Friday, April 17, 2026

Question: Ravenna native Bill Bower flew in which famous World War II mission?

Answer: The Doolittle Raid. Then-Capt. Bill Bower’s B-25 took off from the USS Hornet on April 18, 1942, and joined the first American strikes on the Japanese mainland after Pearl Harbor.

Bower and his crew bailed out over China, and he returned to the U.S. in June 1942. He later rose to the rank of colonel in the U.S. Air Force.