His grandson is an Air Force Academy graduate who came up flying B-2 Spirit bombers. His family was also a proud military family. He even re-enacted the bombing in a B-29 during a 1976 Texas air show and denounced the Smithsonian’s exhibition of the actual plane when it debuted because of the exhibition’s focus on the suffering of the Japanese people and not the brutality of the Japanese military. He proudly named his airplane Enola Gay after his beloved mother. Famous Home Born/Died on This Date Yearly Necrologies Posthumous Reunions Interesting Monuments Interesting Epitaphs. Northumberland, Northumberland County, Pennsylvania, USA. At the time of the Hiroshima bombing, he was one of the youngest but most experienced pilots in the Army Air Forces. World War II United States Military Figure. It wasn’t that Tibbets wasn’t proud of his service. But instead of being interred at home or at Arlington National Cemetery with all his brothers in arms, he was cremated and his ashes spread across the English Channel.
He was the man who dropped the first atomic weapon used in combat against an enemy city. He was never forgotten, however, and never would be. Visitors will see the restored B-29 maintenance hangar that housed the aircraft, along with other restored buildings and other training equipment displays.When Paul Tibbets died in January 2007, he had been retired from the Air Force since 1966. Situated less than a mile from Wendover, Utah along the Nevada border, the original Wendover Air Force Base was where the Enola Gay crew trained for their mission to drop atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki to end the second World War.
See the B-29 Enola Gay Aircraft Hangar on a Wendover Airfield Tour Soon, some of the most qualified airmen came to Wendover to begin training for combat missions during World War II, working with prototype bombs called Little Boy and Fat Man bombs-code names for nuclear bombs that would later detonate over Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August of 1945.
During that same year, the Wendover Airfield began studying and operating atomic bombs-the B-29 aircraft was selected to deliver the weapon. By 1942, the Wendover Army Airfield became the Air Force’s largest bombing and gunnery range, and became an important location for the research and development of guided missiles, pilotless aircraft, and remotely controlled bombs.īy 1943, the tiny community of West Wendover that had mostly been employed by the railroad, but swelled to nearly 20,000 military personnel and their families. The tiny, extremely remote town of Wendover fit all the criteria the United States military was after: low population, uninhabited surrounding landscapes, excellent year-round flying weather and close proximity to the larger metro area of Salt Lake City. The Wendover Airfield and training site you can visit and tour today first operated from 1940 to 1969. 6, 1945, the Enola Gay's tail gunner Bob. Shortly after the atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima on Aug. The Enola Gay before the bombing mission. See some of the most remarkable military history in Nevada at the Historic Wendover Air Field museum, where you can tour masterfully restored World War II-era buildings like the Enola Gay B-29 hangar, atomic bomb loading pits, and see uniforms, medals, propellers and more. Enola Gay Crew Recalled First Use of Atomic Bomb. Today, military history lovers will discover a nearly complete historic Wendover Air Force Base-turned-Historic Wendover Airfield Museum, detailing the active base training site that operated here from 1940 to 1969, including the fully restored B-29 maintenance hangar that housed this historic aircraft. Embedded Link Nuclear Quotes: The Crew of the Enola Gay - Mental Floss Nuclear Quotes: The Crew of the Enola Gay Twelve men were on board when the Enola Gay dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima. This remote desert landscape was a specialized training base for B-17 and B-24 bomber crews, including the 509th Composite Group and B-29 Enola Gay unit who carried the atomic bombs dropped over Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Who, 67 years ago today, dropped the first atomic bomb on Hiroshima. The desert oasis of West Wendover may be best known today for land speed records attempted on the nearby Bonneville Salt Flats, but this state straddling community first used this world-renowned, otherworldly landscape as a top secret military training site during World War II.