Paul Tibbets died last night

[Big Phil]

http://my.earthlink.net/article/top?gui ... 1641087569

Pilot of Plane That Dropped A-Bomb Dies

By JULIE CARR SMYTH (Associated Press Writer)
From Associated Press
November 01, 2007 10:59 AM EST

COLUMBUS, Ohio - Paul Tibbets, who piloted the B-29 bomber Enola Gay that dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima, died Thursday. He was 92 and insisted almost to his dying day that he had no regrets about the mission and slept just fine at night.

Tibbets died at his Columbus home, said Gerry Newhouse, a longtime friend. He suffered from a variety of health problems and had been in decline for two months.

Tibbets had requested no funeral and no headstone, fearing it would provide his detractors with a place to protest, Newhouse said.

Tibbets' historic mission in the plane named for his mother marked the beginning of the end of World War II and eliminated the need for what military planners feared would have been an extraordinarily bloody invasion of Japan. It was the first use of a nuclear weapon in wartime.

The plane and its crew of 14 dropped the five-ton "Little Boy" bomb on the morning of Aug. 6, 1945. The blast killed 70,000 to 100,000 people and injured countless others.

Three days later, the United States dropped a second nuclear bomb on Nagasaki, Japan, killing an estimated 40,000 people. Tibbets did not fly in that mission. The Japanese surrendered a few days later, ending the war.

"I knew when I got the assignment it was going to be an emotional thing," Tibbets told The Columbus Dispatch for a story published 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, then a 30-year-old colonel, never expressed regret over his role. He said it was his patriotic duty and the right thing to do.

"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 in a 1975 interview.

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

He added: "I sleep clearly every night."

Paul Warfield Tibbets Jr. was born Feb. 23, 1915, in Quincy, Ill., and spent most of his boyhood in Miami.

He was a student at the University of Cincinnati's medical school when he decided to withdraw in 1937 to enlist in the Army Air Corps.

After the war, Tibbets said in 2005, he was dogged by rumors claiming he was in prison or had committed suicide.

"They said I was crazy, said I was a drunkard, in and out of institutions," he said. "At the time, I was running the National Crisis Center at the Pentagon."

Tibbets retired from the Air Force as a brigadier general in 1966. He later moved to Columbus, where he ran an air taxi service until he retired in 1985.

But his role in the bombing brought him fame - and infamy - throughout his life.

In 1976, he was criticized for re-enacting the bombing during an appearance at a Harlingen, Texas, air show. As he flew a B-29 Superfortress over the show, a bomb set off on the runway below created a mushroom cloud.

He said the display "was not intended to insult anybody," but the Japanese were outraged. The U.S. government later issued a formal apology.

Tibbets again defended the bombing in 1995, when an outcry erupted over a planned 50th anniversary exhibit of the Enola Gay at the Smithsonian Institution.

The museum had planned to mount an exhibit that would have examined the context of the bombing, including the discussion within the Truman administration of whether to use the bomb, the rejection of a demonstration bombing and the selection of the target.

Veterans groups objected, saying the proposed display paid too much attention to Japan's suffering and too little to Japan's brutality during and before World War II, and that it underestimated the number of Americans who would have perished in an invasion.

They said the bombing of Japan was an unmitigated blessing for the United States and the exhibit should say so.

Tibbets denounced it as "a damn big insult."

The museum changed its plan and agreed to display the fuselage of the Enola Gay without commentary, context or analysis.

He told the Dispatch in 2005 that he wanted his ashes scattered over the English Channel, where he loved to fly during the war.

Newhouse, Tibbets' longtime friend, confirmed that Tibbets wanted to be cremated, but he said relatives had not yet determined how he would be laid to rest.

Thank you Paul, for saving millions upon millions of lives.

[MKSheppard]

[Stuart]

Thank you Paul, for saving millions upon millions of lives.

Amen.

A story about General Tibbets. He was coming back to CONUS from a foreign assignment (this was pre-509th) when he had a "dispute" with a customs official who was confiscating foreign money from the returning air crews. Tibbets spent $1,600 of his own money (in 1943 that was a LOT of money) buying all the foreign currency held by his people and took it through the customs himself. When the official tried to confiscate it, there was what Curtis LeMay described as "a violent physical altercation" which required several MPs to subdue. There was, of course, a major investigation which revealed that the Customs officer was running a major extortion and fraud racket that sent him to prison for decades. According to Curtis LeMay he "could see no cause for complaint concerning Colonel Tibbets behavior"

[Big Orange]

He seemed like a ordinary person caught up in very nasty circumstances. I take the "I sleep clearly every night" comment with a pinch of salt, but the A-bomb was not dropped for no reason, conventional bombing was more costly on innocent life, and he was not in denial of what he did (unlike many arsebag Axis apologist).

