Sad Day..Gen. Paul Tibbets has passed.

[LarryQ]

It is a sad day.

General Paul Tibbets, Pilot of the Enolagay, and commander of the 20'th Composite has passed.
He was 92 years old and died at his home in Columbus Ohio.

I was lucky enough to actually meet the man once.
He was giving a speech at the Bradley Air Museum in Windsor Locks Connecticut.
I found him to be a true Patriot and Modest of his place in History.
A complete Gentleman!


While some say that the use of an Atomic weapon was a terrible thing, the Enolagay and Bocks's Car were instrumental in bringing the War to a swift conclusion.
It will be recorded that those actions actually SAVED Millions of Lives by avoiding a hard fight with the last remaining piece of the Axis, whom would have fought to the last.

I feel deeply saddened, almost as if I have lost a friend.....Strange.
We loose more and more of "The Greatest Generation" everyday.

LarryQ

 

[LarryQ]

I'm saddened that no one here even mentioned or posted their thoughts about this Country's (And the Free World's) loss.

Sunday was Veterans day....(I know it’s not memorial day..but...)

I thought that at least someone would mark the passing of this great man with a thought or remembrance of their own.

My Grandfather's Lives...on both My Wives’ side and My own, were saved by these men and their missions.....

Sorry to be a bit preachy...but sometimes I wonder if History is even taught in schools anymore.

LarryQ

 

[philguy]

Re: Sad Day..Gen. Paul Tibbits has passed.

Well, when I read your posting I thought "Paul Tibbit - I know that name!". So I went to wikipedia and read his entry (as soon as I read Enola Gai (spam filter), it was all back again).
but what do you expect now, a raging discussion here whether he was a hero or not? Burning ossuaries?
My thought to this is "the man is dead now, and his deed is long in the past". Sure, this ended the war, and saved huge amounts of lives (both sides!), but then again, anybody could have dropped that bomb. What I mean to say is, he was a pilot and so were many others that time. All of them dropped bombs, but he was the only one who had the "special upgraded bomb". What makes him so different to all the other soldiers in the war, then? He did not songlehandedly stop the war, and had he denied the order, somebody else would have done it. And I don't think he risked his life in any greater way than other soldiers (esp. as the Japanese didn't know about his freight).

Basically, what I want to say is while the nuke was maybe beneficial to the war, glorifying the pilot who dropped it seems a bit overrated to me.
(on the other hand, those who harshly judge him, not the decision, like saying "he shouldn't be albe to sleep at night" and stuff are also missing the point)
But then again, I'm European, and have a different connection to patriotic thinking (as a German, especially), although my year in the US gave me an insight into this way of thinking.
I think, to keep on holding on will tie you to the past, and while remembering it you shouldn't live in ithe past. Keep good memories but live on. Maybe he did save your life in a way, grant you a free life, but WW2 is long over, the world has changed, and threats have moved onto different geographical regions of the world. Also, this "remember the good ole tymes" poses a threat of subtle racism. Your Japanese neighbour will probably not be all too happy of somebody ranting "yeah, that's where we showed it to those da*n Japs, they deserved it each one of them!" and by commemorating a mass killing in another country will probably not help grow international friendships. To get another view on this, look at how Poland celebrates every year the martyrism of the polish underground fighters who were massacred by the SS. This makes me as a german think "do they even want to become our friends?" - see what I mean? So I don't want to judge Memorial Day and that stuff (man, this posting is already evolving on its own!), I do want to say "think of the Japanes". Because those people were mostly civilians, but this is now going into the direction of "pro and con" and furious fighting, and I don't want to go there, especially as we all are biased.

Sum it up, final line, go celebrate the man/hero, but don't live in his days.




Oh, and btw, isn't his hame Tibbets?

 

[LarryQ]

UUggghhhhhhhhhhh :'(

 

[philguy]

...concerning what?

 

[Da_Dude]

Are you going to morn the 100s of people lost evrey day, or just him?
:-X

 

[LarryQ]

Actually.........No.........

However, I Now Have An Entirely New And Different Reason To Mourn.

Larry

 

[a_pyro_is]

As now do many my friend.

 

[Comidt]

Yeah, I heard about him dying.
Quite sad how he doesn't want his grave marked, because he knows lots of people are gonna mark it adn stuff with not-nice things
I don't know why people still blame him, it had to be done.
I mean, seriously, after the first bomb, Japan still didn't surrender!!
How stupid is that?

Cool that you met him tho...