The crews

Where they sat

A B-29 kept its crew in three pressurised sections: the flight deck forward of the wing, the gunners’ compartment behind the wing, and the tail gunner’s station. A tunnel over the bomb bays joined the first two. The bomb bays were not pressurised. ^{Sources: 1, 11, 12}

On both strike aircraft the airmen of the 509th flew with men who had come to look after the bomb: a weaponeer from Project Alberta, the Los Alamos team on Tinian, and an assistant from the group’s 1st Ordnance Squadron. On the cards below, the airmen carry the plane’s colour and the bomb’s men the bomb’s. ^{Sources: 2, 13, 14}

Enola Gay, 6 August

Twelve men flew in Enola Gay: nine aircrew and three specialists, Parsons, Jeppson and Beser. Tibbets flew as pilot, and Robert Lewis, the crew’s usual commander, as his co-pilot. ^{Sources: 1, 2, 3}

• Pilot and aircraft commander

  Paul W. Tibbets Jr.

  Colonel 1915 to 2007

  Commander of the 509th Composite Group

  Seat

  Flight deck

  Later

  Retired from the Air Force as a brigadier general in 1966, then ran an air taxi business in Columbus, Ohio.

  ^{Sources: 2, 15, 16, 17}

• Co-pilot

  Robert A. Lewis

  Captain 1917 to 1983

  Aircraft commander of Crew B-9, which usually flew Enola Gay

  Later

  Went into the candy business in New Jersey and became a plant manager.

  ^{Sources: 2, 3, 18}

• Bombardier

  Thomas W. Ferebee

  Major 1918 to 2000

  Group bombardier, 509th

  Seat

  The nose, at the Norden bombsight

  Later

  Stayed in the Air Force and retired as a colonel in 1970.

  ^{Sources: 1, 2, 19, 20}

• Navigator

  Theodore J. “Dutch” Van Kirk

  Captain 1921 to 2014

  Group navigator, 509th

  Seat

  Flight deck, behind the pilot

  Later

  Worked for DuPont, and was the last of the Enola Gay crew when he died in 2014.

  ^{Sources: 2, 21, 22}

• Radar countermeasures

  Jacob Beser

  First Lieutenant

  Radar section, 393rd Bombardment Squadron

  Seat

  In the back of the aircraft

  Later

  The only man aboard both strike aircraft.

  ^{Sources: 2, 23, 24, 25}

• Weaponeer and mission commander

  William S. “Deak” Parsons

  Captain, US Navy 1901 to 1953

  Project Alberta, Los Alamos

  Seat

  Forward, climbing into the bomb bay to load the gun

  Later

  Became a rear admiral, and died of a heart attack at 52.

  ^{Sources: 1, 2, 26}

• Assistant weaponeer

  Morris R. Jeppson

  Second Lieutenant 1922 to 2010

  1st Ordnance Squadron

  Seat

  Forward, with Parsons in the bomb bay

  Later

  Studied physics at Berkeley and founded companies of his own.

  ^{Sources: 1, 2, 12, 13}

• Flight engineer

  Wyatt E. Duzenbury

  Technical Sergeant 1913 to 1992

  Crew B-9

  ^{Sources: 2, 27}

• Assistant flight engineer

  Robert H. Shumard

  Sergeant

  Crew B-9

  Later

  Became sales manager for a plumbing and heating wholesaler in Detroit.

  ^{Sources: 2, 28}

• Radar operator

  Joseph S. Stiborik

  Sergeant 1914 to 1984

  Crew B-9

  Later

  Worked for the Industrial Generating Company in Rockdale, Texas.

  ^{Sources: 2, 29}

• Radio operator

  Richard H. Nelson

  Private First Class 1925 to 2003

  Crew B-9

  ^{Sources: 1, 2, 30}

• Tail gunner

  George R. “Bob” Caron

  Technical Sergeant 1919 to 1995

  Crew B-9

  Seat

  The tail, the only one of the crew with a direct view of the shock wave

  Later

  Took pictures of the cloud from the tail, and in 1995 published Fire of a Thousand Suns.

