RIP Mr. Tibbets.
I wonder if his duty ever haunted him?
STATEMENT OFFERED BY BRIGADIER GENERAL PAUL W. TIBBETS (USAF, RETIRED) AT THE AIRMEN MEMORIAL MUSEUM ON JUNE 8, 1994 UPON THE ACCEPTANCE OF THE AIR FORCE SERGEANTS ASSOCIATION’S FREEDOM AWARD
(This is an exerpt. Full statement at Foxhole link in post 19.)
I am an airman, a pilot. In 1945, I was wearing the uniform of the US Army [Air Forces] following the orders of our commander-in-chief. I was, to the best of my ability, doing what I could to bring the war to a victorious conclusion-just as millions of people were doing here at home and around the world. Each of us — friend and foe alike — were doing the dictates of our respective governments. I recruited, trained and led the members of the 509th Composite Bomb Group. We had a mission. Quite simply, bring about the end of World War II. I feel I was fortunate to have been chosen to command that organization and to lead them into combat. To my knowledge, no other officer has since been accorded the scope of the responsibilities placed on my shoulders at that time.
As for the missions flown against Japan on the 6th and 9th of August, 1945, I would remind you, we were at war. Our job was to win. Once the targets were named and presidential approval received, we were to deliver the weapons as expeditiously as possible consistent with good tactics. The objective was to stop the fighting, thereby saving further loss of life on both sides. The urgency of the situation demanded that we use the weapons first - before the technology could be used against us.
During the course of the half century that has elapsed since the use of the atomic weapons, many scribes have chronicled the flight of the Enola Gay with nothing but descriptions of the destructive nature of our atomic weapons. Few such narratives have been objective. Indeed, I suggest to you that few, if any of the articles, books, films or reports have ever attempted to discuss the missions of August 6th and August 9th, 1945 in the context of the times. . Simply stated the Enola Gay and the 509th Composite Bomb Group have been denied a historically correct representation to the public. Most writers have looked to the ashes of Hiroshima and Nagasaki; to find answers for the use of those atomic weapons. The real answers lay in thousands of graves from Pearl Harbor around the world to Normandy and back again. The actual use of the weapons as ordered by the President of the United States was believed to be the quickest and least costly (in terms of lives lost) way to stop the killing. I carried out those orders with the loyal support of the men of the 509th Composite Bomb Group and the United States military at large. Our job was to serve. Our sworn duty was to God, country and victory.
Not even for a moment. You should read his books. He never once wavered.
No. He made that clear at every interview right up to the end.
Not in the least ... he felt, and rightfully so, that the bomb dropped on Hiroshima brought the war to a swift conclusion ... saving perhaps millions of lives ... both American and Japanese.
High Flight
Oh! I have slipped the surly bonds of earth
And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings;
Sunward I’ve climbed, and joined the tumbling mirth
Of sun-split clouds - and done a hundred things
You have not dreamed of - wheeled and soared and swung
High in the sunlit silence. Hov’ring there
I’ve chased the shouting wind along, and flung
My eager craft through footless halls of air.
Up, up the long delirious, burning blue,
I’ve topped the windswept heights with easy grace
Where never lark, or even eagle flew -
And, while with silent lifting mind I’ve trod
The high untresspassed sanctity of space,
Put out my hand and touched the face of God.
Pilot Officer Gillespie Magee
No 412 squadron, RCAF
Killed 11 December 1941
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.”