Thank you, Paul Tibbets

Paul Tibbets, who etched his mother's name — Enola Gay — into history on the nose of the B-29 bomber he flew to drop the atomic bomb over Hiroshima, died Thursday after six decades of steadfastly defending his mission. He was 92.

Throughout his life, Tibbets seemed more troubled by other people's objections to the bomb than by him having led the crew that killed tens of thousands of Japanese in a single stroke. The attack marked the beginning of the end of World War II.

Tibbets, a 30-year-old colonel at the time, and his crew of 13 dropped the five-ton "Little Boy" bomb over Hiroshima the morning of Aug. 6, 1945. The blast killed or injured at least 140,000.

Thank you, Paul Tibbets.

To those of you who don't understand what Paul Tibbets and The Bomb did for you, Yes - you, please, pull up a chair for a moment.

Perhaps you think that the bomb killed indiscriminately - killing civilians - killing innocents?

The death of 80K people with one bomb most likely prevented the death of 1 Million US troops, and unknown Millions (perhaps a more than a couple million) Japanese....

As World War II progressed in the Pacific, the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) confronted the prospect that getting an unconditional surrender from Japan might require invading the Japanese homeland.

1 December as the invasion date for Kyushu and 1 March 1946 for Honshu. Together, it was called Operation "Downfall." Both MacArthur and Nimitz argued that scheduling the invasion of Kyushu as late as 1 December would subject the operation to weather uncertainties that could cause it to be set back to the spring of 1946, creating a significant delay in ending the war. On 25 May 1945 the JCS finally sent a directive assigning MacArthur "primary responsibility for the conduct of Operation OLYMPIC" (the codename for the Kyushu invasion) and setting the date as 1 November. The invasion of Honshu (codenamed CORONET) remained slated for 1 March 1946.

Knowledge of the strength and disposition of Japanese defenses that would be encountered in an invasion was heavily dependent on intercepted communications. Allied intelligence services had no effective agents or spy networks in the homeland, nor were there Western sympathizers with access to this kind of information in any detail.

Instead of sympathizers, the civilians of Japan were folding into warriors as invasion was looming. The people were being trained for Kamikaze techniques to defend the homeland. Women and children. Especially the children.

"That operations in this area will be opposed not only by the available organized military forces of the Empire, but also by a fanatically hostile population."

It quickly became clear through interception of communications that the Japanese had identified Kyushu as a likely invasion site. Obviously, they moved multiple divisions there in anticipation. The US Military Intelligence Service estimated the number of Japanese troops on the island to be 600,000, including 128,000 in Army ground force units plus 940 suicide aircraft to 18 concealed bases on Kyushu, as well as extensive efforts to reconfigure floatplanes for suicide missions.

The casualty estimates were asked for, and mater-of-factually discussed with the new President Truman. The go-ahead was given. However, since the estimates for the invasion of Japan had been constructed before the receipt of evidence that defensive forces on Kyushu would be much higher than initially expected, Truman was much more reluctant to send half a million (Marshall is attributed with the Million) American boys into mainland Japan to their deaths.

When meeting in Potsdam with Churchill and Stalin, Truman was reluctant to give the Soviets any further foothold into the Pacific theater. Faced with a war weary nation, he had few options but 'allow' the Soviets into the fight.

On the evening of 16 July--Truman's second day at Potsdam--he received a cryptic notification that the atomic bomb had been successfully tested early that morning at Alamogordo, New Mexico. He also got a note that the divisions on Kyushu was up to 9.

Truman gave written orders to deliver the first "special bomb" as soon after 3 August as weather permitted.

The President gave this go-ahead two days before the Military Intelligence Service issued its report on "eleven divisions" that was cited in the Joint War Plans Committee's recommendation for studying "Alternates to OLYMPIC."


Paul Tibbets flew the mission.

Paul Tibbets saved lives. Japanese lives. British lives. Soviet lives and most certainly US Soldier's lives. Perhaps your grandfather? ... get the picture yet?

To accentuate the point further:

Nearly 500,000 Purple Heart medals were manufactured in anticipation of the casualties resulting from the invasion of Japan. To the present date, all the American military casualties of the sixty years following the end of World War II — including the Korean and Vietnam Wars, and there were still 120,000 of these Purple Heart medals in stock. There are so many still in surplus that combat units in Iraq and Afghanistan are able to keep Purple Hearts on-hand for immediate award to wounded soldiers on the field.

Thank you, Paul Tibbets
Without you, I wouldn't be participating in this discussion. My grandfather was in the European theater, and was preparing to be shipped to Japan.