Breaking: Paul Tibbets pilot that dropped bomb on Hiroshima has died

[RB TexLa]

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) A spokesman says Paul Tibbets, pilot of the B-29 that dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima, has died.

[A HERETIC I AM]

1. MSNBC Story link...

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21578185/

[wtmusic]

2. dupe nt

[DS1]

3. Don't care.

[shain from kane]

4. I'm sure there are some out there that will say he is burning in Hell. n/t

[Ian David]

5. The Crew of the Enola Gay

THE crew of the Enola Gay, more than thirty years later, go their separate ways. Since 1945 they have continued to receive hate mail from those who protest the morality of dropping the atomic bomb on Hiroshima; the mail peaks every year on August 6. From time to time the police are called in to investigate death threats. For the most part, the fliers have learned to live with anonymous insults and recriminations.

Paul Tibbets retired from the air force in 1966 with the rank of brigadier general, convinced he was an "expendable victim" of a changing public attitude toward what he had been ordered to do over Hiroshima.

<snip>

For many years Claude Eatherly, the flamboyant Texan who flew the Straight Flush, did not adjust to civilian life—there were stays in Veterans Administration mental hospitals. He was treated by some of the press as the Hiroshima pilot who went mad because of his guilt over the bombing. The Texan became a figurehead for Ban the Bomb groups. Eatherly loved the publicity. A hero at last, he found himself repeating the views attributed to him before he ever pronounced them.

In 1974 a throat malignancy robbed Eatherly of his voice, but in 1976, at the age of fifty-seven, he seemed to have found serenity. He lives with his family on social security and a disability pension in a modest cottage near Houston, Texas, a graying man in a straw hat and cowboy boots.

<snip>

American leaders, fearing that the Hiroshima bomb might have hardened Japan's will to resist and also that it be regarded as an unrepeatable phenomenon, decided to use a second atomic bomb—the plutonium weapon—the only other one then ready. They hoped to convince Japan's leaders that America's nuclear capability was far greater than it was.

LeMay asked Tibbets, "Don't you think you should lead the second attack?" Tibbets replied, "No. I'm getting enough publicity. The other guys have worked long and hard and can do the job as well as I can."

Charles Sweeney was chosen to command the second strike. He told his crew he wanted "to do it just like Paul did." Among those on board would be Radar Officer Jacob Beser, the only man to accompany both atomic bombs to Japan. Cheshire and Penney, the British representatives, would ride in one of the two observer planes.

More:
http://www.ourcivilisation.com/smartboard/shop/tomwitts/after/chap1.htm


Also:


My God, what have we done?' - the commander of the 'Enola Gay'
By David McNeill in Hiroshima
Published: 05 August 2005

Sixty years ago tomorrow, the crew of the Enola Gay watched in awe as their payload detonated over the city of Hiroshima. "As the bomb exploded, we saw the entire city disappear," said Commander Robert Lewis. "I wrote in my log, 'My God, what have we done?'"

<snip>

In March this year, Paul Tibbets, the pilot of the Enola Gay, also said the bomb had saved lives. Asked whether he had any regrets, he said: "Hell no, no second thoughts. If you give me the same circumstances, hell yeah, I'd do it again."

More:
http://64.233.169.104/search?q=cache:1ljHgEXT2k0J:politicsinternational.web-log.nl/politicsinternational/war/index.html+%22the+crew+of+the+enola+gay%22+tibbets+guilty+regret&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=2&gl=us



Also:

'One hell of a big bang'


Today is Hiroshima Day, the anniversary of the first use of a bomb so powerful that it would come to threaten the existence of the human race. Only two such devices have ever been used, but now, a decade after the end of the cold war, the world faces new dangers of nuclear attack - from India, Pakistan, Iraq, al-Qaida, and even the US. Launching a special investigation into nuclear weapons, Paul Tibbets, the man who piloted the Enola Gay on its mission to Japan, tells Studs Terkel why he has no regrets - and why he wouldn't hesitate to use it again.

More:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/g2/story/0,3604,769634,00.html

[SemiCharmedQuark]

8. ""You've killed so many civilians." That's their tough luck for being there."

" PT: Oh, I wouldn't hesitate if I had the choice. I'd wipe 'em out. You're gonna kill innocent people at the same time, but we've never fought a damn war anywhere in the world where they didn't kill innocent people. If the newspapers would just cut out the shit: "You've killed so many civilians." That's their tough luck for being there."

...

"PT: Let's put it this way. I don't know any more about these terrorists than you do, I know nothing. When they bombed the Trade Centre I couldn't believe what was going on. We've fought many enemies at different times. But we knew who they were and where they were. These people, we don't know who they are or where they are. That's the point that bothers me. Because they're gonna strike again, I'll put money on it. And it's going to be damned dramatic. But they're gonna do it in their own sweet time. We've got to get into a position where we can kill the bastards. None of this business of taking them to court, the hell with that. I wouldn't waste five seconds on them. We've got to get into a position where we can kill the bastards. None of this business of taking them to court, the hell with that. I wouldn't waste five seconds on them.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/g2/story/0,3604,769634,00.html

[shain from kane]

15. From an interview with a survivor of Hiroshima, before the 2nd bomb ----

"Let's put it this way. I don't know any more about these American bombers than you do, I know nothing. When they bombed Hiroshima I couldn't believe what was going on. We've fought many enemies at different times. But we knew who they were and where they were. These people, we don't know who they are or where they are. That's the point that bothers me. Because they're gonna strike again from the sky, faceless and unknown, I'll put money on it. And it's going to be damned dramatic. But they're gonna do it in their own sweet time. We've got to get into a position where we can kill the bastards."

