#ENOLA GAY PILOTS NORMAN ADOLFSON MOVIE#
It’s unclear how many B-2s or other bombers would be replaced under any new bomber program. Great story, well written, and a TV movie was made based on it back in 1980: Enola Gay: The Men, The Mission, The Atom Bomb, starring Patrick Duffy (Dallas) as Paul Tibbets. Tibbets IV’s role leading the 509th Bomb Wing comes as the Air Force has been seeking to build a next-generation long-strike bomber, estimated to cost at least $55 billion for up to 100 planes.Ī 2014 report from the Congressional Research Service said the nation’s existing long-range bomber fleet “are at a critical point in their operational life span.” Because of their age, the report said, “military analysts are beginning to question just how long these aircraft can physically last and continue to be credible weapon systems.”
The B-2, which has been at the Missouri base since 1993, has been flying since the 1990s and is still the world’s only long-range bomber with technology that makes the batwing aircraft difficult for radar to detect and track. The Bomb Wing at Whiteman is responsible for flying the fleet of 20 nuclear-capable B-2 stealth bombers to targets around the world, often directly. His awards include the Distinguished Flying Cross, the Bronze Star and the Legion of Merit. He also trained on B-2s at Whiteman in the 1990s, commanded a bomb squadron at the base and was a vice commander of the 379th Air Expeditionary Wing in southwest Asia in 2010-2011. Strategic Command at Offutt Air Force Base in Nebraska. Tibbets, 48, previously served as deputy director for nuclear operations for the U.S. His grandfather would also tell them, Tibbets said, that “he’s counting on you, he’s counting on us, today’s generation of airmen, to continue as you do each and every day to raise the bar and set the standard and continue the great work that our nation relies on us to to do.”
Tibbets told about 500 people attending the ceremony in a hangar at the base that his grandfather would be “touched by your appreciation for his service and the service of those that he was with back in that time.” This Swedish band had a hit with Control is Flashing Blue, a song about how computers/sensors say everything is okay. Japan surrendered six days later, ending the war. B-29 dropped an atomic bomb on Nagasaki, killing about 70,000 people. The government in Japan has said that thousands of people have been categorized as still sick from the Hiroshima bombing’s radiation.