Posted on 06/09/2015 12:21:47 AM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- A grandson and namesake of the man who piloted the massive B-29 that dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan, during World War II is taking over leadership of the United States' aging fleet of nuclear-capable B-2 stealth bombers.
Brig. Gen. Paul W. Tibbets IV takes command of the 509th Bomb Wing during a ceremony Friday at Whiteman Air Force Base in Missouri, replacing Brig. Gen. Glen VanHerck, who has led the wing since February 2014.
Tibbets, 48, was previously deputy director for nuclear operations for the U.S. Strategic Command at Offutt Air Force Base in Nebraska. He also trained on B-2s at Whiteman in the 1990s, commanded a bomb squadron at the base and was a vice commander of the 379th Air Expeditionary Wing in southwest Asia in 2010-2011. His awards include the Distinguished Flying Cross, the Bronze Star and the Legion of Merit.
Tibbets' grandfather, Paul W. Tibbets Jr., was assigned to a predecessor of the 509th Bomb Wing when he piloted the Enola Gay in the world's first atomic bomb mission on Aug. 6, 1945. The bomb destroyed much of Hiroshima and killed tens of thousands of its citizens. Paul W. Tibbets Jr. died in 2007....
(Excerpt) Read more at cbsnews.com ...
Now I feel old.
He was part of the massive Marine/Army/Navy force that took Okinawa. Okinawa is now a prefecture of Japan. It would’ve been the staging ground that your father, my father and a million other men would’ve used to invade the Japanese homeland.
Everything is obsolescent or obsolete when it’s time to buy new. That’s why they change car, boat, recreational vehicle models and fashions every year.
Saved my father’s, too.
The Enola LGBT?
Anyone that thinks the Japanese are NOT nuclear deterrent capable.. NOW... is “dreaming”..
One thing the Japanese ARE NOT....... is STUPID..
Add me into the “Lucky Dads Club.”
My father was a SeeBee in the South Pacific (on numerous islands) back then.
And lucky for me too. I wasn’t born till ‘48.
1960 here. My dad got along great with the Seabees. He’d guard their compounds and they’d feed him well.
Ralph Nader must be apoplectic hearing about this.
First shown publicly in 1988.
B-52’s are still in service and will be for decades. Aging is not the same as obsolete.
“...the massive B-29 ...”
I had the thought back in 1982 as I watched a B-29 pull away from the gate and head for the runway at Islip MacArthur that the B-29 was the size point at which planes began to look BIG; even to one such as myself who’s first flight was aboard a 747.
I’M DROPPING THIS ONE FOR GRANDPA....... BONZAI
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