"Hiroshima; Enola Gay's Crew Recalls The Flight Into a New Era", Paul Tibbets interviewed in 1982 by Ann Blythe, Paul Tibbet interviewed by Kermit Weeks at Weeks Air Museum, Florida, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Paul_Tibbets&oldid=1136780636, People associated with the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, United States Army Air Forces bomber pilots of World War II, Recipients of the Distinguished Service Cross (United States), Recipients of the Distinguished Flying Cross (United States), Short description is different from Wikidata, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, This page was last edited on 1 February 2023, at 02:47. Now in Montgomery with his wife, son Gene Tibbets recalls the turmoil that followed the explosion. Paul Warfield Tibbets Jr. (23 February 1915 1 November 2007) was a brigadier general in the United States Air Force. Studs Terkel: I know. Courtesy of the Joseph Papalia Collection. Although unaware of the full potential of this new weapon, he knows that it is capable of doing tremendously more damage than any other weapon used before, and that the death toll resulting from it will be enormous. Lucy F Wingate was born circa 1907, at birth place, . Norstad backed down, and the mission was successfully flown at 20,000 feet (6,100m). He was already an experienced B-29 pilot, which made him an ideal candidate for the top-secret project. For information about the bombing, click here. GitHub export from English Wikipedia. They were to conduct the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. After receiving basic flight training at Randolph Field in San Antonio, Texas in 1937, Tibbets quickly rose through the ranks to become commanding officer of the 340thBombardment Squadronof the97th Bombardment Group. We knew it was going to kill people right and left. That was the thing that I was going to do the best of my ability. Immediate Family: Son of Dr. Charles Joshua Tibbets and Susan H Warfield. This doctor explained to him about his former classmates who failed the program and ended up in drug sales. [22], In the leadup to Operation Torch, the Allied invasion of North Africa, the commander of the Eighth Air Force, Major General Carl Spaatz was ordered to provide his best two pilots for a secret mission. [28], When General Henry H. "Hap" Arnold, the Chief of United States Army Air Forces, requested an experienced bombardment pilot to help with the development of the Boeing B-29 Superfortress bomber, Doolittle recommended Tibbets. In . He was told that Norstad had vetoed the promotion, saying "there's only going to be one colonel in operations. Paul Warfield Tibbets, Jr. (February 23, 1915 - November 1, 2007) was a brigadier general in the United States Air Force, best known for being the pilot of the Enola Gay, the first aircraft to drop an atomic bomb in the history of warfare. [13] It was initially based at MacDill, and then Sarasota Army Airfield, Florida, before moving to Godfrey Army Airfield in Bangor, Maine. Gen. Paul W. Tibbets, Jr., seen here, says Friday's visit to Hiroshima by U.S. The two married on May 4, 1956, and had a son named James. National Museum of Nuclear Science & History. [82] Above and Beyond (1952) depicted the World War II events that involved Tibbets; Robert Taylor starred as Tibbets and Eleanor Parker played the role of his first wife Lucy. The reason why they had failed the program was because "they had too much sympathy for their patients", which "destroyed their ability to render the medical necessities". Brigadier General Paul Warfield Tibbets Jr. 1915-2007. When the operation was still in its development stages, Armstrong and Colonel Roscoe C. Wilson were the leading candidates to command the group who was designated to drop the atomic bomb. 1943 Flew Major General Mark W. Clark from Polebook to Gibraltar. Tibbets married his wife, Andrea, in about 1953 or 1954. After Tibbets flew 43 combat missions, in January 1943, he was made the bomber operations assistant of Colonel Lauris Norstad and the assistant chief-of-staff of operations (A-3) of the Twelfth Air Force., In February 1943, he returned to the U.S. after his name was recommended following a request made by the chief of the United States Army Air Forces, General