63 Years Ago Today, ...Enola Gay

[twyacht]

I wanted to acknowledge what happened 63 years ago, The United States, pulled out the "Big One", and saved many American lives by not having to invade mainland Japan. We would have done it mainly alone as Europe was pretty much a battered, torn up area of land tired from war. Sure there would have been some British, and of course some wild eyed Aussie's, but mainly it would have taken ONLY the United States to end the Imperial Order Of Japan.

They started it Dec. 7, 1941. And The U.S. ended it today, 63 years ago.
This is a very detailed chronology, for those that are history buff's,  , the ("purpose unknown") flight missions, with matching dates, now show how this country "did the right thing, as a United States".

Not so United these days, but the history is OUR history. God Bless the Enola Gay and her crew.

http://www.theenolagay.com/plane.html

[PegLeg45]

Also of historical note and connected to this story, even if a few days late (30 July):

Remember the U.S.S. Indianapolis was also connected to the same line of events and was the worst Naval disaster in history and happened only a few days earlier after delivering the first atomic bomb.


The world's first operational atomic bomb was delivered by the Indianapolis, (CA-35) to the island of Tinian on 26 July 1945. The Indianapolis then reported to CINCPAC (Commander-In-Chief, Pacific) Headquarters at Guam for further orders. She was directed to join the battleship USS Idaho (BB-42) at Leyte Gulf in the Philippines to prepare for the invasion of Japan. The Indianapolis, unescorted, departed Guam on a course of 262 degrees making about 17 knots.

At 14 minutes past midnight, on 30 July 1945, midway between Guam and Leyte Gulf, she was hit by two torpedoes out of six fired by the I-58, a Japanese submarine. The first blew away the bow, the second struck near midship on the starboard side adjacent to a fuel tank and a powder magazine. The resulting explosion split the ship to the keel, knocking out all electric power. Within minutes she went down rapidly by the bow, rolling to starboard.

Of the 1,196 aboard, about 900 made it into the water in the twelve minutes before she sank. Few life rafts were released. Most survivors wore the standard kapok life jacket. Shark attacks began with sunrise of the first day and continued until the men (317)were physically removed from the water, almost five days later.

For more info: http://www.ussindianapolis.org/story.htm

God Bless all our Veterans.

[JohnJacobH]

Not so United these days, but the history is OUR history. God Bless the Enola Gay and her crew.

http://www.theenolagay.com/plane.html

I highly recommend Paul Tibbits memoir. He covers many diverse topics still relevant today from how to keep your .50 Caliber from jamming at altitude to how to deal with the percursor to today's TSA.

http://johnjacobh.wordpress.com/2008/07/20/paul-tibbets-demonstrates-how-to-deal-with-corrupt-government/

[m25operator]

Remember lest we forget, both of these events. Pegleg I would disagree about the worst naval disaster in history, but I definitely will not belittle it, it was as tragic as it was awful...  Read " Ordeal by sea " I have a copy autographed by an ensign survivor from Iowa Park Texas,  Plenty of drama of the highest type and all true.  I believe the worst Naval disaster was Pearl Harbor, now we were not at war, but the ships were afloat and attacked, My favorite uncle " now deceased " was there at 14 years old in the navy, ( mom signed that he was 16 ) and lost an eye, he went back on duty very quickly and fulfilled his enlistment. He talked very little about it until he was in his seventies and I was in my forties.

Now every country has learned how to bend the rules, You can't really go to war with a country, it is divided into uniformed troops that you deal with quickly and the non uniformed combatants, who now get US protection. If any of our guys go non uniformed combatant, or uniformed combatant, the enemy will still cut off his or her head and the " world court, won't do a thing " of course they don't have any power anyway, and we don't want them to.

What we did at Hiroshima and Nagasaki, I think kept the world at peace for a long time, Vietnam not withstanding, the rest of the world still remembered,, the USSR, tried to keep up with us, for the same reason, " don't start nothin, there won't be nothin " We won that one, but who knows what the next leader is going to do. Disarmament is a bad deal, I hate to think it, but sometimes hope we do have a " Star chamber type of setup, that will never allow that to happen".

Happy 63rd, may we never have to do it again, but if we do, go to work.

