[QCWA] Paul Tibbets died Today

Fri Nov 2 10:15:20 EST 2007

Although I am *way* too young to have been in WWII (my father was even too young), I did an in-depth research paper on the subject of the use of the atomic bomb many years ago, and I am very confident that using the atomic bomb to end the war saved American lives AND Japanese lives.

  I'm glad that Tibbets realized this and didn't carry any guilt over dropping the bomb.  For every person killed by the bomb he dropped, probably 10 lives were saved.

  BTW, I was at the Smithsonian in 1995 and saw the Enola Gay exhibit, and even after the protests by the veterans, IMHO it still wimped out and spent too much time talking about Japanese suffering.  They should have had more about American mothers whose sons didn’t come from the Pacific.  

  The B-29 is huge, and they could only get a small portion of it in the museum for the display.  From a technology standpoint, it was interesting to look into the bombardier’s station and see a black box where the Norden bomb sight would have been.  A sign said that the Norden bomb sight was still classified.  That must be some good technology to remain classified 50 years later.

  RIP Paul Tibbets.  Thanks to you and everyone else who helped bring the war to a speedy, winning conclusion. I note that since the convincing and total victory against Germany and Japan, we really haven't had to worry about them militarily for over one-half a century.  So the men who sacrificed in this war really did bring peace from two historically war-like areas of the world.  Something to ponder.

  73,
  Curt W4CP

  Curt Phillips, CEM CMVP
W4CP ex-KD4YU; WB4LHI
ARRL Life; QCWA; SKCC; NASWA
Tar Heel Scanner/SWL Group
WTSB AM1090, Sat. Mornings 6AM-9AM
Raleigh, NC
w4cp<at>arrl.net
  --
  Those who beat their swords into plowshares will end up doing the plowing for someone who kept their sword.

Norm Gertz <k1aa at cfl.rr.com> wrote:

  Very true......within weeks of returning to Maui from Iwo Jima the 4th 
Marine Div was already training for the next operation which was the 
invasion of Japan.
Plans were for all six Marine divisions to land and expect the Japanese to 
defend their homeland.......casualties were expected to be substantial.

73 Norm K1AA (Colonel USMC Ret.)

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Bob Roske" 

To: "QCWA - Reflector" 
Sent: Thursday, November 01, 2007 6:21 PM
Subject: [QCWA] Paul Tibbets died Today

