Pilot of Enola Gay Had No Regrets for Hiroshima : NPR

Contents:

• THE CREW OF THE ENOLA GAY ON DROPPG THE ATOMIC BOMB
• ENOLA GAY
• WHAT HAPPENED TO THE ENOLA GAY AFTER IT DROPPED THE ATOMIC BOMB
• CREW OF THE ENOLA GAY
• HERE'S WHAT THE CREW OF THE B-29 BOMBER ENOLA GAY SAW AFTER DROPPG THE FIRST ATOMIC BOMB HISTORY
• HIROSHIMA’S ENOLA GAY RRIED 12 MEN, HOPE AND THE WORLD’S ADLIT WEAPON
• GROUND CREW OF THE ENOLA GAY ATOMIC BOMBER
• PILOT OF ENOLA GAY HAD NO REGRETS FOR HIROSHIMA
• WHERE IS THE ENOLA GAY TODAY?
• ENOLA GAY CREW
• THE INLIBLE ENOLA GAY
• THE ENOLA GAY'S HISTORY LIV ON
• TAKE A TOUR OF THE ENOLA GAY, THE U.S. PLANE THAT BOMBED HIROSHIMA

THE CREW OF THE ENOLA GAY ON DROPPG THE ATOMIC BOMB

On Augt 6, 1945, the B-29 bomber Enola Gay dropped an atomic bomb on the cy of Hiroshima.

"Colonel Ferebee died Florida 2000, at the age of Air Force radar specialist Jab Ber was the only man who served on both the Enola Gay the Hiroshima bombg missn and the Bock's Car three days later when s crew bombed Nagasaki. "Stiborik died of a heart attack 1984 at age Jeppson was only 23 years old when he was assigned to acpany the atomic bomb on the Enola Gay.

ENOLA GAY

"Nelson died om emphysema 2003 at age Gay tail gunner Bob Caron wrote a book about the missn lled Fire of a Thoand Suns.

He was 75 years Duzenbury kept tabs on the Enola Gay's eng and other systems while others tend the bomb and the missn self. "Duzenbury died 1992 at age Shumard assisted flight engeer Wyatt Duzenbury keepg the Enola Gay nng. He was upset that manr Pl Tibbets had named his plane the Enola Gay.

On Augt 6, 1945, the crew of a modified Boeg B-29 Superfortrs named Enola Gay dropped the first atomic bomb ed warfare, lled “Ltle Boy, ” on the cy of Hiroshima, Japan.

WHAT HAPPENED TO THE ENOLA GAY AFTER IT DROPPED THE ATOMIC BOMB

As a new and adly weapon, an atomic bomber, Enola Gay facilated a turng pot human history as hered the dawn of the Atomic Age and the threat of nuclear war. Tibbets and his crew took off om Tian  Enola Gay at 2:45 am on Augt 6, 1945. Upon visual lotn of Hiroshima, Tom Ferebee aimed for the cy center and Enola Gay dropped the “Ltle Boy” bomb om 31, 000 feet at 9:15 am.

After “Ltle Boy” left the forward bomb bay, Enola Gay lurched upward, and Tibbets iated a high angle evasive manver to get as far away om Hiroshima as possible. ” Enola Gay land back at Tian 12 hours later at approximately 3 pm.

Enola Gay tail gunner Bob Caron took this picture of the cloud of smoke billowg 20, 000 feet above Hiroshima after the explosn of the Ltle Boy atomic bomb on Augt 6, 1945. The history and memory of Enola Gay and s part the atomic attacks on Japan, and their effect on endg the war the Pacific and the nuclear tensns of the Cold War, reflects differg viewpots. The Smhsonian has been at the center of bat over those differg perspectiv terms of the terpretatn and public display of Enola Gay.

CREW OF THE ENOLA GAY

Enola Gay was to be the central artifact a planned exhibn at the Mm examg the atomic bombgs durg the 50th anniversary of the end of World War II.

