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The decision to drop the atom bomb, the secrecy surrounding the mission, and the men who flew it. With Billy Crystal, Kim Darby, Patrick Duffy, Gary Frank.
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We shall go forward trusting in thee, knowing that we are in Thy care, now and forever. Enola Gay: The Men, the Mission, the Atomic Bomb: Directed by David Lowell Rich. May the men who fly this night be kept safe in Thy care and may they be returned safely to us. memory of those soldiers who died in the Pacific during World. We pray Thee that the end of the war may come soon and that once more we may know peace on earth. The original plan was for the Enola Gay exhibit at the Smithsonian s National Air and. You can listen to Chaplain Downey’s prayer in the following video and watch actual video footage of the bomb run and aftermath. “Reading what he had jotted down on the back of an envelope, Downey, then a captain, prayed for the men’s safe return.” 2 Realizing the historic significance of that day, video and audio recordings were made of the pre-flight briefings, the bomb run and other aspects of the mission, including Chaplain Downey’s prayer with the Enola Gay crew. According to Downey in a 1987 interview, “one of the security officers told me a little time before, there was going to be a really fantastic new thing, only one of the greatest things that ever happened in the history of the world.” 1 In the midst of this “greatest thing,” Chaplain Downey was there bringing God to the crews of the Enola Gay and Bockscar who would drop the atom bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki on 6 and 9 August 1945.Ĭhaplain Downey prayed with the 12-man crew of the Enola Gay on Tinian Island just before they took off on their mission to drop “Little Boy” on Hiroshima. Downey, of the 509th Composite Bomb Group, was there when history was being made. He was 24 years old when he served as navigator on the Enola Gay, the B-29 Superfortress that dropped the first atomic bomb deployed in wartime over the Japanese city of Hiroshima on Aug. Many chaplains find themselves in the middle of history in the making, some of them making that history. Paul Tibbets, the pilot of the ENOLA GAY (the plane that dropped the first atomic bomb on Hiroshima on the 6th of August 1945) has never express regrets.Chaplain William B. He has always been convinced that the bomb was responsible for saving American lives, and eventually Japanese ones, by removing the necessity for an invasion of Japan. Army photo/ courtesy of the Hiroshima Peace Culture Foundation. Our purpose here, however, is not to dwell on those tragic events which have defined the previous century. Everything has doubtless been said on the matter, and it would be overstepping our brief to write any more. Enola Gay Crew back row (L-R) Major Ferebee, Captain Van Kirk, Colonel Tibbets, Captain Lewis Staff Sgt. The discussion of Nagasaki on these pages will be limited to the presentation of a testimony previously unseen in Europe. Our focus will instead be on the consequences nuclear weaponry may have on the civilian population the prevailing issue six decades after the end of the Second World War. Even during fifty years of fierce ideological conflict, Damocles’ atomic bomb never fell, though there was the occasional close call.
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Today, though the large number of non-proliferation treaties and monitoring bodies may not have removed the threat, they have at least brought it to the forefront of the world’s attention.Įmbarked nuclear reactors are used for the propulsion of submarines, aircraft carriers and ice breakers, thereby guaranteeing their ability to travel alone. Their fuel is highly enriched in fissile uranium or plutonium.