General Tibbets in Memorial

Dear Friends,

It is with sadness that we announce the passing of our friend, Brigadier General Paul W. Tibbets.

General Tibbets passed away at his home on November 1, 2007. I considered our time together the highlight of my life and career. I am proud to have been able to call General Tibbets my friend. I will miss him tremendously.

Sincerely,
Edward W. Humphreys III

Below is a copy of the press release we formulated on the 60th anniversary of his historic mission.

ENOLA GAY CREW - - “NO REGRETS”

Columbus, Ohio (August 6, 2005)—On this occasion, the surviving members of the Enola Gay crew would like the opportunity to issue a joint statement.

This year, 2005, marks the sixtieth year since the end of World War II. The summer of 1945 was indeed an anxious one as allied and American forces gathered for the inevitable invasion of the Japanese homeland. President Truman made one last demand, one final appeal. Together with Great Britain’s Churchill, and Russia’s Stalin, the President of the United States urged the Japanese to “ ... proclaim the unconditional surrender of all Japanese armed forces ... The alternative,” they said, “for Japan is prompt and utter destruction.” Ignoring the obvious military situation, the Japanese Prime Minister Baron Kantaro Suzuki issued the Japanese refusal to surrender which included these words: “ ... there is no other recourse but to ignore it [the surrender demand] entirely and resolutely fight for the successful conclusion of the war.”

While it is certainly unfortunate this course of action was necessary, for the allies, at that moment in time, there was no other choice. Secretary of War Henry Stinson wrote, “The decision to use the atomic bomb... was our least abhorrent choice.”

President Harry S. Truman approved the order to use the atomic bomb. It was his decision and his hope to avoid an invasion of the Japanese homeland. An invasion that would have cost tens of thousands of Japanese and allied lives.

Winston Churchill concurred with the decision saying, “To avert a vast, indefinite butchery [the invasion], to bring the war to an end, give peace to the world, to lay healing hands upon its tortured peoples ... at the cost of a few explosions, seemed after all our toils and perils, a miracle of deliverance.”

On August 6, 1945, the B-29 Superfortress Enola Gay dropped the world’s first atomic bomb on the island of Hiroshima to help expedite the end of World War II. The second atomic weapon was delivered over Nagasaki by the B-29 Superfortress Bocks Car three days later. The availability of those weapons in the American arsenal left President Truman no choice but to use them. To spare the world a horrific invasion and to save America and allied lives was literally the only course of prudent action.

The surviving members of the Enola Gay crew: Paul W. Tibbets (pilot), Theodore J. “Dutch” Van Kirk (navigator) and Morris R. Jeppson (weapon test officer) have repeatedly and humbly proclaimed that, “We were doing our duty.” The flight of the Enola Gay and the use of the atomic weapon was a necessary moment in history. “We have no regrets.” They have steadfastly taken that stance for the past six decades.

“In the past sixty years we have given generously of our time and shared our experiences with school groups, the general public, veterans groups and the National Air and Space Museum. Countless veterans have thanked us for our flight, a flight that surely spared their lives in what would have been a bloody invasion,” comments Brigadier General Paul W. Tibbets. It is a sentiment upon which the surviving crewmen are unanimous.

In this year, 2005, we will observe the anniversary of the epic flight of the Enola Gay close to our homes and our friends. To our fellow veterans and the American nation we all echo one sentiment, “There are no regrets. We were proud to have served. We were doing our duty like so many men and women stationed around the world. To them, to you, we salute you and goodbye.”