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The northern California newspaper where I worked in 1992 rotated obituary duties among its weekend news reporters. I had Sunday duty and grabbed a stack of obituary forms off the fax machine. It was a fairly routine collection of recently departed, but one stood out.
Ted Lawson was a 74-year-old resident of Chico, Calif., and a World War II veteran, but there was more to his story. Lawson participated in the April 1942 bombing raid on the Japanese mainland by 16 B-25B Mitchell medium bombers launched from the aircraft carrier USS Hornet – the Doolittle Raid, named after its commander, Jimmy Doolittle.
Lawson survived the raid (seven crew members were killed during the operation) and went on to write Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo, a memoir of his participation in the raid. With Lawson’s help, the book was adapted into a movie by the same name that starred Spencer Tracy, Van Johnson and Robert Mitchum – all A-list actors at the time. Lawson was co-credited with the screenplay along with Dalton Trumbo, a top screenplay writer at the time.
Lawson’s brush with fame was short-lived once the movie was completed. Like so many World War II veterans, he got on with his life in the civilian sector before retiring to Chico, where he would pass away in 1992 and be buried.
World War II veterans were held in high regard back in the 1990s as the older ones started meeting their maker. Interviewing Pearl Harbor survivors was a regular thing for the Dec. 7 editions of the newspaper throughout my early career, but it became harder and harder to find them.
Lawson was severely injured during the raid and received a medical discharge in 1944. He lived just a couple of miles from the newspaper office, but we didn’t know he was there – until he wasn’t.
I regretted a missed opportunity to interview a World War II hero (he received a Distinguished Flying Cross medal, second only to the Medal of Honor).
I was transferred to a sister newspaper in 1994 and was reminded of Lawson every time I wrote another obituary for a World War II veteran. It then struck me: 1995 was the 50th anniversary of the end of World
War II, and I was in a position to do something about it.
I wrote a column asking anyone with memories from World War II – soldiers and Marines on the front lines and in the rear, sailors at sea, children rationing sugar and helping mom grow their Victory Garden, and the moms who worked in factories building weapons, ammunition and supplies.
The response was everything I hoped. We started publishing these memories on the front page on Jan. 1, 1995, and continued
every day, six days a week, until October 1995 before we finally exhausted our supply.
The column I wrote back in 1994 is similar to the one you are now reading, because 2023 is the 50th anniversary of another important milestone in U.S. history. In 1973, 50 years ago, the United States withdrew from the Vietnam War.
Once again, I’m reaching out to people who remember that long and controversial war, whether you were drafted and sent to combat zones, or worked in the rear with the gear, or grew up hearing the daily body counts reported on the nightly news.
The Vietnam War generation is rapidly aging out (especially for veterans who served in the early part of the war in the 1960s). Provided we get enough submissions, we plan to dedicate our Veterans Day magazine in November to the Vietnam War.
But any remaining World War II and Korean War veterans who would like to contribute their memories, please do so.
Email your written memories to me at editor@cherokeescout.com. Send photos, too. And don’t wait until the last minute. We want to give this special keepsake edition the care and consideration it deserves.
Randy Foster is editor of the Cherokee Scout. He served in the U.S. Marine Corps from 1979-85, while his father served in the U.S. Navy during World War II, including the Battle of Okinawa. Call him at 828-837-5122, Ext. 24.