there are some people who think the outside loop is reckless and irresponsible.
don't get smart with me, son.
that's bullshit, son. but it's really good bullshit.
good luck over there mccawley. i admire your decision.
i heard what you did.
explain what?
you mean the hula shirts you were flying in?.  or the six planes you shot down? you're both being awarded the silver star, and promoted to captain.
you're just about the only pilots in the army with actual combat experience, so you're volunteering for a mission i've been ordered to put together. do you know what top secret is?
top secret means you help me pick the other pilots, train, and go -- without knowing where you're going until it's too late.
there's only one other thing i can tell you.
you won't need any goddamn hula shirts.
be seated. the mission you've volunteered for is dangerous. how dangerous? look at the man beside you. it's a good bet that six weeks from now, either you or he will be dead.
in flight school you qualified in single and in multi-engine planes. you'll be flying multi-engines here.
i want to introduce a couple of people. doc white is a flight surgeon; he has volunteered for gunnery training so that he can go on the mission, because we can't spare the weight of an extra man.
and ross greening, who will oversee your equipment. any questions?
i thought i'd made it clear, i'm not just putting this mission together -- i'm leading it myself.
this is what we'll fly -- the b-25. there's one thing you have to be aware of from the very beginning. you see that private?
green means go. red means dead.
you're having trouble getting airborne in the shorter space because you're not revving the engines enough. you've got to push them to the limit before you ever start to move.
we've got to get the weight down.
does it work?
right down to the treetops. low as you can.
want to see where they're going?
you have rooms at the biltmore. i suggest a nice meal and a good night's sleep. we leave tomorrow.
gentlemen, i can now tell you that the target of this mission is tokyo.
the navy will get us to within 400 miles of the japanese coast. we'll launch off the carriers from there.
no. any other questions?
we won't have the fuel to get back to the carriers; they'll turn and run back to hawaii the minute we're airborne.
i have a phrase i want you all to memorize: "lushu hoo megwa fugi." it means "i am an american." in chinese.
he was a navy man.
since we'll be on our own once we're in the air, i thought i had a good idea letting each crew select it's own target.
now we have fifteen requests for the emperor's palace. and one for tokyo baseball stadium.
i'd like to bomb their emperor too. but i think that'd just piss 'em off. the idea here, gentlemen, is not revenge. we're here to prove to them that they're neither invincible nor superior. so let's try this again. military targets only.
no baseball diamonds, red.
we'll take off late this afternoon. i'll hit tokyo at dusk, and drop incendiary bombs. you'll come after me at night, guided by the fires. then it's on to china, where you'll arrive at dawn, guided to their airfields by the homing beacons the chinese are going to switch on for us. that's if everything is perfect -- like every other military mission i've ever been involved with.
listen you guys. i'm the first plane -- then mccawley, walker, the rest of you. i'll have the shortest run. if i don't make it, you don't go.
i know.
how far are we from tokyo?
load in every bit of extra gas you can carry! and strip everything you don't need out of the planes. i mean everything!
we'll fly till we run out of fuel, then bail out.
chute!
nobody else is gonna make it either. if i live through this, they're gonna put me in leavenworth prison.