[ARC5] Enola Crewman Passes - off topic.

[Leslie Smith]

This is off-topic, but there seems a good deal of comment on the 
value or otherwise of "The Bomb".

I feel that only those closely associated with the war are entitled 
an opinion on this subject. After all, we can't know how it was at 
that time. I asked my father in law how he felt about dropping The 
Bomb.

He was a POW in Japan in 1945. He (and his fellow prisoners) had 
dug a long hole into the side of a mountain. It was quietly 
rumoured this would be their resting place, when USA attacked Japan 
proper.  He arrived in Japan in 1943, after surviving a trip by sea 
that had an overall loss rate of 50%.

He said: "The Bomb saved my life", and he meant it.

Two weeks after the war he got on a train with a mate and went to 
see Hiroshima. He told me that no-one believed they could make a 
single bomb big enough to destroy a city. They wanted to see the 
city.

He died two years ago - cancer.

In the end the bomb that saved him got him. War extracts a terrible 
price, even on the victors.

I suspect that no crew-member of the Enola Gay would not claim to 
be a hero, and I would not put words in their mouth, but I know 
this: The young men who fought in WWII were gutsy fellows.  I don't 
imagine we can every understand what they knew.

"They shall not grow old as we grow old"
"Lest we forget"

Now, to legitimise this posting, can anyone say what radio 
equipment was used on the Enola Gay?

Les Smith,
formerly vk2bcu


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