Chase J. Nielsen, a hero

The first news out of Tokyo on April 18, 1942, was of an "inhuman" attack by enemy bombers on "schools and hospitals" in an around Japan's largest city.

Of course it was neither inhuman nor aimed at schools and hospitals. That was Japan's hyperbolic way of putting the best face possible on an attack its leaders hardly could deny, and which had an incredible effect on the morale of U.S. forces and on war strategy. American bombers had managed to launch a raid on the heart of Japan, and they did it a little more than four months after the attack on Pearl Harbor. It ended a string of about 2,600 years in which Japanese warriors had kept enemies off their soil and, as the leader of the raid, Brig. Gen. James H. Doolittle, told The Associated Press a little while later, it held the promise of "many more surprises for Japan and Germany."

One of the men of that raid — a hero in every sense of the word — was Utahn Chase J. Nielsen, who died at his home last Friday at the age of 90.

Nielsen, like the 79 other men who flew the B-25B bombers, volunteered for the mission. He did so despite knowing the dangers and the fact that the odds were against him.

Originally, it was thought the aircraft could carry enough fuel to launch from carriers 400 miles off the Japanese shore, hit their targets and then make it safely to friendly airfields in China. But the presence of Japanese boats at that distance forced the launch from much farther away, instead. After the raid, the plane on which Chase was navigator ran out of fuel and fell into the ocean in the East China Sea. Captured by the Japanese, he was tortured and forced to spend years in solitary confinement. His rescue came finally at the end of the war.

But while Nielsen suffered for his bravery, the free world rejoiced and took courage. A subsequent editorial in the New York Times put it this way, "On April 18 the Japanese people learned that their islands are open to attack. They cannot be encouraged by the certainty that this attack will be repeated and sustained in force."

Nielsen and other crew members were heavily decorated for their bravery and all they endured. These honors have been recounted elsewhere in this newspaper. But the biggest award the rest of us can give him posthumously is to never forget.

Every time you look around and see free people going about their daily tasks; every time you see the signs of prosperity; every time you hear of another soldier going to war as part of an all volunteer armed force, offer a prayer of thanks for people like retired Lt. Col. Chase J. Nielsen, who willingly risked all they had.