Still no regrets for frail Enola Gay pilot (Col. Paul Tibbets)

Columbus Dispatch ^ | August 6, 2005 | Mike Harden

[BluH2o]

By late 1941, Tibbets had earned his commission and wings ...

Actually he had his commission and wings in the U.S. Army Air Corps bestowed upon him some two years earlier.

[Ciexyz]

My Dad was a veteran of the Army Air Force in WW II, and he believed that it was necessary to drop the bomb, to avoid a million additional American casualties. He said that he could have been one of them, if the bomb hadn't been dropped.

So I'll believe in what my Dad believed, and not the revisionist historians.

By the way, my Dad applied to be an aviation cadet (this was after Pearl Harbor, when Penn State put him and other young men on an accelerated educational program combined with ROTC training. He went into the service but didn't pass the aviation cadet training. (Not everybody passed, of course. At least he tried.) He served out the war stateside, but he was scheduled to be sent overseas...and then the bomb was dropped.)

[BluH2o]

He first met Patton at Fort Bragg, NC just prior to WWII.

Correction ... not Fort Bragg ... Fort Benning.

[spectre]

"As soon as the death certificate is signed, I want to be cremated. I don't want a funeral. I don't want to be eulogized. I don't want any monuments or plaques.

"I want my ashes scattered over water where I loved to fly"

I pray his wishes are honored.

sw

[Marauder]

I was priveleged to meet Tom Ferebee, the bombardier, shortly before he passed away. I made it a point to shake his hand and thank him for a job well done.

World War II was full of heroes. You can't storm a beach while facing enemy machine-gun fire, or drop into a war zone by parachute or glider and not be considered a hero.

I met one old fellow whose job was to carry a disassembled anti-aircraft gun on mules in the mountains in Burma. They had to use mules because no vehicle could've navigated the terrain.

When they arrived at their assigned site, they unloaded and assembled the gun, then took it back apart and loaded up and took off again, before the enemy could locate and kill them.

I said thanks to him, too.

[swampfox98]

Thanks to him, millions of Americans lived who would have died, had the bomb not been dropped. He brought the war in the Paficic to a close. Thank God, for men like Tibbets, the liberal press has tried to ruin him for years, but true Americans know what he did for this country.

We lasted sixty years as Americans - alas the next sixty will be run by Mexicans. The greatest generation will all be dead and gone, and the traitorous generation of today will life in infamy.

[Colonel_Flagg]

I have had the honor to meet General Tibbets and count an autographed copy of his book as one of my prized possessions. May God bless him and all our heroes.

[Towed_Jumper]

My family and I had the honor of meeting Gen. Tibbets (and Tom Ferebee-Bombadier and Dutch Van Kirk-Navigator)in 1995. I have an autographed picture of the Enola Gay hanging in my home office along with several photos of our family and the crew. It's one of my prized possessions.

My kids were awestruck to meet these men in person. I just pity my poor wife, who after I die, will have to referring between the two kids who will be at each other's throats fighting over which one gets to inherit the "Enola Gay".

[AmericanInTokyo]

As merely a philosophical point here, it will be interesting to see God's take on all of this, when we are all dead and gone and passed on into the next life and the world is no more. By then, the back and forth debate will have long ended and the final word will be in, and the most important personal opinion about it is known to all mankind.

Happy Victory over Japan Day (15 August) everyone.

[AmericanInTokyo]

I shared a podium once with General Jimmy Doolittle. Photo to prove it, too! :-)

[NAVY84]

PROBABLY B-10

http://www.wpafb.af.mil/museum/early_years/ey13a.htm

Though it could have been an A-12 (production version of the YA-10)

http://www.wpafb.af.mil/museum/research/attack/a2/attack2.htm

This site has great info.

[Colonel_Flagg]

Impressive! I would have loved to meet him.

[AmericanInTokyo]

He was a very short guy. Completely bald as a I recall.

[Colonel_Flagg]

I've seen interviews with him shot in the 1970s. Your recollection would be correct.

[painter]

A little trivia, everyone knows the Enola Gay, what was the name of the bomber of Nagasaki?

Bocks Car

[Enterprise1788]

My local newspaper ran an editorial about the bomb, but while they briefly mentioned that it ended the war, most of the editorial focused on young children who lived for the rest of their lives with physical problems from the radiation, etc. No mention of how it probably saved a million American lives.

[NCC-1701]

Exactly! Too bad 60 years later the pc crowd is trying its level best to denigrate this event by making Paul Tibbets, his crew, and the crew of Bock's Car the villain. They save countless American lives by their actions. Period. They are to be admired for doing what they had to do to end World War 2. This is a great article.

BTW, Gen. Tibbets served as best man at the second wedding of another famous pilot from WW 2, Robert K. Morgan, command pilot of the Memphis Belle. The ceremony was performed under the nose of the Belle in Mamphis.

[tutstar]

ping

[DmBarch]

B-10 would have been pretty old in design compared to what was new, having been first built in 1932. I think perhaps it was an A-20, a light twin-engine attack bomber that was new in 1941. This model was used to great effect in the Pacific and was sent in large numbers to the British. A total of 7385 A-20's were built.

[usslsm51]

Thank you Col Tibbets, saved me from having to go to Japan along with thousands of others. If you were not there you can never know what the end of the war meant.