Henry H. "Hap" Arnold, to provide an experienced bombardment pilot who could help in developing the Boeing B-29 Superfortress bomber. In his later years, he would draw the ire and criticism of nuclear activists something he would make no apologies for. You said 89. Tibbets was chosen to fly Major General Mark W. Clark and Lieutenant General Dwight D. Eisenhower to Gibraltar. His citation read: The President of the United States of America, authorized by Act of Congress, July 2, 1926, takes pleasure in presenting the Distinguished Flying Cross to Captain Paul W. Tibbets IV, United States Air Force, for extraordinary achievement while participating in aerial flight as a B-2 Mission Commander, at or near Yugoslavia, on 8 April 1999. [7][8], While Tibbets was stationed at Fort Benning, he was promoted to first lieutenant[9] and served as a personal pilot for Brigadier General George S. Patton, Jr., in 1940 and 1941. . [91] Tibbets figured largely in the 2000 book Duty: A Father, His Son and the Man Who Won the War by Bob Greene of the Chicago Tribune. He is best known as the pilot who flew the B-29 Superfortress known as the Enola Gay (named after his mother) when it dropped Little Boy, the first of two atomic bombs used in warfare, on the Japanese city of Hiroshima.. Tibbets enlisted in the United States Army in 1937 and . From September 1944 until May 1945, Tibbets and the 509th Composite Group trained extensively at Wendover Air Force Base in Wendover, Utah. Gen. Paul W. Tibbets IV, then-commander of the 509th Bomb Wing at Whiteman Air Force Base, Missouri, also created a negative work environment, accepted inappropriate gifts and used a . Bonsai worked at the 100-F Area at Hanford during the Manhattan Project. Paul Tibbets with other members of the 509th. Tibbets enlisted in the army in 1937 and qualified . He said that he saw the real effects of bombing civilians and the trauma of losing his brothers in arms. Paul Harrison Tibbitt IV is a former SpongeBob SquarePants crew member. During that time, Tibbets took private flying lessons at Miamis Opa-locka Airport with Rusty Heard, who later became a captain at Eastern Airlines. [64], Tibbets then attended the Air Command and Staff School at Maxwell Air Force Base, Alabama. On August 5 the same year, he formally named his Boeing B-29 Superfortress bomber Enola Gay, in his mothers honor. [51][52] Enola Gay, serial number 4486292, had been personally selected by him, on recommendation of a civilian production supervisor, while it was still on the assembly line at the Glenn L. Martin Company plant in Bellevue, Nebraska. Paul Tibbets was a retired Air Force brigadier general who flew the Enola Gay (named after his mother) when it dropped Little Boy, on the Japanese city of Hiroshima. Also learn how He earned most of Paul Tibbets networth? Brig. But then he thought back to a lesson he had learned during his time at medical school from his roommate who was a doctor. He died in West Monroe, Louisiana, in 2016. In 1959, Col. Tibbets was promoted to Brigadier General. Born on 1 November 2007, the United States Air Force pilot Paul Tibbets was arguably the worlds most influential social media star. Gen. Paul W. Tibbets IV will retire on Dec. 1, after not being allowed to pin on his second star and receiving a letter of admonishment, an Air Force spokeswoman said in response to a. Tibbets quickly earned a reputation as one of the best pilots in the Army Air Force. [12], In February 1942, Tibbets reported for duty with the 29th Bombardment Group as its engineering officer. He was married to Andrea P. Quattrehomme and Lucy Frances Wingate. He then became Deputy Director of Operations of the Air Force Global Strike Command at Barksdale Air Force Base, Louisiana. [13] When the head of the directorate, Brigadier General Thomas S. Power, was posted to London as air attach, he was replaced by Brigadier General Carl Brandt. He served for a year as a consultant before his second and final retirement from EJA in 1987. [59] He was inducted into the National Aviation Hall of Fame in 1996.