Claude Eatherly Career and the bombing of Hiroshima . Eatherly was the pilot of " Straight Flush " , one of seven B - 29 s of the 393rd Bomb Squadron of the 509th Composite Group that took part in the Hiroshima mission , which was the culmination of ten months of training during World War II . It departed Tinian Island at approximately 0137 hours on the morning of August 6 , 1945 , a little more than an hour ahead of the Enola Gay ( which carried the bomb ) and flew over Hiroshima with the task of reporting the weather conditions . Later life . He left the Air Force in 1947 and worked at an oil company in Houston , Texas where he became a sales manager for a mobile station . Consumed by guilt he attempted suicide by drugs in a hotel in New Orleans , but he survived and was treated in Waco , Texas in a psychiatric hospital for soldiers . His mental condition slowly deteriorated . Jerome Klinkowitz , in " Pacific Skies : American Flyers in World War II " , writes : Shortly after leaving the Air Force in 1947 , Eatherly took part in arrangements for a raid on Cuba by American adventurers hoping to overthrow the government ; here the former weather pilot ' s responsibilities would involve a flight of bomb - laden P - 38 Lightnings obtained as war surplus . The plot was uncovered , and Eatherly was arrested and prosecuted , serving time in jail for this offense . Eatherly claimed to have become horrified by his participation in the Hiroshima bombing , and hopeless at the possibility of repenting for or earning forgiveness for willfully extinguishing so many lives and causing so much pain . He tried speaking out with pacifist groups , sending parts of his paycheck to Hiroshima , writing letters of apology , and once or twice may have attempted suicide . At one point “ he set out to try to discredit the popular myth of the war hero [ by ] committing petty crimes from which he derived no benefit : he was tried for various forgeries and forged a check for a small amount and contributed the money to a fund for the children of Hiroshima . He held up banks and broke into post offices without ever taking anything . ” He was convicted of forgery in New Orleans , Louisiana and served one year between 1954 and 1955 for the crime . He was also convicted of breaking and entering in West Texas . He then became a salesman in a garage and might have attempted suicide again by drug . Some think he committed such acts because of schizophrenia or anxiety disorder , for which he was held for many months at the Veterans Administration Hospital in Waco , Texas . It was in this hospital that he began to correspond with Günther Anders , a Austrian philosopher and pacifist , who became his friend in a battle to promote the abolition of nuclear weapons . Eatherly wrote : Whilst in no sense , I hope , either a religious or a political fanatic , I have for some time felt convinced that the crisis in which we are all involved is one calling for a thorough reexamination of our whole scheme of values and of loyalties . In the past it has sometimes been possible for men to “ coast along ” without posing to themselves too many searching questions about the way they are accustomed to think and to act — but it is reasonably clear that our age is not one of these . On the contrary , I believe that we are rapidly approaching a situation in which we shall be compelled to reexamine our willingness to surrender responsibility for our thoughts and our actions to some social institution such as the political party , trade union , church or State . None of these institutions are adequately equipped to offer infallible advice on moral issues and their claim to offer such advice needs therefore to be challenged . William Bradford Huie , in " The Hiroshima Pilot " , cast doubt on the Eatherly story , pointing out that Eatherly continued to practice for potential future nuclear bombing missions in the years following the war . He believes that pacifist and anti - nuclear activists created or exaggerated elements of Eatherly ’ s story for propaganda purposes , and that Eatherly cooperated in this mythmaking from desire for fame or attention . Some of this skepticism was disputed in " Dark Star " by Ronnie Dugger . No other persons involved with the bombing of Hiroshima expressed guilt in the way that Eatherly did . " Enola Gay " pilot and commanding officer of the 509th Composite Group , Colonel Paul Tibbets , said in his autobiography " Flight of the Enola Gay " that he couldn ’ t understand why Eatherly felt so guilty . While Eatherly did command the weather B - 29 that scouted Hiroshima about an hour ahead of Tibbet ' s B - 29 ( which was carrying the " Little Boy " atomic bomb ) , " Buck " Eatherly had already turned back for their Tinian Island base by the time the bomb was dropped . To quote Tibbets : " Actually , Major Eatherly did not take part in the attack and did not see the bomb blast that was supposed to have haunted him through many sleepless nights . "