Hi All, I just finished reading "The First Heroes" by Craig Nelson which is all about Jimmy Doolittle's raid over Japan. It is absolutely a great and fast read in which I learned a tremendous amount regarding that particular operation of World War II and I would recommend this book to anyone. As you can guess, there is an "however" involved. In my opinion, on the big picture, it was probably very accurate but when it got down to details, I found what I believe to be many inconsistencies and contradictions from my previous knowledge of this event. For example, on page 124 regarding the seconds before the actual takeoff, Craig Nelson says "In the middle of the chaos, navy pilots and army replacement crews ran from plane to plane, offering $50, $100, even $150 to trade places with the assigned crews and take their own vengeance for Pearl Harbor". To me, in the real world, this seems totally impossible, although for hollywood purposes, this may be just fine!! I could cite many other items like this throughout the book. Hopefully, others have read this book and could comment as I must say that I am strictly a novice regarding the military and history of World War II. Thank you in advance, Bob Guercio
