Wing chaplain honors World War II legend

  • Published
  • By Maj. Denise Kerr
  • 445th Airlift Wing Public Affairs
WRIGHT-PATTERSON AIR FORCE BASE, Ohio --  Chaplain (Lt. Col.) David Leist, 445th Airlift Wing Chaplain Corps, paid tribute to a true American hero, Maj. Thomas C. Griffin, during a memorial service March 7.

More than a dozen family and friends, including the Cincinnati War Birds, attended the service held at the Lunken Airfield terminal building, Cincinnati, Ohio.

Griffin, one of the last of the Doolittle Raiders, passed away Feb. 26 at the age of 96.

"Major Griffin was an endearing and personable gentleman who welcomed individuals into his life and graciously shared experiences and stories about his time as a Doolittle Raider," said Leist.

Griffin went to the Univ. of Alabama and graduated with a political science degree in 1939. He joined the U.S. Army that same year as a second lieutenant in coast artillery. He decided he wanted to be a navigator and began his navigator career July 1, 1940.

A B-25 bomber navigator, Griffin became part of World War II history as one of the five last remaining Doolittle Raiders. The Raiders also known as the "Doolittle Tokyo Raiders" shook the confidence of the Axis powers by raining 500-pound incendiary clusters in Yokohama, Kobe, Nagoya and Osaka on Saturday, April 18, 1942.

His eventful military service did not end with the raid over Tokyo. In 1943, he was shot down while flying over Sicily and captured by the Germans to spend the rest of the war in their prison camps.

"In spite of his terminal illness he lived life to the fullest and was a refreshing story teller although he often could not recollect several of the most present memories of his 96 years of life," said Leist.

Leist said he remembers during the Dec. 7, 2012 Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day event in the CVAMC chapel, dozens of the younger Operations Iraqi Freedom and Enduring Freedom veterans from the domiciliary and post traumatic stress disorder programs came forward to shake the outstretched hand of a genuine American WWII war hero.

"Tom always welcomed me into his room while visiting as his healthcare chaplain and asked me to take a seat and visit. In spite of his terminal illness, he lived life to the fullest and was a refreshing story teller," Leist said.

On March 8, a formal ceremony attended by more than 1,000 family members, dignitaries, service members and community leaders was held at the Cincinnati Veterans Affairs Medical Center's Community Living Center in Ft. Thomas, Ky., where Griffin was living at the time of his death.