But the Enola Gay and the men of the 509th had, some would argue, actually ended the war all by themselves.įifteen years later, largely inspired by these veterans' visit that day, the National Air and Space Museum would be preparing an exhibition on the mission of the Enola Gay. OthersĬould also claim to have contributed. In 1945, the Enola Gay and the men who were now visiting her had ended the war.
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When they had last seen her, she was a proud, brilliantly shiny, beautifully sleek B-29 Superfortress-the most powerful bomber the Army Air Forces flew in World War II. Garber Restoration, Preservation, and Storage Facility. With great expectations, they drove to Silver Hill, in Suitland, Maryland, just outside Washington's city limits, where the National AirĪnd Space Museum has its Paul E. They would be able to visit their beloved Enola Gay. On this occasion they also had an additional attraction.
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At five-year intervals in the previous thirty-five years they had met in other cities to reminisce and exchange news. Instead of 12 men on the Enola Gay, people would think there were only nine.Late in the summer of 1980 a small band of men approaching retirement age convened in Washington. Jeppson was worried that without some addition, the importance of his role, along with that of Navy Capt. Jeppson was concerned because he learned his name, along with two others, would be absent from a list of crew members long-ago stenciled on the side of the infamous B-29 bomber by the military. The new Udvar-Hazy Center at the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum was about to open with the Enola Gay on display. It was 2003 when Jeppson felt compelled to come forward. Today he lives in Las Vegas with his wife, Molly, retired after a career spent at the helm of a handful of high-tech companies and working as consultant for the Department of Energy. Jeppson turned to graduate studies at University of California, Berkeley, after leaving the military.
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Now 90, Tibbets lives in a modest brick home in a well-kept neighborhood in Columbus and travels occasionally for air shows and veterans’ ceremonies. Most of the lives saved were Japanese,” the 84-year-old said from his suburban Atlanta retirement home near the base of Stone Mountain, where a large relief memorial carved out of the bare rock depicts Confederate heroes Jefferson Davis, Robert E. “I honestly believe the use of the atomic bomb saved lives in the long run. The 9,000-pound bomb fell down toward the city as the Enola Gay banked away, the crew hoping to escape with their lives.ĭespite decades of controversy over whether the United States should have used the atomic bomb - which left some 140,000 dead in Hiroshima and 80,000 in Nagasaki three days later - Van Kirk remains convinced it was necessary because it shortened the war and relieved the Allies of having to mount a land invasion that might have cost far more lives on both sides. Under cover of night, he guided the bomber nearly exactly as planned - the plane was just 15 seconds behind schedule. It was a perfect mission, Van Kirk recalls. Van Kirk, then 24, was the navigator on the Enola Gay, the B-29 Superfortress that dropped “Little Boy” - the world’s first atomic bomb - over the Japanese city of Hiroshima on Aug.