Aviation pioneers were attracted to Northeast Florida's hard, wide beaches. Pablo Beach, as Jacksonville Beach was known until 1925, served as takeoff or terminal point for several early coast-to-coast flights. The first of these, in 1912, required 115 days to reach Pablo Beach from Pasadena, California. On September 4, 1922, Army Lieutenant James H. ("Jimmy") Doolittle took off from the sands of Pablo Beach in a DeHavilland DH-4 biplane and landed in San Diego less than 24 hours later. He made one fuel stop, at Kelly Field in San Antonio, Texas. Doolittle's feat established a new speed record and helped demonstrate the practicality of transcontinental flight. Doolittle's aviation accomplishments did not end with this historic flight. Only four months after the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, he led the crucial first bombing raid against Tokyo and other targets in the Japanese home islands. The raid, launched from the aircraft carrier "Hornet", was a daring stroke which gave a psychological lift to the nation's war effort. Doolittle was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor and later achieved the rank of Lieutenant General.
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