Meeting Enola Gay

In the early morning of August 6, 1945 a Boeing B-29 Superfortress left the small island of Tinian with a crew of 12 under the command of Colonel Paul Tibbets Jr. Their destination: the city of Hiroshima, on the home islands of Japan. Their payload: 1 single bomb… A 15 kiloton nuclear bomb named Little Boy.

The atomic bomb was released from the B-29 bomber at 8:15H on August 6, killing around 80000 persons in a split second.

Col. Tibbets named the B-29 Superfortress that dropped that 1st atomic bomb Enola Gay. After his mother! The US Air Force decided to preserve Enola Gay when World War II ended. The plane was handed to the Smithsonian National Air & Space Museum very quickly after the war. It was is storage for a long time. But Enola Gay was meticulously restored. It took 300000 staff hours to return it to its original state. It was put on display at the museum in December 2003.

It is an important historical artifact. I consider it to be a constant reminder that war is an atrocious thing. It is a reminder that nuclear war would destroy humanity and our beautiful planet. As the OMD song says:”Enola Gay, you should have stayed at home yesterday.”

It is big though! I walked around it several times, sat down and looked at it. I spent almost an hour with this plane. It is impressive. And it triggered a lot of mixed feeling with me.