Posted on 11/01/2007 8:43:44 AM PDT by snippy_about_it
My dad did the same thing, except he was a bit further back in the pipeline. His B-24 outfit in Pantanella, Italy flew its B-24s to Ramey Army Airfield in Puerto Rico. Those who had enough points were mustered out. The remainder of the squadron was set to be reconstituted as a B-29 outfit and sent to the Pacific. Thanks to Col. Tibbets and the 509th Composite Group, the 781st Bomb Squadron never got its B-29s.
We owe you a debt of gratitude Paul Tibbets, some of us may not have been born if not for you and the rest of your crew on the Enola Gay and we had gone with ground troops into Japan. Harry Truman made the right call.
Thank you! I love these long-term relationship stories. I wish I had some Japanese penpals. I should hit up some of my relatives.
I know a fellow officer whose company commander was of Japanese descent. Before they went on the tank range, the company commander had his company yell “Banzai”.
He was and is a hero, especially to us vets who were scheduled to invade Japan during the war. The idiot libs still attack him, so much so that he did not want a funeral, nor headstone knowing that they would be trashed by liberals.
He rose to Brigadier General.
When speaking of a specific incident or time in place, it is customary to refer to someone in the rank that they were at the time.
When he flew the Enola Gay he was a Colonel. You wouldn’t say Brig. General Tibbets dropped the bomb on Hiroshima, you would say Col. Tibbets dropped the bomb....
If you think of Band of Brothers Dick Winters is often referred to as Lieutenant Winters outside the film, when in fact he rose to the rank of Major. During the Battle of the Ardennes, he was a Lieutenant.
Hope that helps.
I liked the quote from Gen. Tibbets at the end of his NYTimes obit:
“I didn’t start the war, but I was going to finish it.”
That’s so cool! When I was in ROTC, I was hoping to lead a banzai charge, myself. Didn’t stay in the program, though.
To quote him:
“I’ve never had a sleepless night”.
God Bless his soul.
Well, working with it and doing stories about it are two different things. It only seems to come up when you are talking or writing historically.
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