  ^{Sources: 1, 2, 31, 32}

Bockscar, 9 August

Thirteen men flew in Bockscar. Sweeney’s own crew usually flew The Great Artiste, but it still carried the blast instruments from Hiroshima, so Sweeney and Captain Frederick Bock swapped aircraft rather than move them. Three specialists joined the crew: Ashworth, Barnes and Beser. ^{Sources: 2, 4, 5, 33}

Most of Sweeney’s crew had flown to Hiroshima three days before, in The Great Artiste, so they saw both bombs explode. Jacob Beser alone flew in both strike aircraft. ^{Sources: 2, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41}

• Aircraft commander

  Charles W. Sweeney

  Major 1919 to 2004

  Commander of the 393rd Bombardment Squadron and of Crew C-15

  Later

  Commanded the Massachusetts Air National Guard and retired as a major general.

  ^{Sources: 2, 42, 43}

• Co-pilot

  Charles D. “Don” Albury

  Captain 1920 to 2009

  Crew C-15

  Later

  Flew to Hiroshima too, in The Great Artiste. Later a captain with Eastern Airlines.

  ^{Sources: 34, 44, 45}

• Third pilot

  Fred J. Olivi

  Second Lieutenant 1922 to 2004

  Crew C-15

  Later

  Managed bridge operations for the city of Chicago until 1988.

  ^{Sources: 5, 46, 47}

• Navigator

  James F. Van Pelt Jr.

  Captain 1918 to 1994

  Crew C-15

  Later

  Flew to Hiroshima too, as navigator of The Great Artiste. Stayed in the Air Force and retired as a colonel.

  ^{Sources: 35, 48}

• Bombardier

  Kermit K. Beahan

  Captain 1918 to 1989

  Crew C-15

  Seat

  At the Norden bombsight

  Later

  Dropped the bomb on his 27th birthday, and later spoke for the abolition of atomic weapons.

  ^{Sources: 2, 4, 49, 50}

• Flight engineer

  John D. Kuharek

  Master Sergeant 1914 to 2001

  Crew C-15

  Later

  Flew to Hiroshima too, in The Great Artiste. Stayed in the Air Force, and is buried at Arlington.

  ^{Sources: 36, 51}

• Assistant flight engineer and scanner

  Raymond G. Gallagher

  Staff Sergeant

  Crew C-15

  Later

  Flew to Hiroshima too, in The Great Artiste.

  ^{Sources: 2, 37}

• Radar operator

  Edward K. Buckley

  Staff Sergeant

  Crew C-15

  Later

  Flew to Hiroshima too, in The Great Artiste.

  ^{Sources: 2, 38}

• Radio operator

  Abe M. Spitzer

  Corporal

  Crew C-15

  Later

  Saw both bombings, from The Great Artiste and then from Bockscar.

  ^{Sources: 2, 39}

• Tail gunner

  Albert T. “Pappy” DeHart

  Sergeant

  Crew C-15

  Later

  Flew to Hiroshima too, in The Great Artiste.

  ^{Sources: 2, 40}

• Radar countermeasures

  Jacob Beser

  First Lieutenant

  Radar section, 393rd Bombardment Squadron

  Later

  Flew on Enola Gay three days before.

  ^{Sources: 2, 23, 25}

• Weaponeer

  Frederick L. Ashworth

  Commander, US Navy 1912 to 2005

  Project Alberta, Los Alamos

  Seat

  Forward, by the hatch to the bomb bay

  Later

  Rose to vice admiral and commanded the Sixth Fleet.

  ^{Sources: 2, 4, 52, 53}

• Assistant weaponeer

  Philip M. Barnes

  Lieutenant 1917 to 1998

  1st Ordnance Squadron

  Later

  Worked for DuPont as an engineer and manager for 28 years.

