It wasn't long after that Navy captain Francis Low came up with a plan to launch bombers from a carrier, which has never been done before, and bomb Japan. He thought Army planes would have to do it because they had more range than Navy fighters. He presented the idea to Admiral King (Chief of Naval Operations) Admiral King ordered the idea to studied, refined and finally, turned over to General Henry "Hap" Arnold of the U.S. Army Air Corps, who in turn gave it to Doolittle to see if it was workable. Two days later Arnold had his answer. It could be done with B25 bombers. By February 2nd it was tested when Lts. John Fitzgerald, and James McCarthy flew two B25s, after practicing short run takeoffs from the deck of the newly commissioned carrier Hornet. Now the mission would go forth. Doolittle was put in charge of the training from the Army side, and Navy Captain Donald Duncan, considered the top authority on Naval aircraft, was in charge from the Navy side. Doolittle wanted the crews to come from the 17th Bombardment Group and the 89th Recon Squadron who were then based in Oregon. The call went out for volunteers for an extremely hazardous mission. Every man that heard the call volunteered. The men that were accepted, 24 crews, were sent to Florida to train. Major John Hilger was picked by Doolittle as his second in command. Navy Officer Henry Miller was assigned to assist the men in getting ready for carrier take-offs. The men still weren't told what the mission was. Doolittle took more men than would be needed for the operation in case of accidents, injures, or death in the training. The training was rigorous and exhausting but soon the men were able to take off within 500 ft of runway. They still hadn't seen a carrier. The planes had to be modified. The belly turrets were removed and 60 gallon gas tanks were installed. The gunner would have to refill this tank from 5 gallon cans that would be taken along.
