Chase Jay Nielsen was a career officer in the U.S. Air Force. He is notable as having participated in the Doolittle Raid in 1942 and being one of the four surviving prisoners of war from that raid. Born in Hyrum, Utah, Nielsen attended Utah State University and graduated in 1939 with a bachelor of science degree in civil engineering. In August 1939, he enlisted in the U.S. Army Air Corps as a flying cadet. He was commissioned as a second lieutenant in June 1941. Lieutenant Colonel Nielsen, a lieutenant at the time, was the navigator of "Crew # 6," the sixth B-25 to launch from the deck of the USS Hornet on April 18, 1942. Most of the aircraft were able to reach land after their mission, but two, including Colonel Nielsen's, were forced to ditch off the coast of China. Two men were killed in the ditching. Eight men in all were taken prisoner by the Japanese and held in inhumane conditions from which four survived. Colonel Nielsen spent 40 months as a prisoner of war, most of the time in solitary confinement, before being rescued at the end of the war by an Office of Strategic Services para-rescue team and brought back to the U.S. 

January 14th, 1917 in Hyrum  /  Died:   Mar 23rd, 2007 - at his home of age-related causes, at age 90