[71]. [1] It was at Fort Benning that Tibbets met Lucy Frances Wingate, then a clerk at a department store in Columbus, Georgia. In July 1942, the 97th became the first heavy bombardment group to be deployed as part of the Eighth Air Force, and Tibbets became deputy group commander. Major American newspapers published interviews and pictures of his wife and children. His primary and basic flight training was undertaken at Randolph Field in San Antonio, Texas. [43], With the addition of the 1st Ordnance Squadron to its roster in March 1945, the 509th Composite Group had an authorized strength of 225 officers and 1,542 enlisted men, almost all of whom deployed to Tinian, an island in the northern Marianas within striking distance of Japan, in May and June 1945. My father said 'You seem to be very interested in serving what do you want to do with your life?' Copyright 2022 by the Atomic Heritage Foundation. According to the orders received in December 1941, Tibbets joined the 29th Bombardment Group at MacDill Field, Florida, and took training on the Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress.. The group consisted of around 1,800 men who were supposed to be equipped with 15 B-29s and were to be given high priority for any kind of military stores. Nov. 1, 2007, 8:12 AM PDT / Source: The Associated Press. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Paul_W._Tibbets.JPG, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Paul_Tibbets_2003.jpg. His father worked there as a confections wholesaler. In January 1943, Tibbets, who had now flown 43 combat missions,[26] was assigned as the assistant for bomber operations to Colonel Lauris Norstad, Assistant Chief of Staff of Operations (A-3) of the Twelfth Air Force. Also find out how he got rich at the age of 92. Gene Tibbets, son of Brig. He married Sarah Frost about 1726, in Dover Neck, Strafford, New Hampshire, British Colonial America. Towards the end of World War II, the United States detonated two nuclear weapons over two Japanese cities . At one point, Tibbets found that Lucy had co-opted a scientist to unplug a drain. Trusted by millions of genealogists since 2003. . [29] Tibbets returned to the United States in February 1943. [2], From October 2007 to August 2009, Tibbets was stationed at NATO headquarters in Brussels. The film Above and Beyond (1952) depicted the World War II events involving Paul Tibbets, with Robert Taylor starring as Tibbets and Eleanor Parker as his first wife, Lucy. Underwood worked at the 200 West Area at Hanford during the Manhattan Project. [88] An interview with Tibbets also appeared in the movie Atomic Cafe (1982),[89] as well as was in the 1970s British documentary series The World at War,[90] and the "Men Who Brought the Dawn" episode of the Smithsonian Networks' War Stories (1995). From August to November 1995, Tibbets was trained as T-38 pilot instructor at Randolph Air Force Base, Texas, and then served as a T-38 instructor with the 394th Combat Training Squadron at Whiteman Air Force Base, Missouri. During the war, Tibbets held the commands of the 340th Bombardment Squadron and the 509th Composite Group. He took part in Operation Torch, the Combined Bomber Offensive, air raids on Japan, and the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. In July 2017, he became Deputy Commander, Air Force Global Strike Command, Barksdale Air Force Base, Louisiana. He was a colonel in the United States Army Reserve and worked as a hospital pharmacist. In July 1962, he was assigned to the Joint Chiefs of Staff as deputy director for operations, and then, in June 1963, as deputy director for the National Military Command System. He was a writer for many of the show's earliest and most influential episodes, including " Chocolate with Nuts ," " Frankendoodle ," " Idiot Box ," " Krab Borg ," and " Rock Bottom ." He also played other roles on the show, such as composing the song "Electric Zoo" and . [13] and was promoted to brigadier general in 1959. Tibbets protested that flak would be most effective at that altitude. Tibbets was made the deputy of Colonel Frank A. Armstrong Jr. after the latter replaced group commander Lieutenant Colonel Cornelius W. Cousland. The Life Summary of Paul. [11] Tibbets remained on temporary duty with the 3d Bombardment Group, forming an anti-submarine patrol at Pope Army Airfield, North Carolina, with 21 B-18 Bolo medium bombers. The son of a prosperous businessman, Paul Warfield Tibbets was born at Quincy, Illinois, on