By Caleb McClain
As a young boy creeps through the Alaskan marshes, he suddenly halts. His quarry is now visible, and he gets down on his hands and knees to close the remaining distance. He’s freezing cold and sopping wet, yet he remains undeterred from completing his first mission. Although only 7 years old, his father has allowed him to take a .22 long rifle in search of game, and just ahead of him are two teal swimming on a pond, completely unaware of his presence. His rifle barrel slowly rises from the alders, and the iron sights settle on the breast of the bird. With an exhale and a squeeze, the small gun erupts, and only one bird flies away. As he swims out to retrieve the limp and lifeless body of the small duck, this boy, a young Jimmy Doolittle, knows that he will forever be a hunter.
General James “Jimmy” Doolittle was known for many things, but his primary claim to fame was leading the famous raids that bear his name, wherein he pushed 16 B-25 bombers on daring attacks against the Japanese mainland. Following this brazen feat, he went on to commanded assaults on Italy and other Axis strongholds. Unfortunately, the patriotic duties of war kept Doolittle from being the place he most wanted to be: in a blind back home with a shotgun in his hand watching birds cup over crudely carved decoys.
Doolittle Afield
Following the war, the general hunted every chance he got. He would often take trips to Willows, California to shoot ducks with other servicemen. Being that Willows was the site of the training for the Doolittle Raids, I suspect he originally found those duck holes when he snuck out between training missions. His post-war celebrity status meant that these trips never went unnoticed, and it was not an infrequent sight for a picture of his day’s bag to be plastered on the front page of the local paper.
Another destination Doolittle frequented was his boyhood home of Alaska. Despite only living there for eight years, the wilds of his first hunting grounds called him back again and again. Dall Sheep in the Brooks Range were his favorite animals to chase, as he regarded them as the most difficult animal to pursue successfully, and it was not uncommon for him to be seen trekking across the slopes with a .257 Weatherby Magnum slung over his shoulder. He was an avid brown bear hunter, and he even took down a 407-inch barren ground caribou that landed him a spot in Boone and Crockett’s all-time books.
A Four-Star Adventurer
After his official retirement in 1959, Doolittle’s love for hunting, coupled with ample free time, took him to the most remote regions of the world. Polar bears in the far north were considered an appropriate game to the general, and he unsuccessfully chased jaguars in deep in the forests of Venezuela. Then there was Africa.
In 1966, Doolittle entered Kenya for perhaps his most daring mission: hunting dangerous game in the long grass. Led by white hunter “Bwana Hal” Cope, Doolittle successfully shot elephant, rhino, lion, leopard, and buffalo. With this last great feat accomplished, the now 70-year-old general returned to America and settled down.
The history books rightly ascribe a near God-like status to General James Doolittle, and he was undoubtedly a pivotal figure in securing victory against the Axis power on all fronts. Despite the success of his career, the Medal of Honor, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the record-book caribou, and countless awards and accolades, when Doolittle looked back on his life, he remembered the young boy with a teal in one hand and a .22 in the other, and how he was never prouder than he was on that day.
