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Paul Tibbets was born in Quincy, Illinois on Februand raised mostly in Miami, Florida. () Basing his judgment of Tibbets on the “accounts of those who knew him,” Kamm declared that Tibbets was “a humane man, who reflected publicly and thoughtfully on the A-bomb decision, the lives it cost and also the lives it saved.” A closer look at Tibbets’s life and comparison of his views with those of others who participated in the atomic bombings will shed light not only on whether Tibbets was as humane and thoughtfully reflective as Kamm suggests, but on why so many World War II veterans share Tibbets’s difficulty in moving beyond official pieties of 1945 and today to understand the complex history of the end of the Pacific War, the role the atomic bombings played in the Japanese surrender, and their own role in the historical process. Among the most laudatory assessments is a piece (really a pair of blogs) by Oliver Kamm that quickly shot up to #1 at History News Network. In the days since his passing, Tibbets has been both lionized and vilified. And he spent the next 62 years fighting to defend the atomic bombings.
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Throughout his adult life, he was a warrior. On November 1, Paul Warfield Tibbets, Jr., the man who piloted the plane that dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima, died at his Columbus, Ohio home at age 92. To watch his first-person account of the Hiroshima mission, click here.Defending the Indefensible: A Meditation on the Life of Hiroshima Pilot Paul Tibbets, Jr. For more on Tibbets, see Manhattan Project Spotlight: Paul Tibbets. Tibbets retired from the United States Air Force in 1966. Air Force, where he subsequently served as director of the Strategic Air Division. His next assignment was to the Directorate of Requirements, Headquarters U.S. He was then assigned to the Air Command and Staff School at Maxwell Air Force Base, Ala., from which he graduated in 1947. It was during this period that the Operation Crossroads took place, with Tibbets participating as technical adviser to the Air Force commander. With the end of the war in 1945, Tibbets' organization was transferred to what is now Walker Air Force Base, Roswell, N.M., and remained there until August 1946. Tibbets remains a polarizing figure to this day. To supporters, Tibbets became known as a national hero who ended the war with Japan to his detractors, he was a war criminal responsible for the deaths of many thousands of Japanese civilians. When news of the successful mission appeared in American newspapers the next day, Tibbets and his family became instant celebrities. Tibbets was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross by Major General Carl Spaatz immediately after landing on Tinian. For information about the bombing, click here. At 08:15 local time, they dropped the atomic bomb, code-named "Little Boy," over Hiroshima. At 02:45 the next day, Tibbets and his flight crew aboard the Enola Gay departed North Field for Hiroshima.
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On AugTibbets formally named his B-29 Enola Gay after his mother. In late May 1945, the 509th was transferred to Tinian Island in the South Pacific to await final orders. Flight crews practiced dropping large "dummy" bombs modeled after the shape and size of the atomic bombs in order to prepare for their ultimate mission in Japan. Tibbets, who had accumulated more flying time on the B-29 than any other pilot in the Air Force, was selected to lead the 509th Composite Group, a fully self-contained organization of about 1,800 men that would be responsible for dropping the first atomic bomb on Japan.įrom September 1944 until May 1945, Tibbets and the 509th Composite Group trained extensively at Wendover Air Force Base in Wendover, Utah. Ramsey, who briefed him about the Manhattan Project. On September 1, 1944, Tibbets met with Lt. In February 1943, Tibbets returned to the United States to help with the development of the B-29 Superfortress bomber. Tibbets quickly earned a reputation as one of the best pilots in the Army Air Force. Clark from Polebook to Gibraltar in preparation for Operation Torch, the allied invasion of North Africa. A few weeks later, Tibbets flew the Supreme Allied Commander, Lieutenant General Dwight D. After leading the first American daylight heavy bomber misson in Occupied France in August 1942, Tibbets was selected to fly Major General Mark W. As a colonel, he piloted the Enola Gay, which dropped the Little Boy bomb on the Japanese city of Hiroshima.Īfter receiving basic flight training at Randolph Field in San Antonio, Texas in 1937, Tibbets quickly rose through the ranks to become commanding officer of the 340th Bombardment Squadron of the 97th Bombardment Group. (1915 – 2007) rose to brigadier general in the United States Air Force.