Paul Tibbets
✓ Source-basedfallingUnited States Air Force pilot (1915-2007)
United StatesLived 1915 to 2007 · aged 92He piloted the Enola Gay over Hiroshima on 6 August 1945 and released Little Boy, the first atomic bomb used in war. The mission made him a permanent fixture in the argument over whether the weapon should have been dropped at all.
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Photos 10
Boeing B-17D in flight
Tibbets with the Enola Gay
Tibbets with WASP pilots Dorothea Johnson Moorman and Dora Dougherty pose before their B-29 "Ladybird'
The "Tinian Joint Chiefs": Rear Admiral William R. Purnell, Brigadier General Thomas F. Farrell, Colonel Paul W. Tibbets, and Captain William S. Parsons
General Carl Spaatz decorates Tibbets with the Distinguished Service Cross after the Hiroshima mission
A B-47 takes off using rocket-assisted take off (RATO)
Tibbets in 2003Awards 6
Connected to Paul 6
Bertram Home RamsayAlso won Distinguished Service Cross
Alan BeanAlso won National Aviation Hall of Fame
Chuck YeagerAlso won National Aviation Hall of Fame
Chesty PullerAlso won Distinguished Service Cross
Hal MooreAlso won Distinguished Service Cross
Barry GoldwaterAlso won National Aviation Hall of FameAbout this person
Paul Warfield Tibbets Jr. enlisted in the United States Army in 1937, qualified as a pilot the next year, and flew anti-submarine patrols after Pearl Harbor. By February 1942 he commanded the 340th Bombardment Squadron, and that summer his unit became the first heavy bombardment group deployed with the Eighth Air Force in Europe. He co-piloted the lead plane in the first American daylight heavy bomber mission against German-occupied territory on 17 August 1942 and flew courier runs for Eisenhower and Clark to Gibraltar. In February 1943 he returned stateside to help develop the B-29 Superfortress, and in September 1944 took command of the 509th Composite Group. He named his aircraft after his mother. After the war he worked on nuclear tests at Bikini Atoll, helped develop the B-47 Stratojet, commanded air divisions through the late 1950s, and served as military attaché in India before retiring in 1966. He spent two decades with Executive Jet Aviation and became, in retirement, a screen character and a symbol in a debate that never closed.
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