He had suffered small strokes and heart failure during his final years and had been in hospice care.Īdditionally, what was the name of the plane that dropped the bomb on Nagasaki? Bockscar. Tibbets died in his Columbus, Ohio, home on 1 November 2007, at the age of 92. Keeping this in consideration, what happened to the pilot who dropped the atomic bomb? On 30 August 1946, the title to the aircraft was transferred to the Smithsonian Institution and the Enola Gay was removed from the USAAF inventory. In her interview, Nancy remembered that at Dick’s memorial service, Forrest Haggerty, a friend and author of the book on 43 Seconds to Hiroshima, said that the astronauts “wanted some very nice man to greet them at the Pearly Gates, and that was Dick Nelson.The decision was made to preserve the Enola Gay, and on 24 July 1946, the aircraft was flown to Davis–Monthan Air Force Base, Tucson, Arizona, in preparation for storage.
![pilot of the enola gay ww2 pilot of the enola gay ww2](https://www.gannett-cdn.com/presto/2020/08/06/PDEM/808041ba-eec9-4dc3-83c8-32e4851d22ce-AP45010101335.jpg)
Nelson died on Februat 3:00 a.m., which was three hours before the astronauts on the Space Shuttle Columbia were killed on reentry to the Earth’s atmosphere. It read, ”Results excellent.” Richard Nelson died age 77 of a heart attack on 01-02-2003, as complications of emphysema, his family said. and is buried on the cemetery of Riverside National, California.
![pilot of the enola gay ww2 pilot of the enola gay ww2](https://www.granger.com/wmpix/age/ull/0085975-WORLD-WAR-II-ENOLA-GAY-The-pilot-of-the-B-29-Enola-Gay-Colonel-Paul-W-Tibbets-poses-at-his-aircraft-at-the-Roswell-Air-Force-Base-in-New-Mexico-The-Enola-Gay-dropped-the-first-atomic-bomb-on-Hiroshima-Japan.jpg)
Richard Nelson, the youngest of the crew, sent a coded message that was forwarded to President Harry Ship Truman.
![pilot of the enola gay ww2 pilot of the enola gay ww2](https://img.i-scmp.com/cdn-cgi/image/fit=contain,width=425,format=auto/sites/default/files/styles/768x768/public/2015/04/30/enolagay-bonham.jpg)
The bomb, code-named “Little Boy”, was targeted at the city of Hiroshima, Japan, and caused extensive destruction. When the bomb detonated, about 1,900 feet above the city, Death and burial ground of Nelson, Richard “Dick” H. Is a Boeing B-29 Superfortress bomber, named after Enola Gay Tibbets, mother of pilot Paul Tibbets. On 06-08-1945, during the final stages of World War II, it became the first aircraft to drop an atomic bomb as a weapon of war. Shumard, Assistant flight engineer, Private First Class Richard H. Stiborik, Radar operator, Sergeant Robert H. Duzenberryįlight engineer, Sergeant Joe S. “Bob” Caron, Tail gunner, Technical Sergeant Wyatt E. Jeppson, Assistant weaponeer, Technical Sergeant Georg R. “Deak” Parsons, Weapaneer and bomb commander, Lieutenant Jacob Beser, Radar countermeasures, also the only man to fly on both of the nuclear bombing aircraft, Second Lieutenant Morris R. Lewis, Co-pilot, Major Thomas Ferebee Bombardier, Captain Theodore “Dutch” Van Kirk, Navigator, U.S. The crew members were Colonel Paul Warfield Tibbets the pilot and Aircraft commander, Captain Robert A. The crew was taken to Tinian, a small island in the Marianas chain, where they practiced missions over Japan. He was the Radio Operator aboard the Enola Gay the plane that dropped the Atomic Bomb on Hiroshima on 06-08-1945. He was assigned to the 509th Composite Group, a secret, hand-picked group training for an undisclosed mission. Transferring to radio school in Iowa, he graduated near the top of his class. His plans to become a pilot ended at the Santa Ana Army Air Base because of poor eyesight. Nelson, Richard “Dick” H, born 26-04-1925 in Moscow, Idaho, was a United States Army World War II Veteran.