Tibbets, Pilot Who Dropped A-Bomb, Dies

(by Jennifer Harper, WashingtonTimes.com) – The mission of a single B-29 Superfortress brought World War II to a swift close. The man who flew that silver-toned bomber is gone.

Paul Warfield Tibbets Jr., commander and pilot of the Enola Gay, died yesterday. He was 92.

The retired U.S. Air Force brigadier general served his country for three decades. One journey in particular put him into history.

As a dapper U.S. Army Air Corps officer, Gen. Tibbets was given the monumental task of dropping the world’s first atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan. And drop it he did, at exactly 8:16 a.m. on Aug. 6, 1945, from a height of 26,000 feet in good weather, accompanied by a crew of 11.

“I remind you, we were at war. Our job was to win. Once the targets were named and presidential approval received, we were to deliver the weapon as expeditiously as possible consistent with good tactics,” Gen. Tibbets once recalled. “The objective was to stop the fighting, thereby saving further loss of life on both sides.”

Estimates of deaths in Hiroshima top 140,000 within one year of the blast, which rose up in a massive mushroom of smoke and fire, the shape and image itself destined to become a visceral cultural icon in the years to come. The U.S. dropped a second atomic bomb on Nagasaki 72 hours later; the Japanese surrendered shortly thereafter, ending the war.

The Enola Gay, which Gen. Tibbets personally selected from a Nebraska assembly line and named for his mother, was “a peacekeeper, a harbinger of a cold war kept from going ‘hot,’ ” he said.

“Those of us who gained that victory have nothing to be ashamed of; neither do we offer any apology,” Gen. Tibbets said in 1994, when the restoration and public display of his plane had become a subject of controversy in the hands of those who would tweak history.

According to Gerry Newhouse, a longtime friend who accompanied the veteran pilot on national public tours late in life, Gen. Tibbets wanted to be buried without a funeral or a marker on his grave, for fear that it would become a place of protest.

The Smithsonian Institution planned to include commentary with the Enola Gay exhibit until veterans groups protested, claiming “the script” overlooked the mission’s true outcome. It was an insult, they said, ignoring the reality of the era. In 1945, President Truman surmised that an invasion of Japan would cost up to 1 million American lives, and an equal number of casualties for Japan.

“The millions of us remaining will die believing we made the world a better place,” Gen. Tibbets said. “Many of us believe peace will prevail through strength.”

The Enola Gay eventually was restored and went on permanent public display in 2003 – sans commentary – at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum’s Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center near Washington Dulles International Airport.

Gen. Tibbets left his own airborne legacy.

“His grandson, Paul Tibbets IV, is currently in the U.S. Air Force, flying a B-2 bomber in Europe,” Mr. Newhouse said.

“He was a good pilot, always. He was a stable person, capable of carrying both the good and the bad of that historic mission inside him for 60 years. He knew he took lives, but he knew he saved them, too,” Mr. Newhouse said.

“Paul Tibbets was a man of good cheer – humble but confident in his ability to manage and lead under any circumstances,” said Ron Kaplan, executive director of the National Aviation Hall of Fame in Ohio, where Gen. Tibbets is enshrined with honor.

“He was a gentleman giant among our American heroes. He has his place in history. We also need to remember that Paul got his wings in 1938 and his career spanned right into the Space Age. He was instrumental in helping the Air Force transition from pistons to jets after World War II. Personally, I will miss him very much,” Mr. Kaplan said.

Gen. Tibbets was born in Illinois in 1915, when aviation was nothing more than adventure and invention. He managed to wangle a ride in a biplane at age 12 during a publicity stunt in Miami, throwing Baby Ruth candy to crowds below.

The flying bug had bitten, however, crowding out his aspirations to be a doctor and sending him into the Army Air Corps in 1937. Five years later, the young pilot had flown 25 missions in heavy bombers over Europe and Africa, returning to the U.S. the subsequent year to test out the new Superfortress – and becoming privy to research that developed the atomic bomb.

With thousands of flying hours during his Air Force career, Gen. Tibbets retired in 1966 to become a pioneer in business aviation in Europe – accruing an additional 400 hours of flying time in Lear jets at age 70. He retired a second time in 1985 from the private sector, but continued to write books about his experiences and travel the nation.

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