Jacob D. DeShazer

Jacob DeShazer was one of the Doolittle Raiders who bombed Japan on April 18, 1942. He was a corporal at that time and was the bombardier in the 16th (and last) B-25 to take off from the USS Hornet. The flight took them over Nagoya where the bombs were dropped. They flew to the Chinese coast where they were forced to bail out because the airplane had run out of fuel and it was dusk. The bailed out over Japanese held territory and were soon captured. Corporal DeShazer was held as a POW in brutal conditions until the end of the war, September 1945. During his captivity, he decided to become a missionary should he survive the war. He held to this dream, became a Methodist missionary and returned to Japan to preach there. One of the leaders of the Pearl Harbor attack, Mitsuo Fuchida, heard DeShazer preach and became converted to Christianity. As of this writing, his 94th birthday, he is one of the 16 remaining Radiers.