Paul Tibbets Paul Warfield Tibbets , Jr . ( February 23 , 1915 – November 1 , 2007 ) was a brigadier general in the United States Air Force , best known for being the pilot of the " Enola Gay " ( named for his mother ) , the first aircraft to drop an atomic bomb in the history of warfare . The bomb , code - named Little Boy , was dropped on the Japanese city of Hiroshima . Tibbets enlisted in the army in 1937 and qualified as a pilot in 1938 . After the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor he flew anti - submarine patrols over the Atlantic . In February 1942 , he became commanding officer of the 340th Bombardment Squadron , 97th Bombardment Group , equipped with the Boeing B - 17 bomber . In July 1942 the 97th became the first heavy bombardment group to be deployed as part of the Eighth Air Force , and Tibbets became deputy group commander . He flew the lead bomber for the first American daylight heavy bomber mission against Occupied Europe on August 17 , 1942 , and the first American raid of more than 100 bombers in Europe on October 9 , 1942 . Tibbets was chosen to fly Major General Mark W . Clark and Lieutenant General Dwight D . Eisenhower , to Gibraltar . After flying 43 combat missions , he became the assistant for bomber operations on the staff of the Twelfth Air Force . Tibbets returned to the United States in February 1943 to help with the development of the Boeing B - 29 Superfortress bomber . In September 1944 , he was appointed commander of the 509th Composite Group , which would conduct the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki . After the war he participated in Operation Crossroads , and was involved in the development of the Boeing B - 47 Stratojet bomber . After his retirement from the Air Force , he worked for Executive Jet Aviation . Early life . Paul Warfield Tibbets , Jr . , was born in Quincy , Illinois , the son of Paul Warfield Tibbets , Sr . , and his wife , Enola Gay Tibbets . When he was five years old , the family moved to Davenport , Iowa , and then they moved to Iowa ' s capital Des Moines where he was raised , and where his father became a confections wholesaler . Later on , his family had moved to Miami , Florida , in order to escape from harsh midwestern winters . Young Paul was very interested in flying . One day his mother agreed to pay one dollar to get him into an airplane at the local carnival . In 1927 , when he was 12 years old , he performed his first flight , dropping candy bars to the crowd of people attending the races at the Hialeah Park Race Track . In the late 1920s , business issues forced Tibbet ' s family to return to Alton , Illinois , where he graduated from Western Military Academy in 1933 . Later he attended the University of Florida in Gainesville , and was an initiated member of the Epsilon Zeta Chapter of Sigma Nu fraternity in 1934 . During that time , Tibbets was taking private flying lessons . After his undergraduate work , Tibbets had planned on becoming an abdominal surgeon . He attended the University of Cincinnati for a year and a half , before changing his mind and enlisting in the United States Army to become a pilot in the United States Army Air Corps . Early military career . Having attended a military school , had some college education , and gained a bit of flight experience , Tibbets qualified for the Aviation Cadet Training Program . On February 25 , 1937 , he enlisted in the army at Fort Thomas , Kentucky , and was sent to Randolph Field , San Antonio , Texas , for primary and basic flight instruction . During his training , his performance showed he was an above - average pilot . He was commissioned as a second lieutenant and received his pilot rating in 1938 at Kelly Field , Texas . After graduation , Tibbets was assigned to the 16th Observation Squadron and based at Lawson Field , Georgia , with a flight supporting the Infantry School at Fort Benning , where he met Lucy Wingate . The two were married in a Catholic seminary in Holy Trinity , Alabama on June 19 , 1938 . While stationed at Fort Benning , Tibbets was promoted to first lieutenant , and served as a personal pilot for Brigadier General George S . Patton , Jr . , in 1940 and 1941 . In June 1941 , Tibbets transferred to the 9th Bombardment Squadron of the 3d Bombardment Group at Hunter Field , Savannah , Georgia , as the engineering officer , and flew the A - 20 Havoc . While there he was promoted to captain . In December 1941 , he received orders to join the 29th Bombardment Group at MacDill Field , Florida , for training on the Boeing B - 17 Flying Fortress . On December 7 , 1941 , Tibbets heard about the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor while listening