A Soldier, Sailor, Marine, and Army Airman died today. All WWII veterans, who wore the cloth of our nation's colors on this day, 75 years ago. August 6, 1945, these members of the armed forces forever recall where they were on that historic day. It was the day the atomic bomb dropped. Those responsible, brave men and women, our centurions who served, are fewer today than yesterday, but not as few as tomorrow. Today, this courageous and noble generation is fading into history, as they gently bid us farewell.
43 Seconds Over Hiroshima
My father, a Navy Seabee, served on Saipan in the Pacific Mariana Islands when 29-year-old Lt. Col. Paul Tibbets took off from neighboring Tinian Island piloting the Army Airforce Boeing B-29 Superfortress heavy bomber. It was crowding three on the morning of August 6, when the whining roar of the four propeller-driven Wright Cyclone radial piston engines flew over my dad on nearby Saipan Island. Dimples 82, the Enola Gay, was hauling Little Boy, the 9,700-pound atomic payload en route to the bomb drop that took 43 seconds to fall over Hiroshima.
Dad died in 2005. Just 45 days following mom's passing. Soon after, I read Duty, a book written by Bob Green, a Chicago Tribune columnist. It was a true story about his dad, a former infantry shoulder living in Columbus, Ohio. Green returned home to visit his dying father. The unique time together allowed Green to understand what duty and honor are from a calm, loving father's heart. More importantly, the time together allowed for both to say goodbye. Something I, too, fortunately, experienced with my parents.
During this extraordinary period together, Green discovered the story of a man who lived in an adjacent neighborhood. The fellow was practically anonymous in the community, a private man. The senior Green pointed him out in town to his son, saying that the veteran "won the war." His name was Paul Tibbets, and he put together a highly covert team to produce the single most violent act in the history of humanity.
Green interviewed the retired general multiple times. So generously personal were the old soldiers’ conversations that my imagination stirred to action. The book had a profound and lasting effect on me when I needed a private lift. My mission was to contact Tibbets, and I succeeded via the Internet. It was several years before he died. The General wrote a message with his signature for me on a photo of his B-29 loading of the bomb from a submerged pit under the belly of the bomber. The picture was taken on August 5, 1945, at Tinian airstrip before takeoff the following morning at zero-two-four-five hours dark time.
Tibbets never passed the buck, nor apologized for fulfilling a direct order from the President. Critics today still question the decision to drop the bomb on Japan. Following their mission, Tibbets and senior officers met with President Truman in the Oval Office. Truman pounded on the desk, and declared, "If anyone gives you a hard time about that decision, you refer them to me. Because I'm the one who sent you."
Truman’s words were unequivocal about the atomic bomb, “We have used it against those who attacked us without warning at Pearl Harbor, against those who have starved and beaten and executed American prisoners of war, against those who have abandoned all pretense of obeying international laws of warfare.” According to Truman, “I’d make it (the decision) again…It stopped the Jap War!”
My cousin, Major General Lloyd Wilkerson, USMC (Ret), told me that in mid-1945, he was promoted to second lieutenant in the Marine Corps and was en route to the western Pacific as an infantry platoon leader in the 6th Marine Division. According to General Wilkerson, "Army and Marine Divisions were planning amphibious landings on the Japanese home islands. Estimates of American casualties were 1,000,000 killed and wounded for the capture of Japan. The survival of lieutenants commanding the leading elements on the beaches of Japan was less than 25 percent. By dropping the two atomic bombs, President Truman saved my life!"
Jerry Wilkerson lives in SaddleBrooke. He is a former press secretary for two U.S. Congressmen, a prior Chicago CBS radio and newspaper reporter. Wilkerson is a navy veteran and a former Police Commissioner. Email him at franchise@att.net.
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