The Eighth Air Force commander, General James Doolittle, had watched the wild landing. He had been sure the plane would crash. Afterward Sweeney reported to his office and explained what his mission had been. Neither man missed the significance—they were, in a sense, bookends. Doolittle had led the first air raid on the Japanese homeland, in April 1942; Sweeney had just dropped the bomb that would effectively mark the end of the war.