to the radio during a routine flight . He remained on temporary duty with the 3d Bombardment Group , forming an anti - submarine patrol at Pope Army Airfield , North Carolina , with 21 B - 18 Bolo light bombers . War against Germany . In February 1942 , Tibbets reported for duty with the 29th Bombardment Group as its engineering officer . Three weeks later he was named commanding officer of the 340th Bombardment Squadron , 97th Bombardment Group , equipped with the B - 17 . It was initially based at MacDill , and then Sarasota Army Airfield , Florida , before moving to Godfrey Army Airfield in Bangor , Maine . In July 1942 the 97th became the first heavy bombardment group to be deployed as part of the Eighth Air Force to England , where it was based at RAF Polebrook . It had been hastily assembled to meet demands for an early deployment , and arrived without training in the basics of high altitude daylight bombing . In the first weeks of August 1942 , under the tutelage of Royal Air Force veterans , the group received intensive training for its first mission . The group commander , Lieutenant Colonel Cornelius W . Cousland , was replaced by Colonel Frank A . Armstrong , Jr . , who appointed Tibbets as his deputy . Tibbets flew the lead bomber for the first American daylight heavy bomber mission on August 17 , 1942 , a shallow penetration raid against a marshalling yard in Rouen in Occupied France , with Armstrong as his co - pilot . On October 9 , Tibbets led the first American raid of more than 100 bombers in Europe , attacking industrial targets in the French city of Lille . Although a bombing failure resulting in numerous civilian casualties , the mission was hailed an overall success because it reached its target against stubborn opposition . Of the 108 aircraft in the raid , 33 were shot down or had to turn back due to mechanical problems . In the lead up to Operation Torch , the Allied invasion of North Africa , the commander of the Eighth Air Force , Major General Carl Spaatz was ordered to provide his best two pilots for a secret mission . He chose Tibbets and Major Wayne Connors . Tibbets flew Major General Mark W . Clark to Gibraltar while Connors flew Clark ' s chief of staff , Brigadier General Lyman Lemnitzer . A few weeks later Tibbets flew the Supreme Allied Commander , Lieutenant General Dwight D . Eisenhower , there . " By reputation " , Stephen Ambrose wrote , Tibbets was " the best flier in the Army Air Force " . After Tibbets had flown 25 combat missions against targets in France , the 97th Bomb Group was transferred to North Africa as part of Major General Jimmy Doolittle ' s Twelfth Air Force . For Tibbets , the war in North Africa introduced him to the realities of aerial warfare . He claimed that he saw the real effects of bombing civilians and the loss of his brothers in arms . In January 1943 , Tibbets , who had now flown 43 combat missions , was assigned as the assistant for bomber operations to Colonel Lauris Norstad , Assistant Chief of Staff of Operations ( A - 3 ) of the Twelfth Air Force . Tibbets did not get along well with Norstad , or with Doolittle ' s chief of staff , Brigadier General Hoyt Vandenberg . In one planning meeting , Norstad wanted an all - out raid on Bizerte to be flown at . Tibbets protested that flak would be most effective at that altitude . When challenged by Norstad , Tibbets said he would lead the mission himself at 6 , 000 feet if Norstad would fly as his co - pilot . Norstad backed down , and the mission was successfully flown at . War against Japan . When General Henry H . Arnold , the Chief of United States Army Air Forces , requested an experienced bombardment pilot to help with the development of the Boeing B - 29 Superfortress bomber , Doolittle recommended Tibbets . Tibbets returned to the United States in February 1943 . At the time , the B - 29 program was beset by a host of technical problems , and the chief test pilot , Edmund T . Allen , had been killed in a crash of the prototype aircraft . Working with the Boeing plant in Witchita , Kansas , Tibbets test flew the B - 29 , and soon accumulated more flight time in it than any other pilot . He found that without defensive armament and armor plating , the aircraft was lighter , and its performance was much improved . In simulated combat engagements against a P - 47 fighter at the B - 29 ' s cruising altitude of , he discovered that the B - 29 had a shorter turning radius than the P - 47 , and could avoid it by turning away . After a year of development testing of the B - 29 , Tibbets was assigned in March 1944 as director of operations of the 17th Bombardment Operational Training Wing ( Very Heavy ) , a B - 29 training unit based