Rafe McCawley and Danny Walker stood on an air craft carrier floating around in the middle of the Pacific. They had been training for this point for weeks now; the wind blew through their hair as they stood there wondering the point of this mission.
The men gathered on the B-25's sitting on top the deck. Colonel Doolittle stood in the middle of the gathering and began, "boys, you may be wondering why we're here. Well right now we're heading for Tokyo…and we're going to bomb it!"
The men cheered as he continued the news of what would happen. Questions were asked and everyone broke away. All but Rafe; he stood on the deck watching the sunset thinking of what he had gotten himself into.
It was the day of the mission and the men stood again on the deck. Gooz began to pull something from his jumpsuit. "I've got something for everybody," he began as he ripped out a bunch of cigars from his jumpsuit. "Victory cigars," he yelled as he began to hand them out, "just keep this baby in your pocket next to your heart." The men all laughed as they headed back into their bunks.
Danny took his cigar and placed it in a small metal carrier that his father had left for him. He placed the carrier back in his pocket and sat down on his bed. He then picked up the letter Evelyn wrote him and placed it in his pocket.
"Man your planes!" flooded the announcement speaker.
"I think we're shooting at something!" Danny said as he put on his uniform.
They all headed to their planes and got ready to take off.
It seemed to have been hours now since their planes bombed Tokyo and now they were praying to find the coast of China. "I see land!" an excited Rafe screamed into the radio. "Now you follow me Danny, we'll find a nice soft landing spot."
The planes flew over their safety, China. Rafe struggled to land as each engine began to die. Their plane went down fast and hard creating a large explosion for the Jap patrollers to see them. The men were trapped in a rut, the Japs were coming fast now and they weren't sure they would have enough magazines to hold them off.
Out of the sky flew a great plane pounding the Japanese down with a long fast hurtle of bullets leaving no prisoners, giving no mercy. The plane flew over head and then crashed harder then Rafe's had creating an even larger explosion.
"Danny!" Rafe screamed running to his rescue shooting down any Jap hiding behind any bunch of rice plants.
Danny lie there next to his plane, beat up, hurt. "I've had better landings." He said laughing.
"You hang on Danny, you're gonna make it," he said as he pulled a piece of metal from his neck. All of a sudden the butt of a gun struck Rafe startled he shook it off to see another Jap, he was tying his feet together and he could see Danny being tied to a wood structure. As they were dragged away Rafe had an ounce of courage that may leave them all dead but he could never go through life without thinking what would have happened if he hadn't.
He passed his gun still loaded; he quietly reached out his arm and grabbed it. One, shot nailed the man tying up Danny, second knocked down the man dragging him. He shot down everyone he shot at. But then the backfire, a man came running for him, shoot damnit shoot! He screamed to himself as he tried to fire another shot but it was empty. Danny knocked the man over as he turned around. A man shot at him right to his heart. Danny fell to the ground and before they could fire at him again a grenade thrown by Gooz blew them away.
It was over, they were all alone. Rafe untied his feet and ran to Danny untying his arms as well. "Are you okay?" he asked cradling Danny in his arms.
"Yeah, I guess," Danny responded. How could he be okay? He was dying! He was shot in the heart! Danny slowly pulled something from his pocket. It had a large dent in it and was very scratched up. He opened the carrier to find Gooz's cigar deformed from the bullet.
"Oh my God," Rafe said smiling as he laughed and hugged his friend.
Eventually the Chinese came and they were taken back to a camp to get ready to go home.
The plane slowly rounded the runway and landed on the small airfield in Hawaii. Evelyn stood along with other family members of the pilots waiting to see them walk down the steps and back into their arms.
Colonel Jimmy Doolittle stepped off the plane first as applause echoed through the vast endless sky. Man after man followed him and ran to the members of their families.
Evelyn stood there waiting; her heart sank, as it seemed the plane was empty. He lied to me! She thought as the silhouette she remembered seeing as the plane left for the first time appeared. Evelyn's heart came back to place and began to jump. Rafe's hand rose and began to wave. Was this a dream? She thought again waving back at him he began to run down the stairs and towards her. She followed quickly.
"I told you I'd come back," he said embracing her in his arms.
"You always do," she said smiling back.
This was their moment to cherish for the rest of their lives. They didn't care about anyone around them as far as she was concerned it was only the two of them embracing each other forever and ever.