Warbird Information Exchange

I want to start by saying that Paul Tibbets was one of my heroes. I read quite a bit about the mission and the 509th when I was a kid. And he stood out as quite a leader. May he rest in Peace, and I hope all citizens in all countries recognize his place in history.

I have heard the atomic bomb's employment called "letting the genie out of the bottle." If that is so, Paul Tibbets was the man who made it happen. I have no doubt that the dropping of the bomb radically changed the course of the war. How many lives it saved and what the outcome of the invasions would have been has been conjectured over and over, and there is plenty of scholarship out there to support the "million lives saved" theory as well as the notion that this estimate is overblown. I ascribe to the theory that 1 million lives were saved, but that is not the point of what I want to say.

The bomb didn't just change the course of a war- it influenced the cultures, politics, economics, and wars of the succeeding century, which is just beginning. Since Tibbets name is so closely connected to that history-changing event it is sure to arouse plenty of discourse on that impact, whether professional or amateur. My point is that the debate, argument, and emotions are way bigger than the life of a single man. You could impugn the honor of his service and the life saving results of the bomb by the many deaths caused. But in so doing, you are really missing the larger picture- we let the genie out of the bottle and the world has been different since. No single man did that, and no single man in the world can be held accountable for the misery in Hiroshima or the lives saved by the hastened end of the war, or the circumstances which caused those things to occur.

I don't want it to be thought that I think any less of him as a soldier or leader. He was a great one in any sense of the word. But just as the old Coast Artillery became quaintly obsolete in the era of the Airplane and Amphibious landings, so has the scope of his life and service become a small microcosm in the landscape of the debate on the human race with atomic bombs, capable of wiping EVERYTHING from the face of the earth. He was the first military leader to deliver one in combat, so his legacy is going to be discussed at length, probably way beyond when any of us will live.

All that aside, he served his country honorably and I hope he is doing some flying where ever he is.

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REMEMBER THE SERGEANT PILOTS!

I want to start by saying that Paul Tibbets was one of my heroes. I read quite a bit about the mission and the 509th when I was a kid. And he stood out as quite a leader. May he rest in Peace, and I hope all citizens in all countries recognize his place in history.

I have heard the atomic bomb's employment called "letting the genie out of the bottle." If that is so, Paul Tibbets was the man who made it happen. I have no doubt that the dropping of the bomb radically changed the course of the war. How many lives it saved and what the outcome of the invasions would have been has been conjectured over and over, and there is plenty of scholarship out there to support the "million lives saved" theory as well as the notion that this estimate is overblown. I ascribe to the theory that 1 million lives were saved, but that is not the point of what I want to say.

The bomb didn't just change the course of a war- it influenced the cultures, politics, economics, and wars of the succeeding century, which is just beginning. Since Tibbets name is so closely connected to that history-changing event it is sure to arouse plenty of discourse on that impact, whether professional or amateur. My point is that the debate, argument, and emotions are way bigger than the life of a single man. You could impugn the honor of his service and the life saving results of the bomb by the many deaths caused. But in so doing, you are really missing the larger picture- we let the genie out of the bottle and the world has been different since. No single man did that, and no single man in the world can be held accountable for the misery in Hiroshima or the lives saved by the hastened end of the war, or the circumstances which caused those things to occur.

I don't want it to be thought that I think any less of him as a soldier or leader. He was a great one in any sense of the word. But just as the old Coast Artillery became quaintly obsolete in the era of the Airplane and Amphibious landings, so has the scope of his life and service become a small microcosm in the landscape of the debate on the human race with atomic bombs, capable of wiping EVERYTHING from the face of the earth. He was the first military leader to deliver one in combat, so his legacy is going to be discussed at length, probably way beyond when any of us will live.

All that aside, he served his country honorably and I hope he is doing some flying where ever he is.

_________________
REMEMBER THE SERGEANT PILOTS!

Valkyrie,

The title of the book you are referring to is "Duty", and I truly enjoyed reading it. The book gives good insight into a man who did his job to the fullest of his ability and had no regrets for having done so.

Godspeed, General Tibbetts.

Scott

Here's a story by Columbus Dispatch columnist Mike Harden, who worked with General Tibbets on several occasions, and helped the General write one of the books he is associated with (it's been several years since I spoke with Harden about it, so I can't remember which one).

Enjoy.

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"Anyway, the throat feels a bit rough...the legs have gone...but I'm still able to chant, so let's get going."

Joe Strummer, 1999

Hello,

Paul Tibbets and his men saved a lot of American & JAPANESE lives.

Read on - Towards the end of the war the Japanese Navy was conserving all their aircraft to do mass suicide attacks on allied ships & men. They even were exploring other ways to do suicide attacks (frogmen, etc.)

My friend IJN vet Takeshi Maeda said "The atomic bombs saved my life. I would have died (like my comrades) in a kamikaze mission. We would have never surrendered if the a-bombs were not dropped."

Not to mention the civilians - a potential invasion of the mainland of Japan would have been a blood bath on both sides.

Just look at the lives lost in the defense of the islands of Iwo Jima and Okinawa, etc.

The a-bombs were nasty but they saved more lives (on both sides) in the long run.

That's my frank thoughts and my wife/half my family is Japanese.

Ron Werneth