[boomop1]

We did what was necessary whether Reuters likes it or not.

[mrsmith]

"'My God What Have We Done' "

You've saved my father's life, and the lives of million of other baby boomer's fathers Captain Lewis.

Thank you.

[Illbay]

'My God What Have We Done'

"Letting the days go by,
Let the water hold me down;
Letting the days go by,
Water flowing underground;
Into the blue again,
After the money's gone;
Once in a lifetime,
Water flowing underground."

[DainBramage]

The next one will read "Man..... its about time."

[Centurion2000]

'My God What Have We Done'

We killed a bunch of Japanese maniacs hell bent on world domination. (That's our job)

[pfflier]

Three years ago I attended a program where four members of the Enola Gay crew were present for interview. Paul Tibbets, the Pilot, Tom Firebee the Bombadier, "Dutch" Van Kirk the Navigator and R.H. Nelson, the Radio Operator. The ineviteble question was asked, "Did you have any regrets?" To a man, and without hesitation all said "None whatsoever". The room erupted into applause.

All this guilt trip stuff is apologist bull$hit. My dad cried when he heard the news. He was set-up to participate in the invasion of Japan. When he heard they dropped the bomb, he cried because he knew he was going to live.

[M Kehoe]

'My God What Have We Done'

End the war.

And we thank you.

5.56mm

[Tennessee_Bob]

I live in Oak Ridge, Tennessee - home of the nuclear bomb. X-10, Y-12, and K-25 were built specifically to produce the weapons grade material and build the first atomic bombs. I drive through K-25 every morning on my way to work.

The church my parents attend was one of the first ones in town, first organized during the war. Several members of their church were deeply involved in the production - but because of the compartmentalization of information, they didn't realize what it was they were building. They knew it was a bomb, they knew that hopes were high that it would end the war quickly - but they had no idea of the magnitude of the device. I've had some in-depth conversations with quite a few of them, and every single one of them says that they have no regrets whatsoever over what they worked on.

I've worked with with Dr. Alvin Weinberg on a few occasions. Dr. Weinberg was head of the X-10 (now ORNL) Physics Division during the war. Dr. Weinberg explained to me one time that at first, he urged that the atomic bomb not be dropped on a populated area, but rather just demonstrated. He says that he thinks differently now. He believes that it did end World War II earlier, and saved lives on both sides of the fighting.

Regrets? Here in Oak Ridge? Only from those that come here to protest that had nothing to do with the war - and they don't count for sh_t.

[End Times Sentinel]

The manner in which these two bombs were dropped is a testament to our humanity, as well as the efforts that we made to re-build and aid the injured in these cities.

ANYONE who would suggest that we should have risked hundreds of thousands of U.S. casualties rather than drop the bomb has a tenuous grasp of history at best.

.

Owl _ Eagle
“Guns before butter.”

[fso301]

The Enola Gay co-pilot's log book recording the horror of having just dropped the first atomic bomb in war was the most chilling item on auction in a sale of U.S. historical documents

I always understood the co-pilots log book recording to be an expression of horror that after all their specialized training, the bomb fell off course:-)

[arly]

God Bless the crews of the Enola Gay and Bokscar ! They saved untold American Lifes!...

[BluesDuke]

I was somewhat amazed, a few years back, when I read a biography of Curtis E. LeMay, the Army Air Force general who commanded the Pacific air operations including the atomic bomb missions. It turns out that LeMay himself had doubts that the bomb was necessary: He was convinced (and he above anyone, almost including Douglas MacArthur, was in a perfect position to surmise) that the air operations against mainland Japan were successful enough that the war was liable to end shortly enough anyway. LeMay, of course, was never the type of airman who would disobey a superior's order himself, but considering his popular and somewhat misshapen image as Mr. Big Bang - the guy who'd have loved nothing more than having a blast, and the more megatons the better (this largely due to his ghostwritten autobiography, in which his ghostwriter erroneously attributed to LeMay's pen the infamous remark about "nuking the Chinks" and "bombing North Vietnam back to the Stone Age") - that was one of the most intriguing revelations I ever had about LeMay.

