Lieutenant Ted W. Lawson

Ted W. Lawson was born in Fresno, California, on 7 March 1917 as son of Peter Lawson and Mayme Julia Lawson. He attended Los Angeles City College in 1937–1938.  At the Los Angeles City College he met his later wife Ellen Lawson.

While his squadron was based at McChord, Lawson he married Ellen Arlene Reynolds. Ted and Ellen married on 5 September 1941 in Spokane. His best man at the ceremony was squadron-mate Robert Manning Gray, who would be a fellow pilot on the Doolittle Raid.

The couple had 3 children. Two daughters and one son.

Ellen Lawson and her husband Ted Lawson.

Ted Lawson was the pilot of the Ruptured Duck plane during the Doolittle raid.

Lieutenant Lawson was accepted as a volunteer for the mission, led by then-Lieutenant Colonel Jimmy Doolittle to bomb Tokyo and several other cities with 16 carrier-launched B-25 Mitchell bombers from aboard USS Hornet. This became the first air raid on mainland Japan during World War II, following the Pearl Harbor attack.

The aircraft that he flew on the raid was nicknamed "The Ruptured Duck" (AAF serial 40-2261). According to Lawson in his book, the plane's unusual name evolved from a minor training accident where the aircraft tail scraped the ground on take-off. Soon after, Lawson found someone had written "ruptured duck" in chalk on the fuselage. Inspired, he had B-25 gunner Rodger Lovelace create the now-famous caricature of Donald Duck with crutches and wearing pilot's headphones.

Launching the mission 170 miles (275 km) farther out than planned after bombing their targets in Japan, all of the bombers ran out of fuel short of their intended recovery airfields in non-Japanese occupied China. Lawson and his crew crashed their B-25 off the coast of the small island of Nantien when its engines failed while trying to land on the beach during a heavy storm. Lawson and his co-pilot were both thrown through the windscreen of the B-25, with Lawson suffering a compound fracture of the left leg, a lacerated left bicep, and severe facial injuries in the process.

All five crew members survived the crash; however all but flight engineer/gunner David J. Thatcher received serious injuries. Bombardier Robert Clever would be returned to the U.S., only to die in another plane crash in November, 1942. After he was transported by friendly Chinese throughout several provinces in China to evade Japanese troops searching for his crew, Lawson's infected leg was amputated by the mission's flight surgeon, Thomas R. White, who had volunteered to fly the mission as a gunner on the crew of  Donald Smith. The nose art of the crashed bomber, "The Ruptured Duck", was later salvaged by the Japanese and put on display in Tokyo.

Lawson Army Airfield at Fort Benning, Georgia is partially named for Ted W. Lawson. It was originally named only for Walter R. Lawson (no relation to Ted), an Army Air Corps flyer who earned the Distinguished Service Cross in World War I. Several years later, after the Doolittle Raid in World War II, Ted W. Lawson's name was added to the memorial at the field.

The Pacific Aviation Museum Pearl Harbor, located on Ford Island, has on display a B-25 done in the livery of Lawson's aircraft from the Doolittle Raid.

Chinese doctor Chen Shenyan and his father Chen Xingji participated in the treatment of the wounded. Lawson's left leg was eventually amputated.

From a Chines source :

Pilot Ted W. Lawson tried to land plane number 07 on the beach east of Dasha Village, Nantian Island, Sanmen County, Zhejiang Province, but during the descent, the two engines suddenly shut down, and the aircraft crashed into the near shore. in the sea. All four were seriously injured except forthe fifth,  David J. Thatcher, who was in the back cabin, who was slightly injured.

Lawson was the most injured. His face was dented, his teeth fell out, and his left leg was scratched by the metal hook that hung the earphones. The wound stretched from the thigh to the calf, and went deep to the bone. The left bicep was cut off. Overturned in the elbow.

The villagers of Dasha Village heard the movement and came to help and carried them to the village. The next day, Zheng Fufu's guerrillas escorted them to the other side of the island, found a boat that sneaked across the enemy ship's blockade from Wuyumen, sent them to Zhihaiyou Town, Sanmen County, and then transferred them to Linhai Enze Hospital, were Chinese doctor Chen Shenyan and his father Chen Xingji participated in the treatment of the wounded. Lawson's left leg was eventually amputated.

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