Paul Tibbets

Paul Warfield Tibbets, Jr. (born February 23, 1915) was a brigadier general in the United States Air Force and the pilot of the first aircraft to drop an atomic bomb.

Tibbets was born in Quincy, Illinois and was the son of Paul Warfield Tibbets and Enola Gay Tibbets (née Haggard). On February 25, 1937, he enlisted as a flying cadet in the Army Air Corps at Fort Thomas, Kentucky. He was commissioned a second lieutenant in 1938 and received his wings at Kelly Field, Texas. Tibbets was named commanding officer of the 340th Bomb Squadron, 97th Heavy Bomb Group flying B-17 Flying Fortresses in March, 1942. Based at RAF Polebrook, he piloted the lead bomber on the first Eighth Air Force bombing mission in Europe on August 17, 1942 and later flew combat missions in the Mediterranean Theater of Operations until returning to the U.S. to test fly B-29 Superfortresses. In November 1944 he was selected to command the 509th Composite Group at Wendover Army Air Field, Utah as part of the Manhattan Project's Project Alberta.

On August 5, 1945 Colonel Paul Tibbets formally named B-29 serial number 44-86292 Enola Gay after his mother (she was named after the heroine, Enola Gay, of a novel her father had liked). On August 6 1945 the Enola Gay departed Tinian Island in the Marianas with Tibbets at the controls at 2:45 a.m. for Hiroshima, Japan. The atomic bomb was dropped over Hiroshima at 8:15 a.m. local time.

The film Above and Beyond depicted the World War II events involving Tibbets, with Robert Taylor starring as Tibbets and Eleanor Parker as his first wife, Lucy.

In 1959, Col. Tibbets was promoted to Brigadier General. He retired from the U.S. Air Force on August 31, 1966.

In the '60s, Tibbets was posted as military attaché in India, but this posting was rescinded after all political parties in India protested his presence. After retirement, he worked for Executive Jet Aviation, a Columbus, Ohio-based air taxi company, and was president from 1976 until he retired in 1987.

Although Tibbets was born in Illinois, he was raised in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, where his father was a confections wholesaler. The family was listed there in the 1920 U.S. Federal Population Census. In about 1927, the family moved to Florida.

Tibbets married his wife, Andrea, in about 1953 or 1954.

His grandson Lt. Col. Paul Tibbets, IV, as of 2005 is a pilot in the U.S. Air Force, flying a B-2 Spirit for the 509th Bomb Wing, the same unit in which his grandfather served.

Tibbets has been interviewed extensively by Mike Harden of the Columbus (Ohio) Dispatch, and profiles have appeared in the newspaper on anniversaries of the first dropping of an atomic bomb. Tibbets generally expresses no regret regarding the decision to drop the bomb. In March of 2005, he publicly stated "If you give me the same circumstances, hell yeah, I'd do it again." His website gives his perspective on the events.

There is no substance to the urban legend which states that Tibbetts or other members of the Enola Gay crew later went insane with remorse. However, Claude Eatherly, pilot of the weather reconnaissance aircraft Straight Flush that aided in dropping the atomic bomb on Hiroshima, did experience mental illness and engage in anti-nuclear activism.

Awards and Decorations

Quotes

"We’ve never fought a damn war anywhere in the world where they didn’t kill innocent people. If the newspapers would just cut out the shit: 'You’ve killed so many civilians.' That’s their tough luck for being there." - Paul Tibbets to Studs Terkel, 2002 ^*

External links

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Awards and Decorations

Quotes

External links