Killing the Rising Sun by Bill O'Reilly

Author:Bill O'Reilly
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781627790635
Publisher: Henry Holt and Co.

20

NORTH FIELD

TINIAN, MARIANA ISLANDS

AUGUST 6, 1945

0130 HOURS

The bringer of death sits in the front seat of a six-by-six army truck. Approaching the B-29 he personally selected for this mission, Colonel Paul Tibbets wears a one-piece tan flight suit and a billed cap. In preparation for the coming twelve-hour mission, he carries cigars, cigarettes, loose tobacco, and a pipe. Should his plane be shot down, Tibbets also has a handgun. And, if capture becomes a possibility, he also carries twelve cyanide pills, one for each member of his crew. Better to end their lives than be tortured into giving away A-bomb secrets.

Tibbets knew there would be commotion about tonight’s mission. But he never expected the sight before him: floodlights turn the black tropical night into day. Flashbulbs pop as Tibbets and his crew arrive at the flight line. Scientists and technicians flit around the bomber, fussing over last-minute details. Inside the forward bomb bay, safely concealed from view, is the bulbous, 8,900-pound shape of Little Boy, soon to be dropped from a height of five miles onto Hiroshima. The target point is the concrete-and-steel Aioi Bridge, whose T shape is easily visible from the air.

Just hours ago, the B-29 with the number 82 painted on the rear of the fuselage finally got a nickname. Tibbets wrote the words on a scrap of paper and handed it to a sign painter in midafternoon. In the past, he has favored aggressive names such as Butcher Shop and Red Gremlin for his aircraft. But the plane he will fly tonight will hold a special place in history, so he indulges in a rare display of sentiment.

By 4:00 p.m. the aircraft was formally christened Enola Gay, in honor of Tibbets’s fifty-four-year-old mother. Years ago, when the colonel angered his father by quitting his job as a physician’s assistant at a venereal disease clinic to pursue a flying career, it was Enola Gay who calmed the waters. “If you want to go kill yourself,” his father had said angrily, “I don’t give a damn.”

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