Who Rescued Colonel Jimmy Doolittle in 1942?

A Baptist missionary by the name of John Birch was eating lunch in a Chinese Restaurant when a Chinese man bumped into his table and whispered “if you are an American please follow me”. Because John Birch dressed, looked and spoke perfect Mandarin the person was not sure about John. John waited a few minutes and then left his table and followed this man to a san-pan where Col Jimmy Doolittle and some of his Raiders were hiding.

Take the time during Veterans week to find out about Missionary John M. Birch later to become Capt. John Birch on YouTube - A War Story - Who is John Birch?

Nowhere do we see better Robert Welch‘s love of courage, and his conviction that courageous action is essential to the survival of the American Republic, than in his book, The Life of John Birch. In the 1950s, Mr. Welch had a number of friends and acquaintances in the U.S. Congress who allowed him access to important documentation and testimony from Senate committee hearings. It was his practice to read through these voluminous transcripts, looking for answers as to why America and the world had fallen into such lamentable circumstances. It was on one such occasion, he tells us, that he came upon an obscure reference to a man by the name of John Birch, a name until then unknown to Mr. Welch and to the American people. Though he did not realize it at that moment, the hand of Providence had reached down to change the course of Robert Welch’s life.

Mr. Welch himself explains the happening in these words:

All alone in a committee room of the Senate Office Building in Washington, I was reading the dry typewritten pages in an unpublished report of an almost forgotten congressional committee hearing. Suddenly I was brought up sharp by a quotation of some words an army captain had spoken on the day of his death eight years before. Interest in the quotation soon led me to the incident with which the following narrative begins. From then on the light of John Birch‘s actions gradually became greater than the light of his words, and neither would depart. With regard to both, I had to learn all I could of their source and circumstances.

John Birch was considered the first casualty of World War III since he was killed by Chinese Communists 10 days after WWII ended in 1945. He was a Baptist missionary in China who helped Colonel James Doolittle and his fliers to safety. He subsequently served as a U.S Army Intelligence Officer. His remarkable feats of courage and leadership helped bring about the victory in China over the Japanese opposition. Ten days after WWII ended, while on a peaceful mission for the Army, he was murdered by his Chinese Communist comrades. An interesting book!

/c