Medal of Honor
April 18, 1942
over Tokyo, Japan
- Rank at action
- Lieutenant Colonel
- Service
- U.S. Army Air Corps
- Conflict
- World War II
- Unit or command
- Army Air Force Headquarters, Washington, D.C.
- Presentation date
- June 9, 1942
The Citation
Sources ↓Sources & record notes
General Order comparison: pending. Current-profile review does not mean that the underlying original order has been examined.
- James Harold Doolittle — current Society profile ↗Congressional Medal of Honor Society · Checked 2026-08-30
current identity, service, action metadata, and citation comparison
Transcription, metadata & provenance notes
- Award ID
- MOH-AW-002305
- Transcription status
- Legacy full text · current reference profile matched
- Last source check
- 2026-08-30
- Recorded order reference (not verified against the original)
- 29
- Later or highest recorded rank
- General
- Entered service at
- Berkeley, Calif.
- Archive transcription SHA-256
- 5e8c2f18a3c14e6ca92d26dc16752bc7d4ed7c2f90c52631a5979cb48a2b7dcf
Legacy transcription retained without substantive editing; rendered current reference profile variants documented in the Phase 10 evidence snapshot.
The inherited rank-1 Society candidate was confirmed by substantive comparison of identity, service, rank, unit or command, action context, and citation; candidate rank or successful rendering alone was not treated as verification. The current authoritative source expands or normalizes the inherited name from James H. Doolittle to James Harold Doolittle; both renderings remain preserved. The action rank Lieutenant Colonel remains distinct from the later or highest rank General. The current profile also supplies the separately retained rank or role rendering Brigadier General at time of presentation; it is not collapsed into the controlled action rank Lieutenant Colonel. The controlled canonical unit or command is Army Air Force Headquarters, Washington, D.C.; the current structured profile renders Army Air Force Headquarters, Washington, D.C., and the inherited wording Air Corps remains preserved as a separately attributed variant. The current authoritative evidence controls the action date as 1942-04-18 and classifies the action under World War II; the inherited unnormalized date and conflict values remain preserved in the audit record. The controlled historical action place is over Tokyo, Japan; the current structured place over Tokyo, Japan and the complete inherited geocoder value Japan remain preserved in the audit evidence. The inherited full citation remains canonical and checksum-protected; current rendered wording is preserved separately where transcribed. No underlying General Order was examined, so the exact-order gate remains pending and no General Order verification is claimed.