Bill Bower William Marsh " Bill " Bower ( February 13 , 1917 – January 10 , 2011 ) was an American aviator , U . S . Air Force Colonel and veteran of World War II . Bower was the last surviving pilot of the Doolittle Raid , the first air raid to target the Japan ese Home Island of Honshu . A native of Ravenna , Ohio , Bower graduated from Ravenna High School in 1934 . He attended both Hiram College and Kent State University from 1934 until 1936 . Bower then joined the Ohio National Guard 107th Cavalry , based in Ravenna , from 1936 to 1938 . In 1940 , Bower graduated from the U . S . Army Air Corps Flying School and was commissioned a 2nd lieutenant , in the U . S . Air Force on October 4 , 1940 , with a rating of Army Aviator . In October 1940 , Bower joined the 37th Bomb Squadron , based at Lowry Field in Denver , Colorado . He then transferred to the 17th Bombardment Group , headquartered at McChord Field in Washington state , in June 1941 . In the months following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor , Bower volunteered for the first American aerial attack on Japan . The air raid , which came to be called the Doolittle Raid , after Lieutenant Colonel James " Jimmy " Doolittle , took place on April 18 , 1942 . Bower piloted one of the sixteen B - 25B Mitchell medium bombers which took off from the USS Hornet to attack cities on Honshu . Bower and his five member crew bombed the city of Yokohama during the raid . They parachute d out of their B - 25 over China during the night , which was his first jump from an airplane . They were taken in by Chinese villagers until rescue by the Americans . His mother , Kathryn Bower , was informed by Lt . Colonel Jimmy Doolittle that Bower had survived the attack approximately one month later . Eleven members of the Doolite Raid were killed or captured . Bower and the other crew members were brought from China back to the United States . In June 1942 , Bower and twenty - two other participants in the Doolittle Raid received the Distinguished Flying Cross during a reception held at the White House . The city of Ravenna , Ohio , declared July 3 , 1942 , as " Bill Bower Day . " Bower married his wife , Lorraine Amman Bower , in the lobby of the Lady Lafayette Hotel in Walterboro , South Carolina , on August 18 , 1942 . The couple had two sons and two daughters during their marriage . Bower remained in the U . S . Army Air Forces throughout World War II , achieving the rank of Colonel . He commanded the 428th Bombardment Squadron during the war and served in Africa , including the allied invasion of North Africa , and the European Theater , including Italy , until September 1945 . He became an accident investigator following the end of World War II and transferred to the newly established U . S . Air Force in 1947 . He also served as a commander of a U . S . Air Force transport organization in the Arctic and commanded Dobbins Air Force Base in Marietta , Georgia . He was awarded the Bronze Star Medal and two Air Medal s during his career . He moved to Boulder , Colorado , in 1966 with his wife , Lorraine Amman , and their four children . He lived in Boulder until his death on 10 January 2011 , at the age of 93 , after suffering from complications from a fall in June 2009 . He was survived by two sons , two daughters and six grandchildren . His wife , Lorraine , predeceased him in 2004 . The Colonel William Marsh Bower Center will open in the Portage County Regional Airport in Shalersville Township , north of Ravenna , in June 2013 .