Enola Gay B-29 Pilot Was 92

It was one moment in time, that brought about an end to war... the annihilation of a city, and a large portion of its population... and both fame and infamy to Paul Warfield Tibbets, Jr. The dropping of the first atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan on August 6, 1945 changed the world forever -- and left Tibbets, who flew the B-29 Superfortress "Enola Gay" that dropped that bomb, with no regrets.

"I knew when I got the assignment it was going to be an emotional thing," Tibbets recounted to The Columbus Dispatch for a story 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."

Tibbets passed away Thursday in Columbus, at the age of 92, according to friend Gerry Newhouse. To the very end, Tibbets had to ward off protestors who criticized him for his role in the destruction of a city, and the loss of between 70,000 and 100,000 people.

Per his own request, Tibbets will have no funeral, and no headstone -- so as not to give those protestors a place to gather.

In a 1975 interview, Tibbets asserted he felt it was his patriotic duty to perform his fateful mission... firmly believing it brought about a swift end to World War II in the Pacific, and saved possibly tens of thousands of American lives that would have been lost in a ground invasion on Japan.

"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 at the time. "You've got to take stock and assess the situation at that time. We were at war. ... You use anything at your disposal.

"I sleep clearly every night," he added.

Tibbets stood firmly against those who decried his actions. He denounced a planned 50th anniversary exhibit of the Enola Gay at the Smithsonian Institution in 1995, that many veterans thought paid too much attention to the suffering of those in Hiroshima, and not nearly enough to Japan's brutality before and throughout the war... or the need to stave off a US ground assault.

Saying the bombing was an unmitigated blessing, Tibbets called the proposed exhibit's focus "a damn big insult." In the end, the museum opted to simply display the Enola Gay's fuselage, without commentary... and let viewers make their own peace with it.

Twenty years before, Tibbets attracted criticism -- and even prompted a formal apology from the US government -- for a staged re-enactment of the bombing at an air show in Harlingen, TX. As he flew a B-29 over the flight line, a bomb was set off on the runway... creating a mushroom cloud. Japanese citizens were outraged, despite Tibbets' assertions the display "was not intended to insult anybody."

Tibbets -- who withdrew from medical school in 1937 to enlist in the Army Air Corps -- will likely be cremated, Newhouse said, per his wishes. In a 2005 interview with the Dispatch, Tibbets said he wanted his ashes scattered over the English Channel.

Wherever he is ultimately laid to rest, Tibbets will leave behind a legacy forever known, analyzed, applauded, and criticized. ANN wishes this fallen aviator well, as he heads west into the setting sun.

FMI: www.enolagay.org