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"I remember the shock to our nation that all of this brought. I remember Pearl Harbor and all of the Japanese atrocities." He was a radarman on the Enola Gay and performed the same duties on Bockscar.īeser would later write that "No, I feel no sorrow or remorse for whatever small role I played. Jacob Beser would be the only one to see the aftermath of both explosions. 9, when a B-29 called "Bockscar" dropped another atomic bomb on Nagasaki.Īrmy Air Forces 2nd Lt. The crew also hoped that the bomb would never be used again but it was, three days later on Aug. Such a terrible waste, such a loss of life." On 6 August 1945, during the final stages of World War II, it became the first aircraft to drop an atomic bomb. Theodore "Dutch" Van Kirk, of Northumberland, Pa., later said that "I honestly believe the use of the atomic bomb saved lives in the long run, but I pray no man will have to witness that sight again. The Enola Gay is a Boeing B-29 Superfortress bomber, named for Enola Gay Tibbets, the mother of the pilot, Colonel Paul Tibbets, who selected the aircraft while it was still on the assembly line. troops who were then preparing for the invasion of Japan.Ĭapt. It had hastened the end of the war and saved the lives of U.S. Lewis, Caron and the others, however, would later say they had no regrets about dropping the bomb. "I honestly have the feeling of groping for words to explain this or I might say, my God, what have we done?" Everyone on the ship is actually dumbstruck even though we had expected something fierce." ''If I live a hundred years, I'll never quite get these few minutes out of my mind. He was keeping a log of the flight, scribbling on the backs of old War Department forms. The exhibition text summarized the history and development of the Boeing B-29 fleet used in bombing raids against Japan. He died on November 1, 2007, at his home in Columbus, Ohio, at 92. A video presentation about the Enola Gay's mission included interviews with the crew before and after the mission including mission pilot Col. dropped the first atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan, 75 years ago, bringing an end to World War II and making the Enola Gay one of the most famous B-29s in history. It was about that time that Tibbets turned the airplane around, so that everybody could get a look at it." Paul Tibbets was the pilot of B-29 bomber Enola Gay which dropped the first atomic bomb on Hiroshima. Paul Tibbets - the pilot of the Enola Gay, the man who in 1945 flew the atomic bomb to Japan and. Flames in different spots would be springing up. I had been wanting to talk with him for more than 20 years. "And fires, I could see fires spring up through this undercast, or whatever you would call it, that was covering the city. It looked like bubbling molasses, let's say, spreading out and running up into the foothills, just covering the whole city." I could see the city, and it was being covered with this low, bubbling mass. "As we got further away, I could see the city then, not just the mushroom, coming up.