richard e. cole (september 7, 1915 – april 9, 2019) was an american air force officer. in april 1942, he was one of the airmen who took part in the doolittle raid. he was serving as the co-pilot to jimmy doolittle in the lead plane of the raid. he stayed in china after the raid until june 1943. he served again in the china burma india theater from october 1943 until june 1944. he later served as operations advisor to the venezuelan air force from 1959 to 1962. he retired from the air force in 1966. in 2016, he became the last living doolittle raid airmen.