"WESTBOUND: A DATE WITH THE GENERAL"

BY WILLIAM S. PHILLIPS

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All of Aircraft 15's crew would eventually make their way to Chunking but sixteen of the other Doolittle's Raiders did not. Doolittle himself would rise to the rank of full General. It is the stuff of aviator legend that when the last Raider makes his final flight westward into the day's fading light he will be greeted by his fellow Raiders and the General, and they will have a party never to be forgotten.

When Bill Phillips painted The Giant Begins to Stir, he embarked on an artist's journey that grew to become a visual history of the United States' response to the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor: Lieutenant Colonel Jimmy Doolittle's air raid on Japan launched, for the first time ever, from the sea. The Greenwich Workshop limited edition of The Giant Begins to Stir (co-signed by surviving Doolittle Raiders) was followed by I Could Never Be So Lucky Again (co-signed by Jimmy Doolittle) and Evasive Action at Sagami Bay, (co-signed by surviving Doolittle Raiders.) The final painting in this series is Westbound: A Date with the General, illustrates the dramatic flight of Lt. Smith's Crew #15. The limited edition print and canvas will be signed by Doolittle Raiders survivors.

"Why chronicle any historical event?" asks artist Bill Phillips. Because paintings like Westbound: A Date with the General, he says, "help us to understand the times in which we live. Remembering the sacrifices of brave men and women help us to be more aware of how we should view this great country and the freedoms we so often take for granted."