Couldn't think where else to put this as part of the story certainly counted as a 'world event' at one time.

I've always wondered how a person copes with doing his duty and yet destroying countless lives, not just then but in later years. So hard to even begin to comprehend, at least for me.

(Quote) "Paul Warfield Tibbets Jr., the pilot and commander of the B-29 that dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan and the first man to use nuclear weaponry against his fellow man, died Thursday at age 92.

Fibbets had requested no funeral and no headstone, fearing it would provide his detractors with a place to protest".

(Source and full story) http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,307252,00.html

Wonder if others feel they could do their duty if it involved the same action?

I saw his interview some years back. I was impressed that he spoke as my Dad (USMC) and his friends speak of that war.


They don't speak of themselves as heroes,or better than the next guy. They just did what needed to be done. They did their duty proudly. They were trying to end a hell of a mess. The plane the 'Enola Gay' was named after his mom.
I know I would do the same.
These vets feel more pain over the insults such as the situation mentioned at the Smithsonian, or people disrespecting (burning a flag etc) than most other Americans I've met. My dad was just telling me the other day. What is wrong with America nowadays. He was refering to the person complaining about the Military's flag folding ceremony at funerals.
To me those guys /gals were all heroes.

My father was a combat medic in the Philippines in WWII. The beleaguered American Army on the Bataan Peninsula - out of ammo, food, medical supplies - finally surrendered. It was his birthday. He was twenty. Before the war broke out, he was part of a unit establishing hospitals and clinics in remote areas. He survived the death march, and spent the rest of the war as a slave in a Japanese copper mine.

He didn't receive the Bronze Star and the Purple Heart that were his due until 2002!! And he probably never would have pursued the matter, and been recognized for putting his own live at grave risk to save the lives of others, but for something he saw on the news one night. He saw a piece about a couple of pilots that had been shot down in Bosnia, roughed up a little bit, and then sent home, being given the Purple Heart!! Not only were we not at war with that country, but they weren't even wounded!! They'd been slapped around a bit. Big deal.

Well, my old man was just a bit irritated at this. He got in touch with a couple of Congressmen who helped cut through miles of red tape. One of them awarded him his long overdue medals in a ceremony at Seymour Johnson AFB, North Carolina.

The point of that story is that there are a lot of veterans like him. And there are a lot of active-duty military like him. They have a job to do, and they do it. Whether or not they agree with the politicians or policies that have put them in harm's way, it doesn't matter. They just do their jobs. And most don't expect any special treatment or recognition when their job is done. Neither do they deserve the vilification and hatred of the "countrymen" that they are sworn to die, if necessary, to try and protect.

When the town of Alstead, New Hampshire, where we were living, was destroyed by a flood in 2005, I had occasion to speak to and become friends with a number of men and women of the New Hampshire National Guard. Here was a group of people that had returned from Iraq, only to be sent to the Gulf Coast in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. They were brought home from the gulf only to be sent out to help keep order and assist people in the wake of severe flooding all over southeastern New Hampshire - their home. These young men and women, most not even old enough to lift a beer with the people to whose aid they'd come, told about some of the things they'd done and the suffering they'd seen in the course of two years. But not a single one expressed any regrets about their decision to join, or the services they'd been called upon to perform. After all, they were just doing their job.


And they loved my wife's peanut butter fudge.

I have seen him being interviewed on TV before and he said that he didn't regret what he did , it was what needed to be done at the time (I believe the Japanese were given the chance to surrender before hand ) to end the war and save countless American, Canadian, Australian, New Zealand and British lives that would have been lost "taking" the Japanese mainland. (and probably saved Japanese lives as well)
Rest In Peace Colonel Tibbets


I would have to say yes Different war I know, but same resolve and courage
God Bless them all, both sides (all here as well)

I have an opinion to express on this Topic. I believe the US did the right thing by bombing Japan into surrender.Although Colonel Tibbets felt no doubt anguish over his role in the Bombing,he was simply doing his Job asked of him.He carried out the responsibility asked of him.This was a terrible War with huge loss of life,and who can guess how long this war would have lasted and how many more thousands of our Soldiers may have perished,had this decision to bomb,not been made.
Rest in Peace Colonel Tibbets.

Projected casualty figure for an invasion of Japan were, on the conservative side, 1,000,000 American dead and wounded, and at least four times that number of Japanese casualties. The upper range I found estimated 4,000,000 American and 10,000,000 Japanese casualties. So the projected combined casualties for the invasion and conquest of Japan were from 5,000,000 to 14,000,000, military and civilian. The war itself would have continued into at least 1947, so while the rest of the world was recovering from the war, the United States would still have been pouring resources into a fight against an enemy did not have a history of surrendering gracefully, as the previous campaigns across the Pacific had already shown.

There were a number of other factors that the President had to take into consideration before making his decision, and he made the one he did with a troubled heart. Historians still debate today on whether or not it was the right decision. I believe it was.

Yes, when all things were considered, I believe the States made a decision that was right at that time but far more importantly to me, the gentleman made a decision that was right for his country and enabled him to do his duty and live with the consequences.

Do realize that I may be naive in the entire concept of war but when people like this gentleman and Matt's father (combat medic in the Philippines) and so so so many others go to war, what we expect from them is beyond heroic.

To risk dying, to live and fight in horrid conditions, to take lives of other people's childrens and then be expected to come home and live normal, happy and productive lives as mommies and daddies, etc. Their courage and sacrifice is mind-boggling to me.

And I suspect some may burst into laughter reading that I, who doesn't deliberately step on bugs, would like to punch people in the nose - hard! - when I see flag burning, etc. And to boo and hiss a solder who has simply done his or her duty - well, more than a boo and hiss in return.

When not negating any soldier's courage, I wonder if others too may feel that dropping the bomb took 'less' courage than one single soldier on the ground using a flame-thrower, etc and watching the effects on a human, enemy or not? I do realize this may seem an odd question but (and okay, feel free to laugh) there is different 'degrees' of killing and being killled perhaps?

The firebombing raids on Tokyo and on Dresden, Germany, resulted in as many deaths as resulted from the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki combined. But few people today even know about them. If they are mentioned at all, it's usually in a discussion such as this one. And the only difference, really, is that those firebombing raids took a couple of nights to destroy those cities, while the atomic bombs accomplished the same in a matter of minutes.

The Americans knew that simply destroying Japanese cities would not be enough of an inducement to cause the Japanese to surrender. It was hoped that the demonstration of power, in the ability to destroy entire cities in an instant, with a single bomb, would. And there were many in Washington and the Pacific that spent anxious, sleepless nights hoping that the Japs wouldn't call our bluff.

This post has been edited by MattV: Nov 4 2007, 09:16 PM