Lieutenant Thomas C. Griffin

Thomas Carson Griffin was born on 10 July 1918 in Green Bay, Wisconsin. I could not find out who his parents were.

In 1939, he graduated from the University of Alabama with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science.

He married Esther Brooks (Jones) Griffin. Thomas and Esther had two sons.

Esther Brooks (Jones) Griffin

In February 1942, Thomas Griffin volunteered for a "secret mission", even though he did not know what duties were involved or any other details. This mission ended up being the critical Doolittle Raid, which was led by  Jimmy Doolittle. The raid was daring not only because of the intended targets, the Japanese homeland, but because the pilots trained to take-off in a B-25 bomber from the deck of an aircraft carrier, something neither the designers of the B-25, nor the aircraft carrier, ever envisioned.

Thomas C. Griffin was the navigator for ninth bomber, plane# 40-2303 nicknamed "Whirling Dervish", to depart the deck of the USS Hornet during the mission.

On 18 April 1942, Tom Griffin and his B-25's four crewmembers, took off from the Hornet and reached Tokyo, Japan. They bombed their target; Tokyo Gas and Electric Company building in the southern part of the city.

They then headed for their recovery airfield in China. Running low on fuel due to the early launch of the raid, the B-25s failed to reach any of the designated safety zones in China. Thomas Griffin and his crew bailed out behind Japanese lines over the city of Nanchang in Jiangxi Province, China.

The pilot of Griffin's bomber, First Lieutenant Harold F. Watson, was badly injured during the bail out and was carried to Hengyang in a porter by friendly Chinese civilians along with the bomber's crew. On 30 April 1942, after the crew made their way to Chungking, Griffin, Doolittle and other bomber crew members were decorated by Madame Chiang Kai-shek.

Later during world war 2 his aircraft was shot down over Sicily and after bailing out, he was captured and taken prisoner by the Germans on 3 July 1943, he was a POW of Germany from 4 July 1943 till 29 April 1945.

Neil Armstrong (left) and Tom Griffin in 2009.

He retired from his own accounting business in 1984. By then he and his wife Esther lived in Cincinatti, Ohio.

Griffin joined the Doolittle Raiders Association, and attended every reunion except the final reunion, which was scheduled for April 2013, due to him dying on February 2013. “We kind of expected it because he had gone downhill pretty quickly the last few weeks, but you can never really prepare yourself for when one of these guys goes,” said Tom Casey, manager of the Doolittle Raiders Association.

Thomas Carson Griffin died in his sleep on 26 February 2013, in a Veteran Affairs nursing home in Cincinnati, Ohio at the age of 96. He was buried with full military honors at Hillside Chapel Crematory and Columbarium in Cincinnati. 

Main part of this articke was taken from Wikipedia - Tom Griffin (aviator)