February 23 1915. . On this date Colonel Tibbets flew a B-29 type aircraft in a daring daylight strike against the city of Hiroshima on the main island of Honshu, Japan, from a base in the Marianas Islands carrying for the first time a type of bomb totally new to modern warfare. He said that he had not intended for the re-enactment to insult the Japanese people. [3] During that time, Tibbets took private flying lessons at Miami's Opa-locka Airport with Rusty Heard, who later became a captain at Eastern Airlines. By Eric Malnic. [8][76] Tibbets had asked for no funeral or headstone, because he feared that opponents of the bombing might use it as a place of protest or destruction. Armstrong was an experienced combat veteran against German targets, but he was in his forties and had been severely injured in a fire in the summer of 1943. [56] He became a celebrity, with pictures and interviews of his wife and children in the major American newspapers. He retired from the company in 1968, and returned to Miami, Florida, where he had spent part of his childhood. For his grandson, see, United States Air Force general (19152007), Atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, 17th Bombardment Operational Training Wing (Very Heavy), European-African-Middle Eastern Campaign Medal, Enola Gay: The Men, the Mission, the Atomic Bomb, "Paul Tibbets Jr., who flew plane that dropped first atomic bomb, dies at 92", "General Paul Tibbets Reflections on Hiroshima", "Literary Fallout: The legacies of Hiroshima and Nagasaki", "Miamian who bombed Hiroshima in 1945 dies", "Paul W. Tibbets Jr., Pilot of Enola Gay, Dies at 92", "Paul Tibbets Jr., 92; piloted Enola Gay over Hiroshima", "Paul Tibbets: A Rendezvous with History by Di Freeze", "Face of Defense: Grandson Carries on Grandfather's Service", "Grandson of Enola Gay Pilot Takes Command of B-2 Bomb Wing", "Man Who Dropped Atomic Bomb on Hiroshima Dies at 92", "Tibbets did his duty, and this country should be thankful", "Duty: A Father, His Son, and the Man Who Won the War", General Paul Tibbets: Reflections on Hiroshima, A dramatic retelling of the Hiroshima mission with Paul Tibbets. When he was five years old, the family moved to Davenport, Iowa, and then to Iowa's capital, Des Moines, where he was raised, and where his father became a confections wholesaler. We had feelings, but we had to put them in the background. In 1934, he became an initiated member of the Sigma Nu fraternitys Epsilon Zeta chapter. Wiki Bio of Paul Tibbets net worth is . They arrived at Wendover, Utah, for training and practice bombing on June 14. At the time, the B-29 program was beset by a host of technical problems, and the chief test pilot, Edmund T. Allen, had been killed in a crash of the prototype aircraft. Gene Tibbets, son of Brigadier General Paul Tibbets, in an exclusive interview with WSFA 12 News. He was the pilot of the B-29 Superfortress "Enola Gay", which dropped the atomic bomb "Little Boy" on Hiroshima on 6 August 1945. [81], Barry Nelson played Tibbets in the film The Beginning or the End (1947). Delegated as a second lieutenant, Tibbets earned his pilot rating at Kelly Field in San Antonio in 1938. Furthermore, two representatives from Washington, D.C. were present on the island:[44] the deputy director of the Manhattan Project, Brigadier General Thomas Farrell, and Rear Admiral William R. Purnell of the Military Policy Committee. Early life [ edit] Brigadier General Paul Tibbets IV in 2017, United States College of Naval Command and Staff, Air Force Organizational Excellence Award, Global War on Terrorism Expeditionary Medal, Nuclear Deterrence Operations Service Medal, Air Force Overseas Short Tour Service Ribbon, Air Force Overseas Long Tour Service Ribbon, "Face of Defense: Grandson Carries on Grandfather's Service", "Col. Paul Tibbets IV qualifies on B-52, continuing family's Air Force legacy", "Grandson of Enola Gay Pilot Takes Command of B-2 Bomb Wing", "Air Force general to retire after probe finds misconduct", "One-star general and Enola Gay pilot's grandson forced to retire after misconduct claims", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Paul_W._Tibbets_IV&oldid=1135442470, College of Naval Command and Staff alumni, Recipients of the Defense Superior Service