[QCWA] QCWA

[AL LaPeter]

I have read the various postings on the passing of General Paul Tibbets.  I
never had the good fortune of meeting him but always held him in very high
esteem for his World War II exploits.  I got as far as selecting him to be
one of our featured speakers at our 2002 QCWA National Convention in
Orlando, FL.  Unfortunately, I could not work out the details with his
agent.  A number of the postings indicate that if it were not for Paul
Tibbets, many of us would not be here today.  I have always felt that way
and have wondered whether or not I would be here writing this e-mail were it
not for him and his crew.  This is my short story.  In 1945, at the age of
17, I enlisted in the U.S. Navy-my mother had to sign the papers to get her
only son in the service.  In early August, 1945 I was waiting for assignment
and while no one could be sure, most of us thought that we would be going to
the Pacific as so many others were.  When the first bomb fell on August 6,
it was two days before we found out about it (we had no radio available to
us)-not like the instant television reports of today.  Ironically,
everything changed for so many of us and instead of going directly to the
South Pacific I was granted a 30-day leave in my hometown of New York City
and then on to the South Pacific-what a departure from what it could have
been.  May he rest in Peace.  

73, AL LaPeter, W2AS

LT, USN, Retired