at Grand Island Army Air Field , Nebraska , and commanded by Armstrong . Its role was to transition pilots to the B - 29 . Tibbets taught two Women Airforce Service Pilots , Dora Dougherty and Dorothea ( Didi ) Moorman , to fly the B - 29 as demonstration pilots . On September 1 , 1944 , Tibbets reported to Colorado Springs Army Airfield , the headquarters of the Second Air Force , where he met with its commander , Major General Uzal Ent , and three representatives of the Manhattan Project , Lieutenant Colonel John Lansdale , Jr . , Captain William S . Parsons and Commander Norman F . Ramsey , Jr . , who briefed him on the project . Tibbets was told that he would be in charge of the 509th Composite Group , a fully self - contained organization of about 1 , 800 men , which would have 15 B - 29s and a high priority for all kinds of stores . Ent gave Tibbets a choice of three possible bases : Great Bend Army Airfield , Kansas ; Mountain Home Army Airfield , Idaho ; and Wendover Army Air Field , Utah . Tibbets selected Wendover for its remoteness . When the operation was still in the development stage the leading candidates to command the group designated to drop the atomic bomb had been Armstrong and Colonel Roscoe C . Wilson , the Army Air Force project officer providing liaison support to the Manhattan Project . Although an experienced combat veteran against German targets , Armstrong was in his forties and was severely injured in a fire in the summer of 1943 , while Wilson had no combat experience and was qualified primarily by his engineering background and association with the project . Tibbets was considerably younger than both and had experience in both staff and command duties in heavy bomber combat operations , and was already an experienced B - 29 pilot , thus making him an ideal candidate . Tibbets , who received promotion to colonel in January 1945 , brought his wife and family along with him to Wendover . He felt that allowing married men in the group to bring their families would improve morale , although it put a strain on his own marriage . To explain all the civilian engineers on base who were working on the Manhattan Project , he had to lie to his wife , telling her that the engineers were " sanitary workers " . At one point Tibbets found that Lucy had co - opted a scientist to unplug a drain . On August 5 , 1945 , Tibbets formally named his B - 29 " Enola Gay " after his mother . " Enola Gay " was personally selected by him while it was still on the assembly line . The regularly assigned aircraft commander , Robert A . Lewis , was unhappy to be displaced by Tibbets for this important mission , and became furious when he arrived at the aircraft on the morning of 6 August to see it painted with the now - famous nose art . On August 6 , the " Enola Gay " departed Tinian in the Marianas at 02 : 45 for Hiroshima , Japan , with Tibbets at the controls . Tinian was approximately away from Japan , so it took six hours to reach Hiroshima . The atomic bomb , code - named " Little Boy " , was dropped over Hiroshima at 8 : 15 local time . When the A - bomb was dropped on the city , Tibbets recalled that the city was covered with a tall mushroom cloud . Aftermath . Tibbets was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross by Spaatz immediately after landing on Tinian . He became a celebrity , with pictures and interviews of his wife and children in the major American newspapers . He was seen as a national hero who ended the war with Japan . There were , however , no parades or testimonial dinners for him or any of the other " Enola Gay " crewmen , although Tibbets later received an invitation from President Harry S . Truman to visit the White House . The 509th Composite Group was not awarded an Air Force Outstanding Unit Award until 1999 . The film " Above and Beyond " ( 1952 ) depicted the World War II events involving Tibbets , with Robert Taylor starring as Paul Tibbets and Eleanor Parker as his first wife Lucy . A 1980 made - for - television movie , somewhat fictionalized , told the story of Tibbets and crew . Patrick Duffy played the part of Tibbets and Kim Darby played Lucy . The film was called , " Enola Gay : The Men , the Mission , the Atomic Bomb " . Tibbets was also portrayed in the films " Day One " and " The Beginning or the End " . An interview of Paul Tibbets appeared in the 1982 movie " Atomic Cafe " . He was also interviewed in the 1970s British documentary series " The World at War " , as well as the " Men Who Brought the Dawn " episode of the Smithsonian Networks " War Stories " ( 1995 ) , and " Hiroshima " ( 2005 ) . Tibbets was interviewed extensively by Mike Harden of the " Columbus Dispatch " , and profiles