[mhollis]

6. Pilot Tibbets was doing his job

Col. Paul Tibbets was hardly a Lt. William Calley and Hiroshima was certainly not My Lai. I shall always honor Col. Tibbets for a job well done, for great flying and for regularly and routinely risking his life in his missions over Japanese-held territories in WW II. His mission was personally authorized by then-President of the United States Harry S. Truman. And Truman was one of the very few people who was briefed on the destructive power of the atomic bomb.

Before the five-ton "Little Boy" was winched into the bomb bay of Tibbets plane, the Enola Gay, he had never seen the bomb before. He had been briefed that the bomb was tremendously destructive and that his flight pattern needed to include a hard turn for an escape route from the shock of the blast, but his thoughts were on keeping his crew safe and getting back home, not on the citizens of Hiroshima.

The http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bombing_of_Dresden_in_World_War_II>firebombing of Dresden was no less an all-out destruction of an enemy-held city and I don't see the pilots of those raids hauled before the court of public opinion like Col. Tibbets has. Maj. Charles Sweeney has never been attacked for his role in dropping "Fat Man" from his plane, Bockscar. "Fat Man's" yield was measured at 21 kilotons while "Little Boy" was a 13 kiloton device. And Japan was asked, repeatedly, to surrender or face destruction. Even after Hiroshima, the Japanese government refused to capitulate to the Allies, prompting Truman to warn them again: "If they do not not accept our terms, they may expect a rain of ruin from the air the likes of which has never been seen on this earth." On August 8, 1945, leaflets were dropped and warnings were given to Japan by Radio Saipan.

We were at war with Japan at the time. It was a legally-declared war, resulting from a Congressional declaration in accordance with the tenants of the US Constitution. We have fought several "wars" that weren't ever declared by Congress and we're fighting one now in Iraq that is, quite frankly, illegal and using illegal means to fight it, including the use of mercenary troops and torture.

Should the Union and Confederacy have chosen to not used rifled firearms as a technological advancement over the smooth-bore musket they started the war with, even though they knew that their tactics would need to change in view of the destructive power of this weapon at longer ranges? Should we choose to ignore the good of President Lincoln's decision to continue to fight the South to reunify this country in light of what he knew about these new advancements? What about the Generals, the Colonels and the Lieutenants?

We pick, unfairly in my opinion, on Tibbets for his role in bombing Hiroshima, pursuant to his orders. He was an outstanding pilot and a great man, just as so many others are honorable and praiseworthy in our military.

Rest in Peace, Col. Tibbets. Good job!

[Xithras]

9. And, as you said, he didn't really know what he was dropping.

The crew knew that the bomb was bigger than normal, but at that point in history only a handful of human beings had ever SEEN an atomic detonation, and only a slightly larger group realized what the implications of using it actually were. Tibbets was just another pilot dropping a bomb on an enemy city, no different than any of the thousands of other pilots from the dozen-odd countries directly involved in the war. They told him that it was a bit bigger than most bombs, and trained him for a special escape maneuver, but that's about it.

[SemiCharmedQuark]

10. Fair enough, but that doesn't excuse his current crappy opinions

"their tough luck for being there" and all.

[Xithras]

11. No different than any Republican

I wouldn't want to have known the man, but I'm not going to gloat or cheer over his death. He was one asshole in a country half-full of assholes, in a world half-full of assholes. In that regard, his death really isn't any different than when Joe Republican down the road dies in a car wreck on the way to WalMart.

[SemiCharmedQuark]

12. I agree. n/t

[Kurt_and_Hunter]

7. A man no different than any other WWII pilot

Tibbets gets a bum rap because he came off as a morally indifferent redneck type, but he was doing the same job as every other WWII bomber. The flyers that destroyed Tokyo, Dresden and Hamburg killed just as many people (more sometimes) in the same cause, and probably felt the same about it as Tibbets... they just weren't on TV being interviewed about it.

I don't recall anyone saying Jimmy Stewart or George McGovern were monsters (as people have said about Tibbets over the years), though I don't know that McGovern or Stewart killed any less people.

Not dicating a moral attitude here... just that whatever moral attitude one takes, it should apply equally to all of the hundreds of thousands of men involved in strategic bombing.

[Jack from Charlotte]

13. He was a frat brother of mine...;.

a Sigma Nu at Florida. He was much older than I was and I never met him. Also, like me, he went to high school in Miami.

[begin_within]

14. Yahoo article

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071101/ap_on_re_us/obit_tibbets