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General Tibbets retired from the Air Force on Sept. Paul Tibbets(Pilot of Enola Gay, Hiroshima Atomic Bombing) Paul Warfield Tibbets Jr. He also was in charge of the flight test development of the atomic bomb itself.ĭuring what many consider one of the most daring air raids in American history, the Enola Gay, named after General Tibbets' mother, took off from the island of Tinian in the Northern Mariana Islands headed for Japan. He helped develop the employment capabilities of the atomic bomb in combat operations including the mating of the development of the atomic bomb to the airplane. In September 1944, the general was assigned to the Atomic Bomb Project as the Air Force officer in charge. Benning, Ga.Īfter flying multiple combat missions in Europe and North Africa, the then-B-17 Flying Fortress pilot returned to the United States in March 1943 to participate in the B-29 program. He graduated from pilot school at Kelly Field, Texas, and went to his first assignment with the 16th Observation Squadron at Lawson Field, Ft. Thomas, Ky., after attending college at University of Florida and the University of Cincinnati where he majored in chemistry. General Tibbets, a native of Quincy, Ill., entered the Army Air Corps on Feb. The general was the pilot of "the Enola Gay," the B-29 Superfortress which dropped the first atomic bomb, "Little Boy" on Hiroshima, Japan, on August 6, 1945, which many historian consider the end of World War II. Tibbets Jr., the pilot of the first atomic bombing mission, died of natural causes Nov. You’ve got to leave the moral issue out of it.SAN ANTONIO (AFPN) - Retired Brig. I don’t care whether you’re dropping atom bombs, or whether you’re dropping 100-pound bombs, or you’re shooting a rifle. Morality, there is no such thing in warfare. I was instructed to perform a military mission to drop the bomb and that was the thing that I was going to do to the best of my ability. Tibbets added, “I made up my mind then that the morality of dropping that bomb was not my business. I’m supposed to be a bomber pilot and destroy a target. So, I thought, you know, I’m just like that if I get to thinking about some innocent person getting hit on the ground. They assumed the symptoms of the patients and it destroyed their ability to render medical necessities. A PHOTO OF THE WWII ENOLA GAY, SIGNED BY PAUL TIBBETS, PILOT, Image 2 of 8 Image 3 of 8 Image 4 of 8 Image 5 of 8 Image 6 of 8 Image 7 of 8 Image 8 of 8. That is, they were selling legalized drugs for drug houses and so forth and so on, because they couldn’t practice medicine due to the fact that they had too much sympathy for their patients. And he was telling me about previous doctors, some that had been classmates of his, who were drug salesmen. “Well, then I got a thought that I had engendered and encountered for the first time in Cincinnati when I was going to medical school. “The first time I dropped bombs on a target over there, … I said to myself, ‘People are getting killed down there that don’t have any business getting killed. He died on November 1, 2007, at his home in Columbus, Ohio, at 92. In the 1989 interview, Tibbets also spoke of a lesson he learned in Cincinnati about doing his job: Paul Tibbets was the pilot of B-29 bomber Enola Gay which dropped the first atomic bomb on Hiroshima. Tibbets retired as a brigadier general in 1966 and went on to run an air taxi company in Columbus, where he died in 2007. He named the B-29 after his mother, Enola Gay Tibbets, who was supportive of his career change. The man who flew the plane that delivered the bomb over Hiroshima always maintained he was proud of his service to his country, and slept well at night. Some people argue that they prevented a potentially more devastating invasion of Japan, including countless more deaths, and brought the war to a speedy end. The bombings have been endlessly debated. Not only did it change warfare, but it ushered in the atomic age, one where mankind became capable of obliterating itself. 9, another atomic bomb was dropped on Nagasaki, Japan, killing another 70,000.įive days after that, Japan surrendered and World War II was finally over.ĭropping the atomic bomb was a watershed moment in human history. Over the next few years, the death toll would reach about 200,000 due to burns, radiation poisoning and cancer, according to the U.S. In an instant, 70,000 people were obliterated. It was the first time a devastating nuclear device had been unleashed upon a populated target. Tibbets Jr., took off from Tinian island in the Pacific Ocean, loaded with the world’s deadliest payload – an atomic bomb codenamed “Little Boy.”Īt approximately 8:15 a.m., Tibbets and his crew dropped the bomb over Hiroshima, Japan, and the city disappeared in a mushroom cloud. 6, 1945, the B-29 Superfortress bomber “Enola Gay,” piloted by Col.