Retired Col. Bill Bower, the last surviving pilot among the Doolittle Raiders, has died in Boulder, Colo. Boulder’s Daily Camera reports that Bower died Monday in his south Boulder home at age 93. “He was an exceptional human being,” said his son Jim Bower. As a first lieutenant, Bower piloted Fickle Finger, the 12th of 16 B-25 bombers that took off from the deck of the aircraft carrier USS Hornet on April 18, 1942, to bomb Tokyo, just four months after Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor. He and his crew bailed out over China and reached safety after the mission. Bower continued to serve during World War II and remained in the Air Force until 1966. With his death, there are now five surviving Doolittle Raiders, including two co-pilots. The most recent Doolittle Raiders reunion took place last April in Dayton, Ohio. (Daily Camera Bower obituary)
The U.S. Air Force marked an important first earlier this week when F-22 Raptors deployed to Clark Air Force Base, the first time U.S. fifth-generation fighters have ever deployed to the Philippines, the Air Force said. The F-22 deployment, which took place on March 13 and 14, comes as the…