Having served in Strategic Air Command, of blessed memory, from 1982-87, God only knows there was a Curtis LeMay story around every corner of Offutt Air Force Base. My personal favourite - and it is a true story - involves the day LeMay walked stone cold onto the flight line at Offutt, unannounced and half out of uniform, until a very nervous SAC Elite Guard member (who recognised LeMay immediately) stopped him cold, drew his pistol, and cocked it right in LeMay's face. "Sir, I am advised to instruct you that if you take one step further without the proper authorisation, I am within my power to blow your head off."

What did you just say?? LeMay all but screamed in the guard's face. The guard, it was said, kept his posture - and his gun in LeMay's face - while behind his uniform turning into Jell-O. Knowing full enough that it could mean a trip to Leavenworth (LeMay was alleged to have ordered a court martial for an aide who put the wrong brand of Scotch on his Air Force plane!), the shaking guard repeated his first statement word for word, pulling back the hammer on his gun. "And just where the hell did you get an order like that?" LeMay demanded. "From the commander in chief of the Strategic Air Command," replied the guard.

LeMay turned to the man who accompanied him - who turned out to have been his personal executive officer - and ordered the frightened guard promoted two grade levels post haste. That, LeMay said, doing his best to grin (LeMay was troubled for his entire adult life by Bell's palsy, giving him the fierce natural expression for which he is best remembered), is what I want on this flight line, from my flight line guards! Or something like that. That's the story, though depending on who you heard it from, the kid was said to have fainted on the spot.

[freeman_of_mx]

Capt. Robert Lewis should have written...

what have I done

[TPartyType]

Does anybody here subscribe to the chivalraic code of war? Has anybody read Richard M. Weaver's essay, "A Dialectic on Total War?"

Weaver argues there, more or less, that true conservatives subscribe to the chivalraic code of war precisely because it protects the innocent. Atomic warfare wipes out everything within a certain radius, indiscriminately.

Can't we admit that killing so many non-combatants was an unspeakable horror? Many of the responses on this thread strike me as rather jingoistic, and I would think a true conservative would acknowledge the horrors of atomic annhilation. Yes, we saved lives, but we unleashed an unspeakable evil in the process.

IMO, any true conservative should be able to recognize the "downside" of the bomb. God forbid we, or anybody else, ever do that again.

[theDentist]

"A fella can have a pretty good time with this stuff!"

[SMEDLEYBUTLER]

Thanks, gentlemen, for a job well done.

[back row (L-R) ] Major Ferebee, Captain Van Kirk, Colonel Tibbets, Captain Lewis
Staff Sergeant Caron, Sergeant Stiborik, Staff Sergeant Duzenbury, Private First Class Nelson, Sergeant Shumard

[Hildy]

My dad wrote a fascinating article about Oppenheimer. If anyone would be interested, I would consider putting it on Free Republic.

[PJ-Comix]

'My God What Have We Done'

Gave Julia Roberts the chance to stand before us at the Academy Awards Ceremony and say: "I love my life!"

Remember,folks, WWII and the dropping of the A-Bomb can only be looking at through the prism of how it affects Julia Roberts. The Universe revolves around Julia Roberts. In fact the Universe is filled with Julia Roberts suns orbited by Julia Roberts planets orbited by Julia Roberts moons.

It's ALL about Julia Roberts.

[Jeff Chandler]

Let's cut through the B.S. and consider the most sobering fact of all: After Hiroshima JAPAN DID NOT SURRENDER!!!!! That tells you all you need to know about the situation.

[Lancey Howard]

One of those little things that always intrigued me was that when we bombed Nagasaki, that city was actually the third target that day. The first two targets were passed over because the clouds were too thick.