Tibbets later attended a private military preparatory school in Illinois and began taking flying lessons, despite his father’s wish for him to pursue a medical career. A stunt pilot let a 12-year-old Tibbets climb aboard his small plane and toss Baby Ruth candy bars to the crowd below, according to The New York Times. He was drawn to flying at an early age, never forgetting a summer day at the local racetrack. Tibbets was born to Paul and Enola Gay Tibbets on February 23, 1915, in Quincy, Illinois, and spent most of his childhood in Miami, Florida. But the man who would fly perhaps the world’s most important sortie almost wasn’t a pilot. “I had to go fly airplanes”Ībout a year earlier, in September 1944, Tibbets was chosen to lead the mission to deliver the world’s first atomic bomb used in combat. Sticking his head out just above the plane’s painted name- Enola Gay, after his mother-the 30-year-old husband and father gave a wave and a slight smile and began to taxi.Īt 2:45 a.m., the plane took off, and at 8:15 a.m., the crew of the Enola Gay released Little Boy, the world’s first nuclear weapon, over the city of Hiroshima, Japan. As the plane’s engines roared and its propellers spun, Tibbets looked out an open window at the crowd amassed on the runway. In the early-morning darkness of that historic day 75 years ago, Colonel Tibbets and his 11-man crew boarded the plane and began their preflight preparations. It was all leading to one day that would help end years of bloodshed and change the world forever. Even years before that, development of this revolutionary cargo began in secrecy under the direction of a physicist and an Army general in the mountains of Northern New Mexico. and his crew had practiced dropping dummy concrete bombs on targets in Wendover, Utah. And months before that, pilot Paul Tibbets Jr.
Preparations on the tiny Pacific island-about 1,500 miles southeast of the plane’s intended target in Japan-had begun months before on April 3. N° de réf.Hours before the sun would rise over Tinian island on the morning of August 6, 1945, a B-29 airplane was positioned above a specially built bomb-loading pit, as crews readied the aircraft with cargo unlike anything the world had ever known. Groves who had opposed it, since he felt arming the bomb in the very tight confine of the bomb bay of the plane, in mid air, was too high a risk. Had a crashed occurred it could have possibly blown up the Atomic bomb Little boy on Tinian and destroyed 400 B-29 planes and thousands of personnel. The crash was a real possibility given the short runway and the incredible weight of the plane with the Bomb. A decision had been made the day before the mission by Parson, not to take off from Tinian with Little Boy loaded with gunpowder that might fire the gun if Enola Gay crashed on take off. Morris Jeppson - Weapon Test Officer - Enola Gay Mission - Hiroshima 6 Aug. This was a late decision made by Parsons the day before to avoid the danger that crash and fire on take-off might accidentally set off the gun possibly destroying the Tinian airfield with 400 B29s. Parsons (Navy) while he loaded powder into the "Little Boy" gun. Historic inscription by Enola Gay Weapons Officer Morris Jeppson: "On the flight to Hiroshima, while at low altitude, my first job, immediately after take-off was to enter the bomb bay to help Capt. 11" x 8 1/2" black and white photo of the Atomic dome after the devastation of the atomic bomb on Hiroshima.
Morris Jeppson, Weapons Officer of the Enola Gay, the plane that dropped the first atomic bomb on Hiroshima, he was the last person to touch the bomb when he armed it on the plane.