Doolittle Raiders Reunion

Betty Jo Kappeler

Kappeler, who lost her husband, Frank, one year ago, was 84.

World War II had been over for more than a decade when the pair met on a beach in Miami in 1956. Frank Kappeler was a career Air Force officer who’d served as a navigator on one of the 16 carrier-launched B-25 bombers that famed aviator Jimmy Doolittle led on an audacious raid over mainland Japan just months after the attack on Pearl Harbor.

Kappeler’s future bride, Betty Jo Gibson, was 29 in ‘56 and was supporting herself and her mother by working as a secretary for Pan American World Airways.

“My parents probably dated once,” said the couple’s only child, Francia Kappeler of Santa Rosa. Her dad had been vacationing in Florida and after meeting Betty Jo then returned to his home and Air Force work in El Paso, Texas.

Francia Kappeler said her folks exchanged letters for about a year. She said Betty Jo had many suitors but had passed on most of them because they balked when she told them that she was part of a package deal: The man who married her would have to accept and open the family home to her mother.

When Frank Kappeler asked Betty Jo to marry him, he accepted the mother-in-law clause. Following the Kappelers’ wedding in Miami in May of 1957, Betty Jo and her mother, Lillian Gibson, moved into the groom’s home in El Paso.

In 1962, the Air Force transferred Frank Kappeler to a base in Minot, N.D. He was a lieutenant colonel when he retired from the service in 1966.

The Kappelers moved the following year to a house they had built on the Russian River near Guerneville. In 1968 they relocated to a home on 12 acres of land in the countryside north of Santa Rosa.

Every year, Frank and Betty Jo traveled to wherever the surviving Doolittle Raiders were meeting for a reunion.

“That was the highlight of her life,” Francia Kappeler said. She said her mother loved the military life and the camaraderie of the Raiders family, and she valued her husband’s role in the historic bombing raid.

The death of Frank Kappeler last June left just seven survivors from 80 aviators who’d taken part in the Doolittle Raid in 1942. There are now five.

Francia Kappeler said her mother’s passions included cooking and enjoying good food. “For her, there was nothing better than a good prime rib dinner,” she said.

Kappeler also was a loyal friend, her daughter said. “This woman has left so many friends; there are people who have kept up with her since her childhood.

The Indianhead: The Doolittle Raiders Reunion

On Sunday, April 17th, our group gathered once again at the Strategic Air & Space Museum to help celebrate the Doolittle Raiders 69th Anniversary Reunion. Four of the five surviving Doolittle Raiders took part in the Sunday brunch and autograph signing session, Dick Cole, Tom Griffin, David Thatcher, and Ed Saylor. Bob Hite may have been there earlier but was unable to be a part of the autograph session. Here is a James Deitz print entitled April 18, 2011 marks the actual 69th Anniversary of the Doolittle raid. The raid marked the first strike against the Japanese home islands, and was carried out just over four months after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. The raid demonstrated that Japan itself was vulnerable to American air attack and gave Americans everywhere a much needed boost of morale. Lt. Col. Doolittle's bomber was the first over Japan and the first to drop its bomb load. The four incendiaries fell at 12:30 p.m. (Tokyo time) to incinerate a large factory. Doolittle then flew west to reach the coast of China after dark. By 9:30 fuel was low and unable to find an airfield in the heavy fog, Doolittle ordered his crew to bail out among the mountains of China. He then followed them into the night, his B-25 crashing on a nearby mountainside. The only injury sustained by any of the crew was a sprained ankle. Local Chinese escorted the Americans to Chuchow from where they eventually returned home safely. The Hawaiian Department was the Army's largest overseas department. The Hawaiian Department's two main tasks were to protect the Pacific Fleet from sabotage and defeat any invasion. In April 1941 the Army Chief of Staff assured President Roosevelt: "The Island of Oahu, due to its fortification, its garrison, and its physical characteristics, is believed to be the strongest fortress in the world." If you've ever seen the movie, From Here To Eternity , this is the patch that Burt Lancaster and Montgomery Clift are wearing on their sleeve.

Doolittle Raiders reunion

LIFE

The First Heroes, The Extraordinary Story of the Doolittle Raid--America's First World War II Victory

Congressional Record V. 148, Pt. 4, April 11, 2002 to April 24, 2002

Great Rescues of World War II