Medal, Recipients of the Distinguished Flying Cross (United States), Military personnel from Montgomery, Alabama, Short description is different from Wikidata, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, This page was last edited on 24 January 2023, at 18:16. Paul Tibbets: Hey, you've got to correct that. Tibbets died in his Columbus, Ohio, home on November 1, 2007, at the age of 92. Tibbets passed away on November 1, 2007. He then attended the University of Florida in Gainesville, and became an initiated member of the Epsilon Zeta chapter of Sigma Nu fraternity in 1934. On that date, Captain Tibbets made aviation history by leading the world's first B-2 combat sortie without package support during Operation Allied Force. [10] While there he was promoted to captain. Tibbets initially wanted to become an abdominal surgeon. He displayed exceptional courage, skill, and endurance while flying a 30-hour combat mission, penetrating an advanced integrated air defense system that included an impressive array of ground threats, with no suppression/destruction of enemy air defense or offensive counter-air support available. "[2], Tibbets entered the United States Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, Colorado, from which he graduated in 1989 with a Bachelor of Science degree, majoring in Human Factors Engineering. Today, in his nineties, Paul Tibbets is still a handsome man. Following this, he was inducted into the Directorate of Requirements at the Air Force Headquarters at the Pentagon. He was made the director of the Strategic Air Division of the Directorate of Requirements.. Paul Tibbets personally selected one of them to be his operational aircraft on May 9, 1945. Paul Warfield Tibbets IV (born 21 November 1966) is a former United States Air Force brigadier general. After leading the first American daylight heavy bomber misson in Occupied France in August 1942,Tibbets was selected to fly Major General Mark W. Clark from Polebook to Gibraltar in preparation for Operation Torch, the allied invasion of North Africa. Contribute to chinapedia/wikipedia.en development by creating an account on GitHub. Paul Tibbets and the Enola Gay. He is the grandson of Paul W. Tibbets Jr., the pilot of the aircraft that dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima in 1945. This article is about the WWII United States Air Force pilot. Tibbets remains a polarizing figure to this day. He was elevated to the position of first lieutenant while he was stationed at the U.S. army post of Fort Benning.. Place of Burial: Ocala, Marion County, Florida, United States. Lewis would fly the mission as Tibbets's co-pilot. [6] In July 2017, he became Deputy Commander, Air Force Global Strike Command, Barksdale Air Force Base, Louisiana. I told him I was interested in serving, and he told me to look into something like the ROTC or service academies. As such, he was responsible for America's strategic nuclear forces. Col. Paul W. Tibbets IV, the Air Force Inspection Agency commander, is the grandson of retired Brig. Paul Tibbets wiki ionformation include family relationships: spouse or partner (wife or husband); siblings; childen/kids; parents life. He was 92. The two quietly married in a Roman Catholic seminary in Holy Trinity, Alabama, on 19 June 1938 even though Tibbets was a Protestant. General Spaatz Presents Distinguished Service Cross to Col. Paul Tibbets as General Davies Looks On, Col. Paul Tibbets stands in front of the Enola Gay, Tinian Joint Chiefs (Purnell, Farrell, Tibbets, Parsons). Paul Warfield Tibbets Jr. has a net worth of $5.00 million (Estimated) which he earned from his occupation as United States Air Force pilot. He was one of the founding board members and attempted to extend the company's operations to Europe, but was unsuccessful. Now we've had a nice lunch, you and I and your companion. A few years later, Tibbets' wartime experiences were the subject of "Above and Beyond," a film released in 1952. Their two sons, Paul III and Gene Wingate Tibbets, were born in 1940 and 1944, respectively. He was commissioned as a second lieutenant, and was sent to Williams Air Force Base, Arizona, for undergraduate pilot training. [48] Project Alberta's "Destination Team" also sent most of its members to Tinian to supervise