HERE'S WHAT THE CREW OF THE B-29 BOMBER ENOLA GAY SAW AFTER DROPPG THE FIRST ATOMIC BOMB HISTORY

The Boeg B-29 Superfortrs Enola Gay is now on display at the Steven F.

In a revised exhibn, Enola Gay’s forward felage and bomb bay, two eng, a propeller, and other ponents, cludg a activated Ltle Boy bomb, went on display the Natnal Mall Buildg om June 1995 to May 1998. Udvar-Hazy Center opened December 2003, the fully-assembled Enola Gay went on permanent display the World War II Aviatn display area the Boeg Aviatn Hangar.

The display of the Enola Gay has generated a variety of rpons rangg om public protts  1995 and 2003 to opposg pots of view exprsed  alternative exhibns, petns, and reports, and ntu to serve as a se study  prentg history the public sphere that is vigoroly discsed and bated to this day. The flight of the Enola Gay on Augt 6, 1945, signifi an end and a begng terms of our evolvg unrstandg of technology and warfare the twentieth century. Enola Gay, the B-29bomber that was ed by the Uned Stat on Augt 6, 1945, to drop an atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan, the first time the explosive vice had been ed on an enemy target.

HIROSHIMA’S ENOLA GAY RRIED 12 MEN, HOPE AND THE WORLD’S ADLIT WEAPON

” The Enola Gay—Tibbets had a matenance man pat that name on the aircraft’s nose shortly before takeoff—was acpanied by var other plan. Tibbets flew the Enola Gay back to Tian, where he was award the Distguished Service Cross. Three days later the Enola Gay nducted weather rennaissance the lead-up to the bombg of Nagasaki, Japan.

Japan officially surrenred on September 2, Enola Gay remaed service for several years before beg given to the Smhsonian Instutn on July 3, 1949. In 2003 the fully rtored Enola Gay was put on display at the NASM’s Steven F. After the Enola Gay dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan, on Aug.

The Enola Gay is a B-29 Superfortrs, which pilot Pl Tibbets named after his mother, and which had been stripped of everythg but the necsi, so as to be thoands of pounds lighter than an ordary plane of that make.

GROUND CREW OF THE ENOLA GAY ATOMIC BOMBER

While did not drop the bomb on Nagasaki, the Enola Gay did take flight to get data on the weather the lead-up to the send strike on Japan. In the aftermath of World War II, the Army Air Forc flew the Enola Gay durg an atomic tt program the Pacific; was then livered to be stored an airfield Arizona before beg flown to Illois and transferred to the Smhsonian July 1949.

But even unr the ctody of the mm, the Enola Gay remaed at an air force base Texas. The Commtee for the Rtoratn and Display of the Enola Gay now has 9, 000 signatur of prott.

Adams, who is leavg his job after 10 relatively ntroversy-ee years, sent back a three-page answer stiffly turng down her requt for the Enola Gay.

PILOT OF ENOLA GAY HAD NO REGRETS FOR HIROSHIMA

Demonstrators prott at the Enola Gay exhib at the the Smhsonian Natnal Air and Space Mm's Steven F. And as long as is on display, the qutns rais are likely to ntue — after all, they have been wh the Enola Gay sce first beme a hoehold name. Fifty years after the crew of the Enola Gay dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima, hasteng Japan's surrenr, The Amerin Legn honored Tibbets and his crew wh the Distguished Service Medal.

"There is no doubt my md that many of you who are here today would not be here if hadn't been for the urageo missn of the men of the Enola Gay, " Natnal Commanr William Detweiler told nventn legat.

As Enola Gay's pilot, Tibbets said Pearl Harbor was the animatg force for his missn. Enola Gay dropped the first atomic bomb, "Ltle Boy, " was dropped at 8:15 a.

WHERE IS THE ENOLA GAY TODAY?

The crew of the B-29 bomber Enola Gay was among the few to wns the first e of the atomic bomb on Augt 6, had expected somethg fierce, but what they saw was still a fearsome and awome Bs Insir's homepage for more stori. Shortly after the atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima on Augt 6, 1945, the Enola Gay's tail gunner, Bob Caron, wrote his wife that the crew had jt received a medal and she'd be readg about what they had done the newspapers. Pl Tibbets, who named the B-29 the "Enola Gay" after his mother, told Caron to scribe what he saw to the crew over the ter.

