"I dropped the atom bomb on Hiroshima, but I never lost any sleep over it." The affable old man who spent his twilight years paddling his boat and playing golf was typical of his Florida retirement community. There was nothing in the demeanour of retired estate agent Thomas Wilson Ferebee to show he had helped shape the destiny of the world. But more than 50 years ago, his was the finger on the trigger of one of the most awesome events in history. At 8.15am on August 6, 1945, as a young airman aboard the American b-29 bomber Enola Gay, he aimed and released the atomic bomb which devastated Hiroshima. And to his dying day earlier this week at the age of 81, he had not a moment's regret about the attack which killed 70,000 in the Japanese city and hastened the end of the Second World War. "None of us who were on the Enola Gay ever lost a minute's sleep over it," he had said. "In fact, I sleep better because I feel a large part of the peace we have had in the last 50 years was what we brought about. "If we hadn't forced the surrender, there would have had to be a land invasion of Japan and the estimates are that a million Americans and as many Japanese would have died in it". Mr Ferebee was born in North Carolina and joined the air force in 1940, aged 21. After flying missions to Europe and North Africa, the talented bombardier was hand-picked to join the 12 men who would later fly the Enola Gay. Yet when they took their place aboard the bomber, none of the crew knew the significance of their flight. They were told they were on a special mission but, said Mr Ferebee, "they'd said that about every mission we'd ever flown". He recalled: "They gave us goggles to protect our eyes from a flash they said would be brighter than the sun. It took the crew 13 hours to reach the target - a bridge over a river in the centre of Hiroshima. Calmly, Mr Ferebee waited until the bridge was right in the middle of the crosshairs of his bombsight. "Then I released Little Boy. It speeded up and went straight in." Some 42 seconds later, the bomb detonated. Mr Ferebee did not see the explosion because the plane went into a turn. But when it levelled out 11 miles away, he looked back at the mushroom-shaped cloud of fire and smoke billowing thousands of feet into the sky. "The cloud was kind of bubbling and then the top of the mushroom split off. When we landed back at the base, a brigadier-general came over to me and said, "The president has announced thet you just dropped the first atom bomb." It was the first time anyone had used the word atom around me." Ten years ago, Mr Ferebee moved to Windermere, near Disney World, to work as an estate agent. He died there on Thursday. There are now only four surviving members of the Enola Gay crew, including pilot Paul Tibbets, who named the bomber after his mother. From the Daily Mail, a UK national newspaper, 18th March 2000 http://geocities.com/brianperkins77/106whybother.htm
Dropping that bomb was the best thing you did. I was training in Philippines to invade Japan and the bomb saved me and a million other men Thank you.
I have met several British ex-servicemen who exactly echo your sentiments, Mr Morneweck. They were all scheduled for 'Tiger Force' and one was aboard ship en route to the Pacific when news of Japan's surrender came. They were delighted to have it over and done with !
Well, you and about 150,000 other men, to be specific... The million men thing was an of-hand comment that has been dealt with many times in historical journals and does not even match the official estimates of the time, and anyways, even the initial comment did not refer to 1 million dead, but rather 1 million casualties. However, I agree with the sentiment...