A little trivia given to me by my advanced emission control teacher, the Enola Gay had a catalytic converter, not for emissions, but for the air intake into the aircraft that people will breathe, all the air coming in went through it, as it will neutralize radiation.

[PegLeg45]

Both Pearl Harbor and the Indianapolis were tragic and I was not trying to say Pearl was not horrific. I was merely alluding to the fact that the Indy was such a disaster because the total number of lives lost was avoidable. Nearly 600 men died in the water fron injury and shark attack because the Navy didn't know where they were. That was the tragedy.

http://www.ussindianapolis.org/

"...the Navy knew there were submarines in the area but never told McVay and sent the ship to sea unescorted ... Worse, the Navy failed to notice that the cruiser had never arrived at port, while hundreds died at sea."

At 12:14 a.m. on July 30, 1945, the USS Indianapolis was torpedoed by a Japanese submarine in the Philippine Sea and sank in 12 minutes. Of 1,196 men on board, approximately 300 went down with the ship. The remainder, about 900 men, were left floating in shark-infested waters with no lifeboats and most with no food or water. The ship was never missed, and by the time the survivors were spotted by accident four days later only 316 men were still alive.



I went to school with a guy whose dad just missed the Pearl attack. He was on his way to duty station from California when it all happened and arrived in time to help clean up the carnage. He said some of what he saw haunted him for years.

They were all heroes.

[Sponsor]

[Big Frank]

Enola is an odd name. It's alone spelled backward. Everybody remembers the Enola Gay dropped the bomb on Hiroshima, but rarely mention Bach's Car dropping the other bomb on Nagasaki. I saw Bach's Car in the museum in Dayton, OH about 6 or 7 years ago. If you go anyplace in Ohio, the Air Force Museum should be one of your stops. Admission is free. It's truly awesome to see planes like this, a Wright Flyer, and my favorite, the SR-71 Blackbird. It's an impressiive plane. It flew so fast that if you went from New York to Los Angeles you would cross the time zones so fast you would get there two hours before you left.

[Rastus]

I highly recommend Paul Tibbits memoir. He covers many diverse topics still relevant today from how to keep your .50 Caliber from jamming at altitude to how to deal with the percursor to today's TSA.  ............

I absolutely concur.  I was fortunate enough to meet General Tibbits a couple of years back in Tulsa.  Crusty old fellow, very much in command.

[PegLeg45]

Enola is an odd name. It's alone spelled backward. Everybody remembers the Enola Gay dropped the bomb on Hiroshima, but rarely mention Bach's Car dropping the other bomb on Nagasaki. I saw Bach's Car in the museum in Dayton, OH about 6 or 7 years ago. If you go anyplace in Ohio, the Air Force Museum should be one of your stops. Admission is free. It's truly awesome to see planes like this, a Wright Flyer, and my favorite, the SR-71 Blackbird. It's an impressiive plane. It flew so fast that if you went from New York to Los Angeles you would cross the time zones so fast you would get there two hours before you left.

+10 on the SR-71......one baaaaad bird...

[tombogan03884]

Enola is an odd name. It's alone spelled backward. Everybody remembers the Enola Gay dropped the bomb on Hiroshima, but rarely mention Bach's Car dropping the other bomb on Nagasaki. I saw Bach's Car in the museum in Dayton, OH about 6 or 7 years ago. If you go anyplace in Ohio, the Air Force Museum should be one of your stops. Admission is free. It's truly awesome to see planes like this, a Wright Flyer, and my favorite, the SR-71 Blackbird. It's an impressiive plane. It flew so fast that if you went from New York to Los Angeles you would cross the time zones so fast you would get there two hours before you left.

It's also Col. Tibbets' mothers name spelled frontwards.

[Big Frank]

It's also Col. Tibbets' mothers name spelled frontwards.

Yes. I know her name was Enola Gay. But there's less than 1 girl named Enola for every 5,000 named Emily. So, spelled forward it's an odd name, but backward it's a common word. I used to play word games a long time ago and sometimes I pick up on things like that. None of my friends and family seem to have names like that, except a guy named Bob. Backward it spells "bob", as in for apples. If you get bored, try seeing what words you get from backward names. Oh, I have one. My dog's name is Tag, but backward it's Gat. I have my gat with me. That's just perfect for a gun nut like me.