People in Staunton honored a true hero Wednesday. Americans were reeling from the attack on Pearl Harbor and a string of Japanese victories 70 years ago. But a top-secret air raid turned the tide, and a pilot from Staunton was right in the middle of it.
Sixteen Air Force bombers took off from an aircraft carrier hundreds of miles from the Japanese coast. The third plane was co-piloted by Lieutenant Jack Manch, a Staunton man who attended Augusta Military Academy (AMA) and was the only Virginian involved in the Doolittle raid on Tokyo.
Wednesday is the 70th anniversary of the air attack on Japan. AMA alumni honored Manch with a wreath-laying ceremony at the Shenandoah Valley Regional Airport. It took place outside the airport conference room that bears his name.
The famous air raid was named for Lieutenant Colonel James Doolittle, who conceived the surprise attack on the Japanese mainland.
Jorge Rovirosa of the AMA Alumni Association said, "It brought the morale - the morale of America - up. And it sent a clear message to Japan that indeed they had woken up the sleeping giant and we were going to take it to them."
Wednesday's ceremony included Julian Quarles, the military academy's oldest surviving alumnus who graduated from AMA three years before Manch. The school closed in 1984, but its alumni gather for reunions every year.
Even though every plane in the Doolittle raid was lost, all but 11 men survived the mission, including Jack Manch. The Staunton native went on to serve in the Korean War, and died in a plane crash in 1958.