the assembly, loading, and dropping of the bombs under the administrative title of 1st Technical Services Detachment, Miscellaneous War Department Group. [1][2], In the late 1920s, business issues forced Tibbets's family to return to Alton, Illinois, where he graduated from Western Military Academy in 1933. Robert Taylor, who had earned a flying license before the war and went into naval aviation as an instructor, played Paul Tibbets; Eleanor Parker played his wife, Lucy. [8][60][72], Tibbets' grandson Paul W. Tibbets IV graduated from the United States Air Force Academy in 1989, and in April 2006 became commander of the 393rd Bomb Squadron, flying the B-2 Spirit at Whiteman AFB, Missouri. Paul Tibbets was a brigadier general in the United States Air Force. [92], In 1976, the United States government apologized to Japan after Tibbets re-enacted the bombingcomplete with a mushroom cloudin a restored B-29 at an air show in Texas. An interview of Paul Tibbets can be seen in the 1982 movie Atomic Cafe. [13] Crews were reluctant to embrace the troublesome B-29, and to overcome crew anxiety, Tibbets taught and certified two Women Airforce Service Pilots, Dora Dougherty and Dorothea (Didi) Moorman, to fly the B-29 as demonstration pilots,[33] and the crews' attitude changed. [4], Tibbets received a Master of Science degree in Human Factors Engineering from the University of Idaho in 2000, and was a non-resident student at the Air Command and Staff College at Maxwell Air Force Base in Alabama in 2001. He returned to the United States in February 1956 to command the 308th Bombardment Wing at Hunter Air Force Base, Georgia, and married her in the base chapel on 4 May 1956. In 1995, he denounced the 50th anniversary exhibition of the Enola Gay at the Smithsonian Institution, which attempted to present the bombing in context with the destruction it caused, as a "damn big insult",[59] due to its focus on the Japanese casualties rather than the brutality of the Japanese government. [5] They had two sons. President Harry S. Truman invited him to visit the White House. Later, in 1999, the 509th Composite Group received the Air Force Outstanding Unit Award., Following the war, Tibbets served as a technical advisor in the 1946 Operation Crossroads nuclear weapon tests held at Bikini Atoll. On June 19, 1938, Tibbets quietly married a department store clerk named Lucy Frances Wingate in a Roman Catholic seminary in Holy Trinity, Alabama, without the knowledge of his family and commanding officer. Tibbets retired from the United States Air Force in 1966. Colonel (later General) Paul Tibbets was the pilot of the Enola Gay, the B-29 that dropped the "Little Boy" atomic bomb over Hiroshima on August 6, 1945. I'm only 87. Paul Tibbets: Hey, you've got to correct that. He does look like an old man, but not a 90-year-old man. During 19401941, he worked as the personal pilot of Brigadier General George S. Patton, Jr. On June 26, 1940, young pilot Lt. Paul W. Tibbets, Jr., was summoned to aid Col. Samuel R. Hopkins, whose wife and son were in a terrible automobile accident near Elmira. . During his training, he showed himself to be an above-average pilot. Instead, he decided to enlist in the United States Army and become a pilot in the United States Army Air Corps. [3] "There was no favoritism when I was chosen for bombers," Tibbets recalled, "The Air Force can't afford to put someone in a job for which they're not qualified. Paul Tibbets was created on Feb 23, 1915 in Quincy, Illinois, USA while Paul Warfield Tibbets Jr. He is best known as the aircraft captain who flew the B-29 Superfortress known as the Enola Gay (named after his mother) when it dropped a Little Boy, the first of two atomic bombs used in warfare, on the Japanese city of Hiroshima. In 1927, when he was 12 years old, he flew in a plane piloted by barnstormer Doug Davis, dropping candy bars with tiny parachutes to the crowd of people attending the races at the Hialeah Park Race Track. Sources . Jones Construction Company. But my one driving interest was to do the best job I could so that we could end the killing as quickly as possible. [4] On 25 February 1937, he enlisted in the army at Fort Thomas, Kentucky, and was sent to Randolph Field in San Antonio, Texas, for primary and basic