> This isn't about QCWA or about Radio but without the Atom Bomb some, maybe 
> many of you wouldn't be here.
>
> RIP Paul!
>
> 73,
> Bob Roske, N0UF
> Just a kid at 60!
>
>> Pilot of Plane That Dropped A-Bomb Dies
>> By JULIE CARR SMYTH (Associated Press Writer)
>> From Associated Press
>> November 01, 2007 4:16 PM EDT
>> COLUMBUS, Ohio - Paul Tibbets, who piloted the B-29 bomber Enola Gay that
>> dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima, died Thursday. He was 92 and 
>> insisted
>> for six decades after the war that he had no regrets about the mission 
>> and
>> slept just fine at night.
>>
>> Tibbets died at his Columbus home. 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, said Gerry Newhouse, a longtime
>> friend.
>>
>> 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.
>>
>> The plane and its crew of 14 dropped the five-ton "Little Boy" bomb on 
>> the
>> morning of Aug. 6, 1945. The blast killed 70,000 to 100,000 people and
>> injured countless others.
>>
>> Three days later, the United States dropped a second nuclear bomb on
>> Nagasaki, Japan, killing an estimated 40,000 people. Tibbets did not fly 
>> in
>> that mission. The Japanese surrendered a few days later, ending the war.
>>
>> "I knew when I got the assignment it was going to be an emotional thing,"
>> Tibbets told The Columbus Dispatch for a story published on the 60th
>> anniversary of the bombing. "We had feelings, but we had to put them in 
>> the
>> background. We knew it was going to kill people right and left. But my 
>> one
>> driving interest was to do the best job I could so that we could end the
>> killing as quickly as possible."
>>
>> Morris Jeppson, the officer who armed the bomb during the Hiroshima 
>> flight,
>> said Tibbets was energetic, well-respected and "hard-nosed."
>>
>> "Ending the war saved a lot of U.S. armed forces and Japanese civilians 
>> and
>> military," Jeppson said. "History has shown there was no need to 
>> criticize
>> him."
>>
>> Tibbets, then a 30-year-old colonel, never expressed regret over his 
>> role.
>> He said it was his patriotic duty and the right thing to do.
>>
>> "I'm not proud that I killed 80,000 people, but I'm proud that I was able 
>> to
>> start with nothing, plan it and have it work as perfectly as it did," he
>> said in a 1975 interview.
>>
>> "You've got to take stock and assess the situation at that time. We were 
>> at
>> war. ... You use anything at your disposal."
>>
>> He added: "I sleep clearly every night."
>>
>> Tibbets took quiet pride in the job he had done, said journalist Bob 
>> Greene,
>> who wrote the Tibbets biography, "Duty: A Father, His Son, and the Man 
>> Who
>> Won the War."
>>
>> "He said, 'What they needed was someone who could do this and not 
>> flinch -
>> and that was me,'" Greene said.
>>
>> Paul Warfield Tibbets Jr. was born Feb. 23, 1915, in Quincy, Ill., and 
>> spent
>> most of his boyhood in Miami.
>>
>> He was a student at the University of Cincinnati's medical school when he
>> decided to withdraw in 1937 to enlist in the Army Air Corps.
>>
>> After the war, Tibbets said in 2005, he was dogged by rumors claiming he 
>> was
>> in prison or had committed suicide.
>>
>> "They said I was crazy, said I was a drunkard, in and out of 
>> institutions,"
>> he said. "At the time, I was running the National Crisis Center at the
>> Pentagon."
>>
>> Tibbets retired from the Air Force as a brigadier general in 1966. He 
>> later
>> moved to Columbus, where he ran an air taxi service until he retired in
>> 1985.
>>
>> The National Aviation Hall of Fame in Dayton plans a photographic tribute 
>> to
>> Tibbets, who was inducted in 1996.
>>
>> "There are few in the history of mankind that have been called to
>> figuratively carry as much weight on their shoulders as Paul Tibbets,"
>> director Ron Kaplan said in a statement. "Even fewer were able to do so 
>> with
>> a sense of honor and duty to their countrymen as did Paul."
>>
>> Tibbets' role in the bombing brought him fame - and infamy - throughout 
>> his
>> life.
>>
>> In 1976, he was criticized for re-enacting the bombing during an 
>> appearance
>> at a Harlingen, Texas, air show. As he flew a B-29 Superfortress over the
>> show, a bomb set off on the runway below created a mushroom cloud.
>>
>> He said the display "was not intended to insult anybody," but the 
>> Japanese
>> were outraged. The U.S. government later issued a formal apology.
>>
>> Tibbets again defended the bombing in 1995, when an outcry erupted over a
>> planned 50th anniversary exhibit of the Enola Gay at the Smithsonian
>> Institution.
>>
>> The museum had planned to mount an exhibit that would have examined the
>> context of the bombing, including the discussion within the Truman
>> administration of whether to use the bomb, the rejection of a 
>> demonstration
>> bombing and the selection of the target.
>>
>> Veterans groups objected, saying the proposed display paid too much
>> attention to Japan's suffering and too little to Japan's brutality during
>> and before World War II, and that it underestimated the number of 
>> Americans
>> who would have perished in an invasion.
>>
>> They said the bombing of Japan was an unmitigated blessing for the United
>> States and the exhibit should say so.
>>
>> Tibbets denounced it as "a damn big insult."
>>
>> The museum changed its plan and agreed to display the fuselage of the 
>> Enola
>> Gay without commentary, context or analysis.
>>
>> He told the Dispatch in 2005 that he wanted his ashes scattered over the
>> English Channel, where he loved to fly during the war.
>>
>> Newhouse confirmed that Tibbets wanted to be cremated, but he said 
>> relatives
>> had not yet determined how he would be laid to rest.
>>
>> Tibbets is survived by his wife, Andrea, and three sons - Paul, Gene and
>> James - as well as a number of grandchildren and great-grandchildren. A
>> grandson named after Tibbets followed his grandfather into the military 
>> as a
>> B-2 bomber pilot currently stationed in Belgium.
>
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