Thursday, October 20, 2022: Doors open at 6:30PM, presentation starts at 7:00PM

Thursday, October 20, 2022, will kick off the WACO Aviation Lecture Series for the 2022-2023 season. Dr. Paul Cooper, retired Air Force Brigadier General, will kick off the season with a presentation on the Doolittle Raiders at 7 pm.

After Pearl Harbor, President Franklin D. Roosevelt said that Japan should be bombed as soon as possible to boost public morale.  Jimmy Doolittle, a famous military test pilot, civilian aviator, and aeronautical engineer before the war, was assigned to Army Air Forces Headquarters to plan the raid. Sixteen B-25 aircraft would take off from the carrier Hornet and strike Tokyo and other military targets. Discovered early by a Japanese picket ship the crews elected to take off on what was considered a suicide mission knowing that they did not have enough fuel to get to their destination in China. 

Presenter, Paul Cooper, is a pilot with 35 years of service. He has combat experience in Vietnam, Desert Storm, and Bosnia and has commanded three different air bases. He is a graduate of both the Industrial College of the Armed Forces and Air War College and has a Masters Degree in Aviation History. He conducts the docent training program at the National Museum of the United States Air Force and also serves on the Board of Trustees at the Foundation of the National Museum of the Air Force.

All aviation lectures are free and open to the public and are held in the Willis Wing of the WACO Air Museum at 1865 South County Road 25A in Troy, OH. Programs are scheduled to last one hour, beginning at 7 p.m., with questions to follow. Doors will open at 6:30.  Donations to the WACO Air Museum are accepted. All lectures are sponsored in part by Collins Wheels and Brakes. For questions, please call 937-335-9226 or visit www.wacoairmuseum.org.