Pilot of plane that dropped A-bomb dies
 

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071101/ap_on_re_us/obit_tibbets

Paul Tibbets, who piloted the B-29 bomber Enola Gay that dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima, died Thursday. He was 92 and insisted almost to his dying day that he had no regrets about the mission and slept just fine at night.

Tibbets died at his Columbus home, said Gerry Newhouse, a longtime friend. He suffered from a variety of health problems and had been in decline for two months.

Tibbets had requested no funeral and no headstone, fearing it would provide his detractors with a place to protest, Newhouse said.

Tibbets' historic mission in the plane named for his mother marked the beginning of the end of World War II and eliminated the need for what military planners feared would have been an extraordinarily bloody invasion of Japan. It was the first use of a nuclear weapon in wartime.

A true American hero.

If that happened today we'd have Dottore, Kach, Moronramp & the like calling him a war criminal & talking about collateral damage.

I think all WWII vets (or any vets) are true American hero's. This guy got called on to do a job and he did it - just like millions of others before and after him.

I hope he ends up were he deserves..












in Arlington National Cemetery, buried with full honours...and the respect he earnt.
A sad day.

A great American Hero - I read some time ago that he received hate mail daily. He deserved much better than that.

Geez, now who are we gonna call on to end the mess with the Muslim's............

He was a great hero! Condolensces to his family. IIRC, his grandson flies a B2 or F-117.

Anybody who would protest at HIS headstone is a moron.

(don't kill the messenger...)

My wife and I met him in the 70's when they were filming the story of the Enola Gay. They had Fi-Fi the only flyable B-29 at the Confederate Air Force in Harlingen and he was checking out the plane the day we happened to be there. At the time you could just wander around the hangars and he came in with some people as we were standing under the wing taking pictures of the plane. Very cool guy. I'll scrounge those pictures up and post them.

Futureoptions,

In respect to Iran..Wheres Cmdr Paul Tibbets when you need him!

Maybe his grandson can put that B2 to work....

SmileWavyIran

Ironically I met Paul on August 6th, 2006. I bought his book and had him autograph it, including the date. I wound up talking to him for about 20 minutes. The only thing he was afraid of on that mission was screwing it up.

Is it true that the crew didn't know they had the 'one' onboard? Weren't there a few dummy bombs?

No Dummy bombs and they knew, as they were trained specially trained for the mission. They had one on Board observer maybe to arm the thing before they dropped it....

The USA only had 2 bombs Little Boy and Fat Man. It owuld have taken another 3 months to produce another one.

anyone who drops an atomic that kills hundreds of thousands of innocent people for generations to come is a hero. I get it now.
You humans disgust me.

How would you end the war in the Japanese theater?

Made my day! Where you been? We've missed you.

and saved an estimated 1M US casualties

Wait-wait.... I want to hear how Einstein would have ended it... Please enlighten us humans as to how it is that you would have ended things. Please. Don't just abandon this comment like you abandoned your Craigslist Joke. Let's get some follow-through on this one. I am ready to be taught how it should have gone.

that's BS.. you can make all the excuses and justifications you want. I'm glad "we" never use WMDs to kill hundreds of thousands of innocent people.

only the "terrorists" and the rogue nations do that.

What Would You Have Done?