Rodney Wilder was one of the 80 airmen who, under the leadership of Jimmy Doolittle, disembarked from the U.S.S. Hornet in the first bombing raid over Tokyo in World War II. Prior to the raid, on December 24, 1941, Lieutenant Wilder was co-pilot of a B-25 credited with sinking a Japanese submarine at the mouth of the Columbia River. Following the raid he continued to fly combat missions in the European and Mediterranean Theaters of Operations.