Paul W. Tibbets, Pilot of the Enola Gay

A man who played a vital role in WWII passed away today:

COLUMBUS, Ohio — Paul Warfield Tibbets Jr., the pilot and commander of the B-29 that dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan, died Thursday, a spokesman said. He was 92.


Tibbets died at his Columbus home after a two month decline from a variety of health problems, said Gerry Newhouse, a longtime friend. Tibbets had requested no funeral and no headstone, fearing it would provide his detractors with a place to protest, Newhouse said.

He said Tibbets wanted to be cremated, his ashes scattered, but his family had not yet determined how he would be laid to rest.

Tibbets' historic mission in the plane Enola Gay, named for his mother, marked the beginning of the end of World War II. It was the first time man had used nuclear weaponry against his fellow man.

"It's an end of an era," said Newhouse, who served as Tibbets' manager for a decade. "A lot of those guys are gone now."

I took the picture above of the Enola Gay during a 2005 visit to the National Air and Space Museum near Washington D.C. It's now on permanent display there and is an impressive sight. Some historians have tried to make the atomic bombing into a war crime, but Tibbetts was just a dedicated officer doing his job to end the war in the quickest way possible. It's a shame that the fear of protests mean he can't be honored in death in the manner he deserves as a hero of the war in the Pacific.

Tibbetts didn't just fly the mission, but was in command of the 509th Composite Bomb Group and had responsibility for picking the personnel and conducting the lengthy training and testing that took place in the months before the actual mission. You can find out more about the man and the mission on the History Channel DVD shown at left.