Hiroshima Bomb Pilot Dead at 92

Pilot defended his role to the last, said he had 'no regrets'
By Nick McMaster,  Newser Staff
Posted Nov 1, 2007 3:19 PM CDT
Hiroshima Bomb Pilot Dead at 92
Col. Paul W. Tibbets stands beside the B-29 Superfortress bomber the Enola Gay in 1945 in an unknown location. He piloted the flight which dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima on Aug. 6, 1945, during World War II. The plane was named after Tibbets' mother. Tibbets died Thursday, Nov.1, 2007, at his...   (Associated Press)

The commander and pilot of the B-29 that dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan, in 1945—the first military use of nuclear weapons—died today, the Associated Press reports. Paul Tibbets was 92, and requested no funeral or headstone for fear that they might attract anti-nuclear protesters. Tibbets always said he had no regrets about the mission.

"We knew it was going to kill people right and left," Tibbets said of the Aug. 6, 1945, mission. "My one driving interest was to do the best job I could so that we could end the killing as quickly as possible. You've got to assess the situation at that time. We were at war. … You use anything at your disposal." (More World War II stories.)

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