[Zed Snardbody]

It's a shame that this man wont have at the very least a head stone out of fear that idiots would desecrate it.

[Patrick Degan]

He was a man who did what he had to do.

[Sidewinder]

(Salutes.)

[Balrog]

Thank you Paul, for saving millions upon millions of lives.

Indeed

[Raptor 597]

Salutes to fallen comrades. Aieeyah, sir Aieeyah.

[Schuyler Colfax]

...............................

[The Grim Squeaker]

Rest in Peace.
A hard act, but one that saved countless lives...on Both sides.

[Vaporous]

A hero.

[Repoman]

RIP Sir!

[JME2]

....

[weemadando]

Most depressing is that he'd chosen to have a very minor funeral and unmarked grave to prevent it being vandalised/a focus of protest.

He was a man who knew what he was doing and obviously didn't follow orders blindly. Its obvious that he thought about it and felt that what he was doing was the correct thing and the best things for all nations and people.

RIP.

[Julhelm]

RIP.

[Vehrec]

I found his choice to be cremated appropriate, in a kind of macabre way. One final line connecting him to many who died on that day 62 years ago. Col. Tibbets will be remembered well for both his actions and his character.

R.I.P.

[Rogue 9]

[chitoryu12]

And thus goes a simple man who helped push the world away from disaster.

If I believed in heaven, I would say he earned his place in it.

[CaptHawkeye]

I can't say I feel anything about his death. Frankly, he was quite the militarist.

Studs Terkel: One last thing, when you hear people say, "Let's nuke 'em," "Let's nuke these people," what do you think?

Paul Tibbets: Oh, I wouldn't hesitate if I had the choice. I'd wipe 'em out. You're gonna kill innocent people at the same time, but we've never fought adamn war anywhere in the world where they didn't kill innocent people. If the newspapers would just cut out the shit: "You've killed so many civilians." That's their tough luck for being there.

Look, I understand the bombs were an act of necessary evil, and that he was following orders, but Tibbets? Can't say I have much respect for him with a quote like that. Woohoo, let's just nuke random cities for giving us the wrong look. Shep Solution FTW!

[MKSheppard]

Woohoo, let's just nuke random cities for giving us the wrong look. Shep Solution FTW!

It comes down to the question; which is more moral or ethical?

-Killing 200,000 people over several years of brutal warfare.

-Killing 200,000 people in about 24 hours from one bomb.

[Patrick Degan]

Woohoo, let's just nuke random cities for giving us the wrong look. Shep Solution FTW!

It comes down to the question; which is more moral or ethical?

-Killing 200,000 people over several years of brutal warfare.

-Killing 200,000 people in about 24 hours from one bomb.

To clarify, that question and whatever moral dimension can be drawn comes down to: either killing 2,000,000 people over several years of brutal warfare or killing 200,000 in about 24 hours from one bomb if it will end the war and stop the killing. Which is what it came down to in August of 1945.

[DavidEC]

Odd typographical error on Sheppard's part.

[loomer]

I may not be fond of the man, but may he rest in peace nonetheless. He's earned it.

[K. A. Pital]

It comes down to the question; which is more moral or ethical?

-Killing 200,000 people over several years of brutal warfare.

-Killing 200,000 people in about 24 hours from one bomb.

The former, of course. People killed in "brutal warfare" will have a large consistency of soldiers among them, at least, more than in the second example.

The "kill 200,000 people from a bomb" victims will most likely be civilians.

So under equal victim tally, the one where less civilians die is preferrable.

In case more enemy civilians die in intense warfare as opposed to more soldiers, in that case, it's viable to use a bomb.

The difference between Allies and Axis was in the fact that a civilian did not die every single minute the Allies were occupying Axis territory, but the opposite happened quite allright. The Axis mass targeted civilians and for that it got bitchslapped very well. The Allies, even taking into account total bombing and atomic bombings, never came to the same level of deliberate brutality, neither did the Allies have a goal of killing as many Axis civilians as possible.

That is the difference.