan and to test the Soviet Union's resolve as an ally by seeing if the plane would be allowed to refuel and continue to China.
"We needed information about Russia to see what they would do," Herndon said in a 2001 story in the State newspaper in Columbia, S.C. "The whole thing was kept secret."
When the plane touched down, the Soviet Union -- which had yet to go to war with Japan -- held the five-man crew captive for more than 13 months. They escaped after paying an Afghan smuggler $250 to take them to the British Embassy in what is now Iran.
"I think I was hooked into something I didn't know about. I would have gone anyway. But it's always been a burr in my side," Herndon told the State in 2002.
A number of unusual occurrences made Herndon conclude that his B-25 had a unique extra assignment.
They included the last-minute addition of a 16th plane -- his -- to the raid, the pilot and co-pilot later taking high-level positions in military intelligence, and the plane's carburetors being altered to burn more fuel than the other planes, providing a convenient cover story for the Soviet landing, Herndon said in the 2002 story.
Upon exiting the aircraft, pilots Edward York and Robert Emmens both spoke fluent Russian, a curiosity "that always bothered" Herndon, said Tom Casey, manager of the Doolittle Tokyo Raiders organization.
