Thomas C. "Tom" Griffin was the navigator on B-25 number nine, the Whirling Dervish, during the Doolittle Raid on Tokyo in 1942. He was born on 10 July 1916 in Green Bay, Wisconsin, and in 1939 he graduated from the University of Alabama with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science. He was commissioned through the school's Reserve Officer Training Corps program and entered military service on 5 July 1939 as a second lieutenant in the Coast Artillery. In 1940, he requested relief from active duty to enlist as a flying cadet. He was rated as a navigator and re-commissioned on 1 July 1940, after which he was assigned to the 17th Bombardment Group in Pendleton, Oregon. After the attack on Pearl Harbor, his group immediately began anti-submarine patrols off the coast of Oregon and Washington, during which a crew received credit for sinking a Japanese submarine.