EGLIN AFB — It’s not often that history comes nose to nose with the future.
On Wednesday, in a hangar on Eglin Air Force Base, the military’s newest stealth aircraft, the F-35, will line up facing one of the military’s first twin-engine bombers, the World War II-era B-25.
The Air Force’s 33rd Fighter Wing planned the historic pairing as part of their ceremony to dedicate an F-35 hangar to Ret. Lt. Col. Ed Saylor, one of the last surviving Doolittle Raiders, who will be in town for their 71st and final reunion this week.
“This is a tremendous honor to have these war heroes in our presence,” said Lt. Col. Maurice Lee, commander of the 33rd Aircraft Maintenance Squadron who helped plan the dedication.
The hangar that will be dedicated to Saylor is where the F-35 gets worked on every day — a fitting tribute to Saylor, who was a maintenance crew chief for one of the 16 crews that participated in the famous raid, Lee said.
On April 18, 1942, 80 airmen took off in B-25s from the USS Hornet to scatter bombs over Tokyo. It was the first American attack on Japan after Pearl Harbor.
The Raiders trained for the mission at Eglin Air Force Base, specifically on how to conduct short takeoffs from atop an aircraft carrier.
Shortly before they were to take off the day of the Raid, Saylor’s B-25, No. 15, had an engine malfunction that threatened to ground his crew from the mission. Lt. Col. Jimmy Doolittle, who was heading up the mission, asked Saylor to attempt to repair it.
Saylor said he would do his best given the type of maintenance required had always been performed on land — never on the deck of an aircraft carrier in the middle of the ocean.
If he could not fix it, they planned to push the plane off the boat and send it sinking to the bottom of the sea.
After some troubleshooting, Saylor discovered the engine keys had fallen out. On the windy and pitching deck of the boat, he located the engine keys, removed the engine, rebuilt it and reinstalled it.
It worked. Saylor boarded the plane and all 16 crews were able to take off on the mission.
“Because of his mechanical ability, they were able to have 16 aircraft participate instead of 15,” Lee said.
None were assured of making it home. In fact, they all knew they did not have enough gas to return to the boat, but they all took off anyway.
Lee said that aspect of the mission is inspirational.
“They flew off the carrier hoping they would land in China, but that wasn’t for certain,” Lee said. “They knew they might not make it back home at all. That is tremendous.”
Saylor, now 95, will be traveling with family from Seattle to Fort Walton Beach for the reunion this week and will attend the ceremony.
Two more of the four surviving Raiders, Ret. Col. Dick Cole and Staff Sgt. David Thatcher, will also attend the ceremony.
Barring any inclement weather, the B-25 should also arrive at Eglin Wednesday for the ceremony and will be parked in the hangar beside the F-35.
The B-25 has a larger wing span than the compact, single-seat F-35, but the biggest differences between the two are in design and technology, Lee said.
“Things that folks could only dream of in the ’40s and ’30s are now actually possible with the aid of computer design,” he said.
He said having both the B-25 and the Air Force’s latest weapons system next to each other will be a unique experience.
“I don’t know the next time something like this will happen again. It could be once in a lifetime.”
Contact Daily News Staff Writer Lauren Sage Reinlie at 850-315-4443 or lreinlie@nwfdailynews.com. Follow her on Twitter @LaurenRnwfdn.