appeared in the newspaper on anniversaries of the first dropping of an atomic bomb . In a 1975 interview he said : " I ' m not proud that I killed 80 , 000 people , but I ' m proud that I was able to start with nothing , plan it and have it work as perfectly as it did . . . I sleep clearly every night . " Post - war military career . The 509th Composite Group returned to the United States on November 6 , 1945 , and was stationed at Roswell Army Airfield , New Mexico . Colonel William H . Blanchard replaced Tibbets as group commander on January 22 , 1946 , and also became the first commander of the 509th Bombardment Wing . Tibbets was a technical advisor to the Operation Crossroads nuclear tests at Bikini Atoll in the Pacific , but he and his " Enola Gay " crew were not chosen to drop another atomic bomb . Tibbets attended the Air Command and Staff School at Maxwell Air Force Base , Alabama . On graduating in 1947 he was posted to the Directorate of Requirements at Air Force Headquarters . When the director , Brigadier General Thomas S . Power , was posted to London as air attaché , he was replaced by Brigadier General Carl Brandt , who appointed Tibbets as director of the Strategic Air Division . In this capacity , Tibbets became involved in the Boeing B - 47 Stratojet program , and he subsequently served as B - 47 project officer at Boeing in Wichita from July 1950 until February 1952 . He then became commander of the Proof Test Division at Eglin Air Force Base , where flight testing of the B - 47 was conducted . Tibbets was also the model for screenwriter Sy Bartlett ' s fictional character " Major Joe Cobb " in the film " Twelve O ' Clock High " , and for a brief period in February 1949 was slated to be its technical advisor until his replacement at the last minute by Colonel John H . deRussy . Tibbets returned to Maxwell Air Force Base , where he attended the Air War College . He then became Director of War Plans at Allied Air Forces in Central Europe Headquarters at Fontainebleau , France . His marriage to his first wife , Lucy Wingate , ended in divorce in 1955 . His second wife was a French woman named Andrea Quattrehomme , whom he met during his posting there . He returned to the United States in February 1956 to command the 308th Bombardment Wing at Hunter Air Force Base , Georgia . In January 1958 , he became commander of the 6th Air Division at MacDill Air Force Base , Florida . While there he was promoted to brigadier general in 1959 . This was followed by another tour of duty at the Pentagon as director of Management Analysis . In July 1962 , he was assigned to the Joint Chiefs of Staff as deputy director for operations , and then , in June 1963 , as deputy director for the National Military Command System . In 1964 , Tibbets was named military attaché in India . He spent 22 months there on this posting , which ended in June 1966 . He retired from the United States Air Force ( USAF ) on August 31 , 1966 . Later life and death . After his retirement from the Air Force , he worked for Executive Jet Aviation , a Columbus , Ohio - based air taxi company now called NetJets . He retired from the company in 1970 and returned to Miami , Florida . He later left Miami to return to Executive Jet Aviation , having sold his Miami home in 1974 . He was president of Executive Jet Aviation from 1976 until his retirement in 1987 . The United States government apologized to Japan in 1976 after Tibbets re - enacted the bombing in a restored B - 29 at an air show in Texas , complete with mushroom cloud . Tibbets said that he had not meant for the re - enactment to have been an insult to the Japanese . In 1995 , he denounced the 50th anniversary exhibition of the " Enola Gay " at the Smithsonian Institution , which attempted to present the bombing in context with the destruction it caused , as a " damn big insult , " due to its focus on the Japanese casualties rather than the brutality of the Japanese government and the necessity of the bombing . The 393d Bomb Squadron was one of the two operational squadrons that formed part of the 509th Composite Group when Tibbets commanded it . His grandson , Colonel Paul W . Tibbets IV , USAF , a 1989 graduate of the United States Air Force Academy commanded the 393d Bomb Squadron , flying the B - 2 Spirit , at Whiteman AFB , Missouri , from 2005 to 2007 . Tibbets died in his Columbus , Ohio , home on November 1 , 2007 , at the age of 92 . He had suffered small strokes and heart failure during his final years and had been in hospice care . He had requested that his body be cremated and his ashes scattered over the English Channel . He was survived by his wife Andrea and three sons , Paul III , Gene and James .