![pilot of enola gay pilot of enola gay](https://i0.wp.com/www.raptisrarebooks.com/images/73692/signed-photograph-of-the-enola-gay-crew.jpg)
He said that when General Arnold asked which of them could do this atomic weapons deal, he replied without hesitation, "Paul Tibbets is the man to do it." I said, "Well, thank you, sir." Then he laid out what was going on and it was up to me now to put together an organisation and train them to drop atomic weapons on both Europe and the Pacific - Tokyo.
PILOT OF ENOLA GAY FULL
General Ent looked at me and said, "The other day, General Arnold offered me three names." Both of the others were full colonels I was lieutenant-colonel. He gave me an explanation which probably lasted 45, 50 minutes, and they left. We've gotten to the point now where we can't go much further till we have airplanes to work with." What we're doing is trying to develop an atomic bomb. And Norman said: "OK, we've got what we call the Manhattan Project. With him was a man wearing a blue suit, a US Navy captain - that was William Parsons, who flew with me to Hiroshima - and Dr Norman Ramsey, Columbia University professor in nuclear physics. A man named Lansdale met me, walked me to General Ent's office and closed the door behind me. I got to Colorado Springs the next morning perfectly on time. He said, "Bring your clothing - your B4 bag - because you're not coming back." Well, I didn't know what it was and didn't pay any attention to it - it was just another assignment. He says he just got a call from General Uzal Ent at Colorado Springs, he wants me in his office the next morning at nine o'clock. PT: One day I'm running a test on a B-29, I land, a man meets me. When did you get word that you had a special assignment? ST: Now by 1944 you were a pilot - a test pilot on the programme to develop the B-29 bomber. And I started out that way but about a year before, I was able to get into an airplane, fly it - I soloed - and I knew then that I had to go fly airplanes. He said, "You're going to be a doctor," and I just nodded my head and that was it. PT: I didn't think that, my father thought it. And I was going to school at Gainesville, Florida, but I had to leave after two years and go to Cincinnati because Florida had no medical school. My dad had been in the real estate business down there for years, and at that time he was retired. If you want to go kill yourself, go ahead, I don't give a damn." Then Mom just quietly said, "Paul, if you want to go fly airplanes, you're going to be all right." And that was that. When I told them I was going to leave college and go fly planes in the army air corps, my dad said, "Well, I've sent you through school, bought you automobiles, given you money to run around with the girls, but from here on, you're on your own. She was Enola Gay Haggard before she married my dad, and my dad never supported me with the flying - he hated airplanes and motorcycles. And that particular moment changed the whole world around.
![pilot of enola gay pilot of enola gay](https://www.gannett-cdn.com/presto/2020/08/04/PNJM/dc4c2409-ee36-4966-87fc-ba06e494da80-enola_gay_.jpg)
But once upon a time, you flew a plane called the Enola Gay over the city of Hiroshima, in Japan, on a Sunday morning - Augand a bomb fell. I noticed as we sat in that restaurant, people passed by. Now we've had a nice lunch, you and I and your companion. General Tibbets retired from the Air Force on Sept. He also was in charge of the flight test development of the atomic bomb itself.ĭuring what many consider one of the most daring air raids in American history, the Enola Gay, named after General Tibbets' mother, took off from the island of Tinian in the Northern Mariana Islands headed for Japan. He helped develop the employment capabilities of the atomic bomb in combat operations including the mating of the development of the atomic bomb to the airplane. In September 1944, the general was assigned to the Atomic Bomb Project as the Air Force officer in charge. Benning, Ga.Īfter flying multiple combat missions in Europe and North Africa, the then-B-17 Flying Fortress pilot returned to the United States in March 1943 to participate in the B-29 program. He graduated from pilot school at Kelly Field, Texas, and went to his first assignment with the 16th Observation Squadron at Lawson Field, Ft. Thomas, Ky., after attending college at University of Florida and the University of Cincinnati where he majored in chemistry. General Tibbets, a native of Quincy, Ill., entered the Army Air Corps on Feb. The general was the pilot of "the Enola Gay," the B-29 Superfortress which dropped the first atomic bomb, "Little Boy" on Hiroshima, Japan, on August 6, 1945, which many historian consider the end of World War II. Tibbets Jr., the pilot of the first atomic bombing mission, died of natural causes Nov.