flight instruction. [63] Tibbets was a technical advisor to the 1946 Operation Crossroads nuclear tests at Bikini Atoll in the Pacific, but he and his Enola Gay crew were not chosen to drop another atomic bomb. He attended the United States College of Naval Command and Staff at Newport, Rhode Island, from April 2002 to June 2003, from which he obtained a Master of Arts degree in National Security and Strategic Studies. He also became the deputy director of the National Military Command System in June 1963. When he was eight, his family moved to Hialeah, Florida, to escape from harsh midwestern winters. [40] During a meeting with these "sanitary engineers", Tibbets was told by Robert Oppenheimer that his aircraft might not survive the shock waves from an atomic bomb explosion. After the war, he participated in the Operation Crossroads nuclear weapon tests at Bikini Atoll in mid-1946, and was involved in the development of the Boeing B-47 Stratojet in the early 1950s. So, how much is Paul Tibbets worth at the age of 92 years old? He grew up in Montgomery, Alabama,[1] and was inspired to join the United States Air Force (USAF) not by his famous grandfather but by his father, Paul W. Tibbets III, a pharmacist and hospital administrator who served in the United States Army Reserve, retiring as a colonel. On 6 May the support elements sailed on the SS Cape Victory for the Marianas, while the group's materiel was shipped on the SS Emile Berliner. The bomb, code-named Little Boy, was dropped on the Japanese city of Hiroshima. He was commissioned as a second lieutenant and received his pilot rating in 1938 at Kelly Field in San Antonio. The result of this attack was tremendous damage to the city of Hiroshima, contributing materially to the effectiveness of our strikes against the enemy. On June 26, 1940, young pilot Lt. Paul W. Tibbets, Jr., was summoned to aid Col. Samuel R. Hopkins, whose wife and son were in a terrible automobile accident near Elmira. The atomic bomb Little Boy was dropped over the city of Hiroshima, resulting in an almost complete destruction of the city. You can find out how much net worth Paul has this year and how he spent his expenses. He was survived by his wife Andrea and the three sons from his first marriage. He was never forgotten, however, and never would be. Scroll Down and find everything about him. After the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, he flew anti-submarine patrols over the Atlantic. [13], Tibbets returned to Maxwell Air Force Base, where he attended the Air War College. He chose Tibbets and Major Wayne Connors. He had named the aircraft after his mother. He transferred to the University of Cincinnati after his second year to complete his pre-med studies there, because the University of Florida had no medical school at the time. They were the parents of at least 6 . With the end of the war in 1945, Tibbets organization was transferred to what is now Walker Air Force Base, Roswell, N.M., and remained there until August 1946. He is remembered for flying the first aircraft that dropped an atomic bomb, the 'B-29 Superfortress' known as "Enola Gay." Sundlun lured Tibbets back to EJA that year. He was the pilot of the B-29 Superfortress "Enola Gay", which dropped the atomic bomb "Little Boy" on Hiroshima on 6 August 1945. [34], On 1 September 1944, Tibbets reported to Colorado Springs Army Airfield, the headquarters of the Second Air Force, where he met with its commander, Major General Uzal Ent, and three representatives of the Manhattan Project, Lieutenant Colonel John Lansdale Jr., Captain William S. Parsons, and Norman F. Ramsey Jr., who briefed him on the project. Of course, Paul was the pilot of the Enola Gay B-29 Superfortress on it's secret mission during. A rigorous candidate selection process was used to recruit personnel, reportedly with an 80% rejection rate. Paul Warfield Tibbets Jr. was born in Quincy, Illinois, on 23 February 1915, the son of Paul Warfield Tibbets Sr. and his wife, Enola Gay Tibbets. Its purpose was to provide "skilled machinists, welders and munitions workers"[42] and special equipment to the group to enable it to assemble atomic weapons at its operating base, thereby allowing the weapons to be transported more safely in their component parts.