Enola Gay pilot dies
Paul Tibbets, who piloted the B-29 bomber Enola Gay that dropped the
atomic bomb on Hiroshima, died yesterday.
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. The plane
and its crew of 14 dropped the five-ton “Little Boy” bomb on the morning
of Aug. 6, 1945. |