Evening News staff writer
July 29, 2001
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Evening News staff writer July 29, 2001
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-- Evening News photo by Nancy Chorzempa Gen. Paul Tibbets autographs a photo for a visitor at the air show. Gen. Tibbets also will sign autographs today from 9 to 11 a.m.
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By CHARLES SLAT Gen. Paul W. Tibbets, the man who dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan, to help end World War II, is fighting another war these days - a war against disinformation and political correctness. He says the American educators and historical revisionists - he calls them "distortionists" - have been attempting to portray the United States' attack against Japan in World War II as solely an effort to "grab their land and destroy their culture." Schools "are doing their damndest not to teach the kids history. Show me any history book and it might have a page, a page and a half or two pages on World War II, and they don't even mention Pearl Harbor," he said. Gen. Tibbets, in Monroe this weekend to take part in the air show at Custer Airport and ride in the Monroe County Fair parade today, makes no apologies for dropping the first atomic bomb used in war. Indeed, he still takes quiet pride in his role. But the pride was wounded by the controversy surrounding the planned National Air & Space Museum's exhibit in the mid-1990s of the Enola Gay, the plane that dropped the bomb. As initially planned, the exhibit would have been a tacit apology for the bombing, he said. "One thing that frosted me is that near the exit they had a picture of Claude Eatherly," a pilot who flew a weather reconnaissance mission ahead of the Enola Gay, Gen. Tibbets recalls. Maj. Eatherly was a drinker, a gambler and, after the war, had psychological problems and a police record, he said. "After the war, he held up places in Texas with squirt guns," Gen. Tibbets said. The planned exhibit was to recount his role in the war under a caption that asked "Were the rest crazy too?" "It was an insult not only to those who had flown planes in the area, but to all those men who were taking the islands close to Japan," he said. Public outcry and congressional pressure eventually led to a wholesale change in the exhibit and, in 1995, the plane was displayed in a more proper context. Soon, it will be the centerpiece exhibit of the new Dulles addition of the Air & Space Museum in Washington, DC. "We won that battle, but we haven't won the war yet," Gen. Tibbets said. He continues to be irked by second-guessers nearly 60 years after the event. One way to combat this rewriting of history, he said, it to "take control of the educational system. People have got to get interested in this and the children need to be educated differently than they are now. "This history of this country is phenomenal. They've got to keep that in mind," he said. "All these people who fought in wars before have made this place better for them to live in - even safe for them to protest in. "I'm as guilty as anybody," he added. "When I got back from the war, I was through with it. I have two boys, but I didn't sit down and talk with them at any one time about it." He said he knows of many veterans who also avoided the subject. That's one of the reasons he published in 1998 "Return of the Enola Gay," a recounting of the mission, his role in it and its proper historical context. Gen. Tibbets was selling the book and autographing it during the air show Saturday at Monroe Custer Airport. Nearly 87, but looking at least 20 years younger, Gen. Tibbets is as unassuming as the guy next door. In fact, his modest ranch home in Columbus is devoid of any war memorabilia and he's led a decidedly low-profile life since the days when he was hand-picked to put together a force that would deliver the most destructive weapon in the history of war. He makes about two personal appearances monthly, mainly attending air shows around the country. Besides his book, he sells photos, posters and other historic mementos. He also spoke to a sold-out dinner Saturday attended by 200 who paid $25 each. During his visit to Monroe, he's dined with veterans groups and toured the area's various war memorials. He got his taste for flying at an early age. At 12, when his parents lived in Florida, he was recruited to through Baby Ruth candy bars from a biplane over the Hialeah horsetrack near Miami. In 1937 he enlisted as a flying cadet in the Army Air Corps at Fort Thomas, Kentucky. A year later he got his pilot wings at Kelly Field, Texas, and was commissioned a 2nd lieutenant. In 1942, he became commander 340th Bomb Squadron and flew 25 missions in B-17s, including the first American Flying Fortress raid against occupied Europe. In March, 1943, he was returned to the states to test Boeing's new B-29, which he taught himself to fly and eventually chocked up 400 hours of flight-test time. That experience made him the top choice for the secret mission born of the Manhattan Project. His group moved to Tinian Island in the Marianas chain and on the afternoon of Aug. 5, 1945, President Truman gave his approval to use the weapons against Japan. At 02:45 a.m. Aug. 6, the Enola Gay took off with its 11-member crew and pipe-smoking Tibbets at the controls. Only he and one other crewmember knew their mission. After the plane was airborne, the rest of the crew was briefed. At exactly 09:15 plus 15 seconds, the world's first atomic bomb exploded. Gen. Tibbets said he never visited Hiroshima, though he toured Nagasaki, where a second A-bomb was detonated Aug. 9, after Japan signed the peace treaty in late 1945. The Japanese they encountered were "very nice," he said. "They were very polite. They didn't stare at us. They nodded their heads and went about their business." Gen. Tibbets perhaps put his mission in historical context best in his book: "Fact is, in 1945, I was simply an airman, a pilot ? doing what I could to bring the war to an expeditious and victorious conclusion. There is nothing heinous or monstrous about that. "My country did what it believed to be the quickest and least costly (in terms of lives lost) way to stop the killing. There is no need for apology." |
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©Monroe Evening News 2001 |
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Reader Opinions |
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Name: Walter Keck
First,let start out by saying I was honored to have met Gen.Tibbets. Gen.Tibbets is a great man as is anyone who served thier country and answered the call to arms. I feel he has the right approach to this issue by telling all in his book to set the record straight before it is distorted and twisted into something wrong or evil. The bomb was needed as a means to end the war quickly and with a reduction of human life. The educators need to get the record straight before teaching this and spend more time researching the issue and present it in it's true light then teach our youth the truth about this event and how important it was to the war. The call was a good one and ended the war before untold thousands of servicemen and woman from both sides had to die for the cause. It speeded up the treaty and ended the war by perhaps years. I'm proud to be an american and was honored to have met this great man and shake his hand and say "thank You". I salute you Sir.
Number of Opinions: 1 1 - 1 of 1
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