He was a radarman on the Enola Gay and performed the same duti on would later wre that "No, I feel no sorrow or remorse for whatever small role I played.

Tibbets, Jr., mand of the Superfortrs Enola Gay, dropped a highly enriched uranium, explosn-type, "gun-fired, " atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan. Enola Gay flew as the advance weather rennaissance aircraft that day. He named the B-29 that he flew on 6 Augt Enola Gay after his mother.

ENOLA GAY CREW

The airplane's last flight end on December 2 when the Enola Gay touched down at Andrews Air Force Base, Maryland. The staff at Garber began workg to prerve and rtore Enola Gay December 1984.

THE INLIBLE ENOLA GAY

Tibbets Jr., 30, had handpicked the airplane on the assembly le Nebraska three months before and had jt had his mother’s name, “Enola Gay, ” pated black letters on the the plane mbled down the airstrip at over 100 mph, he had his lucky cigarette se wh him one pocket, and a box ntag 12 cyani psul Aug. Two other B-29s, the “Great Artiste” and “Necsary Evil, ” were supposed to go along to take pictur and rerd “Enola Gay” was the “strike ship. ”Fifteen hundred to the north-northwt, unr a wang crcent moon, lay a 400-year-old Japane cy most Amerins probably had never heard of but whose name was about to be etched to the pag of was an important enemy ary se wh a wartime populatn about 280, 000, acrdg to the historians Gordon Thomas and Max half of them were about to be cerated, cshed, and irradiated by the c atomic weapon named “Ltle Boy” that the Enola Gay of thoands more would die the same way at Nagasaki a few days later, and the world would subsequently be hearg about megatons, mutual assured stctn, proliferatn, nuclear wter, meltdowns and dirty would be the start of a ightful era of weapons that uld fy ntrol and menace as “Dimpl Eight Two” picked up speed that morng, s missn was born of s time: liver a blow that the Uned Stat hoped might fally end the global butchery of World War II.

)This week, memoratns are schled across the untry, wh socially distanced ndlelight vigils and the tollg of bells, and bee of the vid-19, ceremoni and remembranc have moved Enola Gay, the Boeg B-29 Superfortrs that dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima, is seen on display July 29, 2020, at the Steven F. If this ighteng new weapon worked, the thkg went, would shorten the war, albe at a dreadful st human first the Enola Gay had to get off the ground. William Parsons, who flew on the missn as the bomb bee of that risk, the 10-foot-long “Ltle Boy” had not yet been was a “gun-type” bomb, one which an explosive charge would fire a “subcril” piece of uranium 235 down a six-foot-long “gun” barrel to a send subcril piece of uranium, acrdg to Thomas and created cril mass and the explosive nuclear cha reactn that would lay waste to four cloth bags of explosive and the tonator would not be serted until the plane was the Enola Gay was now dog 180 mph but was nng out of ground.

THE ENOLA GAY'S HISTORY LIV ON

(Natnal Archiv)The weapon is hoisted to the bomb bay of the B-29 dubbed “Enola Gay” Augt 1945 on Tian Island the Northern Mariana Islands.

TAKE A TOUR OF THE ENOLA GAY, THE U.S. PLANE THAT BOMBED HIROSHIMA

(Natnal Archiv)‘A fiery red re’Thirty-one thoand feet above, the Enola Gay’s bombardier, Maj.

So had an ternal radar system that tected the ground, tripped the tonator at that altu, and iated the tonatn bomb traveled for six and explod jt short of the Enola Gay, meanwhile, lurched upward on sheddg the weight of the bomb and executed a hairp turn to pe the expected shock wave of the first, the crew saw and felt nothg. (AP)‘Brighter than the sun’As the Enola Gay and s two rt plan head back Tian, a young scientist named Luis W.