Paul Tibbets Jr., who flew plane that dropped first atomic bomb, dies at 92

Columbus Dispatch ^ | Thursday, November 1, 2007 10:29 AM

[snippy_about_it]

Paul Tibbets Jr., who flew the plane that dropped the first atomic bomb — on Hiroshima, Japan — died this morning at his East Side home. He was 92.

Tibbets had suffered small strokes and heart failure in his final years and had been in hospice care.

He was born in Quincy, Ill., but grew up in Miami after his father moved the family there.

See link for complete story. Tibbets fell in love with flight and, at age 12, volunteered as a backseat assistant to a biplane pilot, dropping leaflets for the Curtiss Candy Co. at fairs, carnivals and other public gatherings.

He joined the Army Air Corps in 1938.

[DieHard the Hunter]

RIP Col Tibbets, and thankyou for your Service. A good job, well done: you did not balk from your duty and thereby saved millions of lives.

[Soaring Feather]

Thanks for the ping Snippy.

The Greatest Generation is dieing off fast.

These guys are heroes!

[Long Island Pete]

I seem to remember a social studies teacher of mine in Jr. High School mentioning that somehow he was involved with the bombings also. I wish I could remember his name.

[HockeyPop]

RIP colonel Tibbets. You’ve done our people proud as did those unheralded heroes of the Manhattan Project.

[Eric in the Ozarks]

Ditto my dad. He had flown in the CBI, survived a crash landing and had mostly recovered from burns from that incident. He was expecting another tap on the shoulder, at age 39.

[VOA]

Guess he was high enough to keep from getting any residual radiation. 92.
Not even leukemia then.

Even the instruction materials from the Radiation Safety Office at
UCLA shows that exposure to some low-level radiation seems to
give a small, yet measurable increase in logevity to lab animals.

During my stay at a biochemistry dept. in a Big 12 university,
there were plenty of old professors (some that served in WWII and
Korea).
These guys tossed around radioisotopically-labeled biomolecules
for DECADES. One of them even worked at what was probably a
biological weapons lab at that old military site east of Denver that
was loaded with all sorts of nasty stuff stockpiled to warn "Ivan"
to not roll into Western Europe during the Cold War.

Contrary to what most would expect these biochem profs were doing
quite well even in their seventies and eighties. Their dying colleagues were
their friends from the poli-sci or art department dying of lung cancer, etc.

[snippy_about_it]

We heard on the radio that he asked that there be no headstone. I expect to keep the kooks away. Sad as that is it was probably smart.

[NCC-1701]

RIP General Tibbets. You have earned your eternal rest. You and your crew on the Enola Gay, and those of Bocscar, helped hasten the end of the insanity know as World War II.

I read the book “Enola Gay - The Bombing of Hiroshima”, and by what I read, he was the right one at the right place at the right time to accomplish that first mission. He must have been a hell of an aircrew commander. In the book, it states that after dropping The Bomb, and after getting past the shock waves, they orbited Hiroshima twice to see what kind of damage occurred. They were all amazed at the results. Through the years, none of the crew of the Enola Gay came down with any radiation-related illnesses.

He came to Memphis about 15 years ago to be best man at another famous flier’s wedding, Col. Robert K. Morgan, pilot in command of the “Memphis Belle”. It was held beside the Belle. The only time, to my knowledge, the Paul Tibbets came to Memphis. He was someone I would love to have met.

[Lancey Howard]

RIP to a man who helped America WIN World War II.

[IamConservative]

RIP Mr. Tibbets.

I wonder if his duty ever haunted him?

[Rb ver. 2.0]

Wow. I fell victim to the rumor that Tibbets committed suicide decades ago and had no idea he was still around.

Thomas Ferebee, the bombardier on the Hiroshima flight passed back in 2000. There’s a historical marker at the farmhouse where he grew up out in the sticks of the NC northwest piedmont.

[fieldmarshaldj]

May he rest in peace.

[abb]

ping

[Nowhere Man]

The man who works in the tobacco shop at our local supermarket, he is 83/84 years old. He served in the Army in World War II and was stationed at Tinian and remembers watching them loading something secret aboard the Enoly Gay, he was within a couple hundred feet of the action. He also watched the plane take off. When Tibbets returned, he was bartender that night in the offcier's club and remember serving a drink to Tibbets himself and he remembers Tibbets telling him, "what have we done?" since the atom bomb was new at the time. I find it neat to talk to somene who actually witnessed one of the most important events in history.

My physics teacher was being trained to fly B-24's and he was on his way over to the pacific in his B-24 when he got word that the atomic bombs wwere dropped and Japan surrendered. He is 87/88, still flies his own plane and teaches his great grandkids on how to drive.

RIP Col. Tibbets

[chimera]

One of the few stories my Dad would relate to me about his experiences during the war was of being at a base camp in Germany and hearing the news of the Bomb being dropped. He knew, as did every man there, that the war was going to end shortly, and they would be spared the hell of invading Japan, for which they were awaiting orders. Instead, he went home, married the girl he loved, raised his family, and was a productive, honest, hardworking citizen who will always be my hero. Paul Tibbets helped save the lives of countless men like my Dad. For that, and many other things, he deserves our thanks and honor.

[Moonman62]

Tibbets’ death will bring out the usual kook rewriters of history who can’t believe Japan had more than a million men still at arms, waiting for our invasion.

Look no further than the quote from Tibbets used in the article about Hiroshima. Of all the quotes they could have used...

[Eric in the Ozarks]

There should be a stone for him at Arlington.

[Rb ver. 2.0]

Same for my dad who was on a ship headed across the Pacific when they dropped the bomb, and my uncles who were being re-deployed from the States and European theater to the Pacific.

[Nowhere Man]

One last part, he told me that Tibbets was one of the nicest men he knew and served in the officer’s club.

[BallyBill]

Thank You Sir for being unapologetic for the mission which more than likely allowed my father to return from his mission in Guam and to civilian life and marry my mother.