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Montana flags lowered to honor Doolittle Raider David Jonathan Thatcher

In this April 18, 2015, photo, two members of the Doolittle Tokyo Raiders, Staff Sgt. David Thatcher, front left, and Lt. Col. Richard “Dick” Cole, right, pose for photos with Chief Master Sgt. Doreen Lasacco, Command Chief of Air Force Life Cycle Management Center, back right, and her husband, John Skrabal, after the Congressional Gold Medal to the Doolittle Tokyo Raiders was presented to the National Museum of the United States Air Force at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, in Dayton, Ohio. (Gary Landers / Associated Press)
Associated Press

MISSOULA – Gov. Steve Bullock has ordered all flags in Montana to be flown at half-staff Monday to honor one of the last members of the Doolittle Raiders, the airmen who helped change the course of World War II.

Retired Staff Sgt. David Jonathan Thatcher died earlier this month in Missoula at age 94.

Thatcher was one of 80 airmen whose mission bombing factory areas and military installations in Japan in 1942 lifted American spirits five months after Pearl Harbor.

Afterward, their planes headed for airfields in mainland China, realizing they would run out of fuel.

Thatcher’s death leaves Retired Lt. Col. Richard “Dick” Cole of Comfort, Texas, as the only living member of the Doolittle Raiders.