Training at Willows field, California

Some Doolittle Raider crews trained at Willows Field , California.

“As each plane came out of that interim overhaul period, I’d take it up with the crew to Willows, California and gave them takeoff lessons at Willows.”  Those words, spoken by Rear Admiral Henry L. Miller U.S. Navy (Retired) in his 1971 oral history, confirmed what wartime residents of Willows, CA had long suspected that the Doolittle Raiders had trained at their small airport.

After many years written evidence became known which proved that some of the Doolittle Raiders practiced at the Willows Airport on March 30-31, 1942, prior to being loaded aboard USS Hornet.  Although the Sheriff blocked access to the airport, it was impossible to hide the B-25B Mitchell bombers as they ran their 1700-hp engines to full power before taking off over the rice fields of the Sacramento Valley.  The local population had no idea about the mission they were practicing for and is not known when somebody figured it out.  The local newspapers covered Jimmy Doolittle’s frequent duck hunting trips in the Willows area after the War, but they never mentioned the practice sessions.  During a November 1945 visit, Doolittle was picked up by a B-25 but there was still no mention that Doolittle and that model of airplane had previously been in Willows. 

Lt. Henry L. Miller, the Navy pilot assigned to train the Army bomber pilots in how to take off from an aircraft carrier, gave an oral history after retiring in 1971. During that interview he talked about doing take-offs in Willows.  Almost sixty years after the Raid, Miller personal notes and Temporary Duty Report were found in military archives.  Miller told his commanding officer he had conducted practices at Willows and his diary notes lists the five crews (3 and 7 on March 30; 1, 4, and 14 on March 31) who were at that airport. 

The planes, other than Doolittle, flew from the Sacramento Air Depot to Willows and then onto NAS Alameda.  Doolittle was in Alameda on March 30 and was told by Hap Arnold to go to San Francisco to meet with Adm. Halsey and other naval officers.  That meeting took place that evening in the Fairmont Hotel.  Doolittle must have flown from Alameda to Willows to practice on March 31. 

Miller also said in his oral history, “Then on the last day Jimmy Doolittle said, ‘Well, we’ll finish up at Willows then we’re going to fly down to Alameda and go aboard.”

So how did they end up a small general aviation airport in the North Sacramento Valley?  The airport manager, Floyd Nolta, was an aircraft mechanic in the Army during World War 1.  Both Nolta and Jimmy Doolittle were assigned to the training squadron at Rockwell Field in Coronado.  Doolittle gave Nolta his first airplane ride, and they became lifelong friends.  Doolittle often visited the Willows area to bird hunt with Nolta.  Although the Willows Airport was the only civilian airport used by the Raiders, it was in the process of converting to military use and became an Auxiliary Field to Chico Field on April 30, 1942.

Miller’s recollections and contemporaneous writings have become an accepted part of the story of the Doolittle Raiders.  It is mentioned in Target Tokyo: Jimmy Doolittle and the Raid That Avenged Pearl Harbor by James M. Scott and is included in the history of the Willows-Glenn County Airport when it was added to the National Register of Historic Places by the National Park Service.

Thanks to Ted Atlas.