Gen. James H. "Jimmy" Doolittle, became one of the great American heroes of World War II when he led the first bombing raid on Japan.

An internationally acclaimed aviator by the time the United States entered the conflict, he went on to command thousands of U.S. planes in North Africa and Italy. For the last 18 months of the war, he commanded the 8th Air Force, which destroyed German industry in raids launched from bases in England.

Those operations were vastly more devastating than the attack on April 18, 1942, in which the diminutive aviator led 16 bombers from the decks of the aircraft carrier Hornet against targets in Tokyo, Yokohama, Nagoya and Kobe. But it was that feat that made Jimmy Doolittle a household name throughout America and boosted the country's morale after a series of defeats.

The Doolittle raid was seen as the kind of swashbuckling adventure and derring-do that many people thought of as typically American. Moreover, the price was acceptable. Seventy of the 82 American fliers who participated survived and returned to the United States after their planes crashed in China.

Gen. Doolittle received the Medal of Honor, the nation's highest military decoration, and wrote a book, "Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo," that became a bestseller and the basis of a hit movie in 1944 in which Spencer Tracy played Doolittle.

An aviation pioneer, Gen. Doolittle spent the 1930s as manager of the aviation division of Shell Oil Co. In that capacity, he had competed in air races and participated in aviation exhibitions in the United States and Europe.

He began his military service as an aviation cadet in the Army Signal Corps in October 1917. In 1922, he became the first man to fly across the United States in less than 24 hours, from Pablo Beach, Fla., to San Diego in 21 hours and 19 minutes, with a stop in Texas along the way.

General Doolittle passed away at the age of 96 at his home in Pebble Beach California.