If my memory is correct his son is or was a B-2 driver.
A friend of mine has a painting similar to this with the B-29 and B-2 and both father and son signatures.
Posted on 11/01/2007 8:43:44 AM PDT by 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.
(Excerpt) Read more at dispatch.com ...
No, today much of our nuclear arsenal is much smaller than the Hiroshima bomb. Think of the tactical nukes that have as little as ten percent of the kilotonage as the Enola Gay’s.
Sure the strategic H-bombs are much larger but in the whole scope of our nuclear arsenal perhaps it was a medium to a medium-small. It was not tiny.
He saved a lot more Japanese lives than he did American. Your million for the Americans sounds a little high. While estimates covered a wide range, the likely number would have been up to a million casualties on the allied side, with probably around 100,000 to 250,000 of those being deaths. Total war related military deaths to that point had been just over 400,000 for the Americans.
Well said.
RIP, BG Tibbets.
Farewell to a great Florida Gator and a great American.
I heard on the radio that he requested no funeral or headstone so that his burial site would not become a site where protests could be staged.WHAT A MAN,and WHAT A GREAT AMERICAN!!
I was referring to weapons-in-kind. Strategic, not tactical.
Paul Tibbetts, Jr., you are a great American.
His actions, and all those involved in the atomic bomb effort in WW2, saved hundreds of thousands of GIs and millions of Japanese lives, and helped force Japan to surrender before they self annihilated themselves.
We were fortunate to have men of his caliber, in countless numbers, in a generation that required to make a stand for freedom against monstrous evil.
In our time, may we be found as worthy.
I wonder if the white parts are mist from the detonation, or overexposure of the film due to the radiation?
While a second lieutenant at Turner AFB, GA 1964-1966 I worked for Colonel Tom Ferebee, the bombardier on the Enola Gay. The liberal media tried to float the lie that the crews that dropped the bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki all went nuts. Tom was as sane as anyone I have ever known. He was a great man to work for because he would support you 100% if you willing to give your 100%. He had no tolerance for BS and a couple of officers in my chain of command learned that the hard way.
If my memory is correct his son is or was a B-2 driver.
A friend of mine has a painting similar to this with the B-29 and B-2 and both father and son signatures.
My dad completed a tour in europe and volunteered to follow his bomb group to Okinawa. Even the air corps units were pretty sure that they would have high losses if the invasion went forward and they expected the ground troops to really take a hit. His group dropped warning leaflets on Japan 2 days before the drop and there was a collective sigh of relief when Japan surrendered a week later.
National Hero, but just one of many.
The captain of the ship, USS Indianapolis, that delivered the first A-bomb to Tinian, committed suicide a few years after being made the scapegoat for the then US Navy policy of not listing and following up on ships that were “over due” (due to security concerns).
I had the pleasure of meeting General Tibbets a few years ago and have a signed copy of his book. Farewell to an American hero.
Thanks for the ping. Colonel Tibbets was instrumental in saving at least a million lives. May he rest in peace.
Sounds like a fascinating book.
A real hero. I did not realize the plane, Enola Gay, was named for his mother. The Enola Gay and Tibbets are popular answers to cross word puzzle questions.
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