  ^{Sources: 14, 54}

The other aircraft

The strike aircraft never flew alone. Weather aircraft went ahead, one to each possible target. An instrument aircraft and a camera aircraft flew alongside, and a spare waited on Iwo Jima. ^{Sources: 2, 55}

The commanders are as the Atomic Heritage Foundation’s checked crew list gives them. Marquardt, McKnight and Taylor flew on both missions. ^{Sources: 2, 4, 33, 55}

On 9 August the camera aircraft, Big Stink, missed the meeting point over the island of Yakushima: its pilot, James Hopkins, was circling 9,000 feet higher than planned. Sweeney circled for about 45 minutes before going on without it. ^{Sources: 4, 7, 41, 55}

Scientists, a reporter and two British observers

Over Hiroshima, The Great Artiste carried three Los Alamos physicists, Luis Alvarez, Harold Agnew and Lawrence Johnston, who dropped gauges to measure the blast. Bernard Waldman flew in Necessary Evil to film the explosion, but his film could not be developed properly because of the humidity on Tinian. ^{Sources: 2, 56, 57, 58}

On 9 August Johnston flew in The Great Artiste again. He is believed to have seen all three of the 1945 explosions from the air. With him was William Laurence of the New York Times, whose account of the mission won a Pulitzer Prize. Laurence wrote, wrongly, that The Great Artiste carried the bomb. ^{Sources: 55, 59, 60, 61, 62}

Two British observers flew in Big Stink: Group Captain Leonard Cheshire, a bomber pilot who had won the Victoria Cross, and the physicist William Penney, who had advised on the height at which the bombs should burst. Cheshire watched from about 50 miles away, and remembered the cloud’s “perfect and faultless symmetry”. ^{Sources: 2, 63, 64, 65}

After the war, Cheshire took a dying man into his home in 1948, the beginning of the charity that still carries his name. Penney led the building of Britain’s own bomb, first tested in October 1952. ^{Sources: 63, 65, 66}

The rest of the 509th

Behind the crews stood a group of 225 officers and 1,542 enlisted men, built to need nobody else. It had its own engineers to repair the B-29s in the field, its own military police, an ordnance squadron for the bombs, and five C-54 transports, the Green Hornet Line, to fly in people and parts. ^{Sources: 7, 67}

At Wendover, signs told the men: “What you see here, What you do here, What you hear here, Stays here.” Mail and phone calls were monitored, and even men of the 509th did not know the purpose of their training. ^{Sources: 6, 68}

Tibbets did not count a crew ready for combat until it had made 50 practice drops. On Tinian, single aircraft flew to Japan with pumpkin bombs, the same shape as Fat Man but filled with ordinary explosive. ^{Sources: 6, 7, 69}

Few of the men who kept the aircraft flying are named in the records. One who is named is Lieutenant Colonel John Porter, Enola Gay’s ground maintenance officer, who stands at the left of the photograph of its crew above. ^{Sources: 70}

Other units on Tinian mocked the secretive newcomers in a poem, “Nobody Knows”, which ended each verse by saying that the 509th was winning the war. ^{Sources: 7, 71}

After the war

The group sailed from Tinian on 17 October 1945 for Roswell, New Mexico, and in 1946 took part in the atomic tests at Bikini. It became part of Strategic Air Command. ^{Sources: 7, 10, 17, 72}

Many of the men stayed in the Air Force; others went back to civilian jobs, as the cards above show. Paul Tibbets asked for no funeral and no headstone, fearing protests at his grave. ^{Sources: 16}

The veterans met every year for decades. Their final reunion was at Wendover in September 2015, with Brigadier General Paul Tibbets IV, the pilot’s grandson, then commanding the 509th Bomb Wing. ^{Sources: 8, 9, 10}

The wing flies the B-2 stealth bomber from Whiteman Air Force Base in Missouri. Its first B-2 arrived on 17 December 1993, 49 years to the day after the 509th Composite Group was activated. ^{Sources: 10, 72}

The last of the Enola Gay crew, Theodore Van Kirk, died on 28 July 2014. ^{Sources: 21, 22}