The Other Doolittle Raid: The Genesis of a World War II Bomber Group

In 2001 Tombstone Pictures released the movie Pearl Harbor. Following the Japanese attack on the military installations on Oahu the movie depicts President Franklin D. Roosevelt meeting with his military and civilian advisors. Near the end of the meeting Roosevelt demands the United States bomb Japan.Roosevelts not-so-innocent request would send a ripple effect throughout the military planning of the United States and Great Britain. Two hundred and twelve men and twenty-three B-24D heavy bombers would form the nucleus of an Army Air Corps unit called the Halverson Provisional Group or HALPRO for short. Their original mission was to execute Roosevelts order.The men and planes would assemble at the Fort Myers Florida Air Base by May 1 1942. By then the Doolittle Raiders had already executed their daring raid. But the need to punish Japan continued. By the end of May they had departed the continental United States still intent on executing Roosevelts directive. But unknown to them they were about to enter the political and military vortex that was 1942.