Posted on 04/07/2010 4:56:35 PM PDT by traumer
Morris R. Jeppson, 87, one of two weaponeers who armed the atomic bomb that was dropped on Hiroshima in 1945, prompting the surrender of Japanese troops and the end of World War II, died March 30 at a hospital in Las Vegas. His family could not provide a specific cause of death but said he had been hospitalized for back pain and a severe headache.
Known as "Dick," Mr. Jeppson was a 23-year-old Army Air Forces second lieutenant when he boarded the Enola Gay, a B-29 bomber, for what would be his first and only combat mission.
It was the wee hours of the morning on Aug. 6, 1945, and "Little Boy," the bomb that would introduce the world to nuclear warfare, lay in the plane's belly in safe mode. It had to be armed in flight en route to its target to avoid accidental detonation during takeoff.
At 2:45 a.m., the Enola Gay and its cargo took off from Tinian Island in the Pacific and headed for Hiroshima, 1,800 miles and six hours away. Lt. Jeppson, the weapons test officer, and his boss, Navy Capt. William S. Parsons, climbed into the airplane's bomb bay to ready Little Boy for discharge.
Capt. Parsons was responsible for installing the charge that would be fired into the weapon's uranium core, setting off a nuclear explosion. Lt. Jeppson armed the bomb's electrical system, pulling out three green safety plugs and replacing them with red firing plugs.
Nobody but the two weaponeers knows for sure who was last to touch the warhead. Reference books and historical accounts differ.
But it's likely that Lt. Jeppson "put the last thing into the bomb that made it hot," said Dik Daso, curator of modern military aircraft at the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
Most of them Japanese lives, thank God for the bomb.
The laughing stock of the Earth.
RIP
The laughing stock of the Earth.
Pretty good analysis, and I’m sure you will agree, not the
best position for us to be in. I don’t care if the man is green, blue, purple, chartreuse, pink, white, yellow, taupe, indigo, sand, brown, or black.
If everything he does is a 180 out from what you consider to be the actions of normal American people, you gotta figure he’s dealing from the bottom of the deck, and isn’t normal.
I may not be the sharpest knife in the drawer, but I know truth, natural law, correct principles, and the founding documents. I’m having a difficult time squaring that with what I see, coming out of 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.
*Morris R. Jeppson, 87, one of two weaponeers who armed the atomic bomb that was dropped on Hiroshima in 1945, prompting the surrender of Japanese troops and the end of World War II*
Doesn’t anyone learn anything in college anymore? FFS, the Japanese didn’t surrended until after the 2nd bomb was dropped on Nagasaki.
A good number of Army, Marine, Navy and Air Corps “island hoppers” in the Pacific would have been involved in the Japan invasion and many would have died. As a consequence, some number of Freepers would never have been born, including their children, grandchildren and future children.
I include myself as one who perhaps “would never have been born.”
We owe much to these WW II vets. The least we can do to salute them is throw obuma and his imperialist congress out of office.
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