PAUL TIBBETS, ENOLA GAY COMMANDER DEAD AT 92

Brigadier General Paul Tibbets, the commander of the Enola Gay B29 that dropped the first Atomic Bomb on Hiroshima, Japan passed away in his Columbus, Ohio home this morning at the age of 92.

Best know for his Command of the famous bomber that carried the first Atomic bomb, Tibbets was a dedicated officer whose detail and organization as a commanding officer in the Army Air Corps , promoted him to command of the ultra secret 509th Composite Group that was given the duty of training and delivering the bomb.

Tibbets was an experience bomber commander having flown B 17 Flying Fortresses in the European theatre during WWII as commander of the 340th Bomb Squadron and the 97th Heavy Bomb Group.

In September of 1944 Tibbets was transferred to Wendover Army Air Field in Utah where he took command of the 509th working with the Manhattan Projects, Project Alberta which trained the 509th to prepare for the eventual dropping of , "Little Boy, " the Hiroshima bomb and, "Fat Man, " which was dropped on Nagasaki.

Tibbits devotion to duty and detail prepared the 509th for the unknown since no one, even the scientists who developed the bomb were completely sure of how the device would respond during flight and the impact it would have both on the ground and in the air from the shock waves created by the explosion.

After the war Tibbets accomplishments included, technical advisor for nuclear weapons testing at the Bikini Atoll, overseeing the purchase of B - 47 six engine bombers for the Air Force and setting up the National Military Command Center at the Pentagon. Tibbets retired from the Air Force in 1966 and for four years flew Lear Jets until he joined Executive Jet Aviation in Columbus, Ohio, in 1970, becoming chairman in 1982.

Brigadier General Paul Tibbets February 23, 1915 - November 1, 2007


Ken Taylor