Paul+Tibbets

=Paul Tibbets= Paul Tibbets was born on February 23, 1915 in Quincy Illinois. He was raised in Florida, where, when he was twelve, he experienced his first plane ride. It was at this age that he decided that he was going to become a pilot. So, he went to college to study medicine, but dropped out to enlist in the army air corps. After one year, he was able to become a second lieutenant. In the beginning of World War II, he flew anti-submarines before he was able to qualify in B-17 //flying fortress// bombers. In February of 1942, he went to England from which he flew on the first Nazi-territory bombing mission. In November of the same year, he lead a bombing mission on North Africa, as part of Operation Torch (invasion of North Africa). Then, in 1944, Hap Arnold, the only American airman to receive a five-star rank, specially chose Tibbets for the Manhattan Project. He was asked to train a group of the best pilots he knew to drop the first atomic bomb on the city of Hiroshima, Japan. After a few months of training with his hand-picked crew, he took off in the B-29 //Enola Gay,// which he had named after his mother, Enola Gay Tibbets. After he had successfully dropped the bombs, the first on Hiroshima and the second on Nagasaki Japan, he said, "I did what I was told to do. I have no regrets. I have never lost a night's sleep over it." After flying dropping the atomic bomb, Tibbets continued as a pilot. In 1959 he became a Brigadier General, retiring seven years later. He went on to be the president of the Executive Jet Aviation from 1976-1987, when he officially retired. In the last years of his life, he had a few minor heart attacks and strokes, and was on hospice. Then, on November 1, 2007, he died in Columbus, Ohio, where he had been living.