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Birthdays Today : Kermit K. Beahan (August 9, 1918 – March 10, 1989) was a career officer in the United States Air Force and its predecessor United States Army Air Forces during World War II. He was the bombardier on the crew flying the Boeing B-29 Superfortress Bockscar on August 9, 1945 (his 27th birthday), that dropped the second atomic bomb on Nagasaki, Japan. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kermit_Beahan
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Birthday
WWII World War Two
1525C: Bombardier
American History
Military History
Birthday WWII World War Two 1525C: Bombardier American History Military History
Posted >1 y ago
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I wonder what it was like to be one of the Pilots on those two missions knowing that your action are going to change the world dynamics in an instant....?
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Alan K.
SGT John " Mac " McConnell - I was thinking the mental ramifications down the road, "I eliminated tens of thousands of humans" Probably some serious couch time after that sortie..
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Lt Col Jim Coe
I've read biographies and histories about the ending of WWII. The crews were focused on doing the mission they were ordered to fly and returning to home base safely. They didn't know for sure that the bomb would explode and were glad it worked. The magnitude of the explosion and damage was greater than they imagined. On the way back they may have thought about the implications of the power of the bomb. (see Lt Col Tibbits 1987 speech at http://www.history.com/speeches/paul-tibbets-on-dropping-the-atomic-bomb)
Employment of nuclear weapons lead directly to victory over Japan and the end of the last total war pitting the total strength of nations against each other. We look back on those events with the perspective of history. The men who flew the missions believed they were doing their part to defeat Japan. They didn't know about the development of the Hydrogen bomb, ICBMs, multiple reentry vehicles, nuclear submarines, the Cold War, or nuclear proliferation. They believed they were defeating an enemy that would gladly have destroyed the US given the opportunity.
Employment of nuclear weapons lead directly to victory over Japan and the end of the last total war pitting the total strength of nations against each other. We look back on those events with the perspective of history. The men who flew the missions believed they were doing their part to defeat Japan. They didn't know about the development of the Hydrogen bomb, ICBMs, multiple reentry vehicles, nuclear submarines, the Cold War, or nuclear proliferation. They believed they were defeating an enemy that would gladly have destroyed the US given the opportunity.
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