This day in 1945!!!
AdamsQuailHunter
Member Posts: 2,022 ✭✭✭✭
"Bockscar, sometimes called Bock's Car, is the name of the United States Army Air Forces B-29 bomber that dropped a Fat Man nuclear weapon over the Japanese city of Nagasaki during World War II in the second – and last – nuclear attack in history. On 9 August 1945, Bockscar, piloted by the 393d Bombardment Squadron's commander, Major Charles W. Sweeney, dropped the "Fat Man" nuclear bomb with a blast yield equivalent to 21 kilotons of TNT over the city of Nagasaki.
After the war, Bockscar returned to the United States in November 1945. In September 1946, it was given to the National Museum of the United States Air Force at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio. The aircraft was flown to the museum on 26 September 1961, and its original markings were restored (nose art was added after the mission). Bockscar is now on permanent display at the National Museum of the United States Air Force, Dayton, Ohio, next to a replica of a Fat Man."
Many of you are not old enough to know about this from your parents or grandparents- unless you paid attention - who were part of the 'Greatest Generation'.
Go ahead - 'Flame-On' - I am way older than most of you - and I used to have a very thick skin.
Best Regards - AQH
Comments
Thanks. I didn’t know until she passed, but one of my aunts rode the train to Dayton, Ohio during the war to work in military airplane factory. She was one of the “Rosie the Riveters”.
Yeah I'm just a kid because that mission was flown almost 10 years before I was born. However when I was in school they were still teaching kids history, unlike today. I am also familiar with the Dayton Museum even though it is in that inferior state of Ohio, at least that is what I am required to say because I am a Michigan football fan. Until they screwed up and moved the Grand American trapshoot to of all places Illinois, it was held on Dayton Airport property. My dad was part of the greatest generation along with most of the fathers in my neighborhood. Most were unassuming and didn't brag or even talk about their time in the service but just by looking you could tell who had served. We owe them all a great deal of thanks and respect for their service. Bob
I have been to the museum more than a few times and will be going back it not that far from us and we drive past at least once a month
my oldest son use to go to the celebrations and reunion's when the original pilots / crews would get together for such events set up for them by different groups mostly at wright pat AFB I know he met and had autographs and phots but honestly not sure which ones he has
what the crews and support groups did during the bomb drops was devastating to say the least but saved countless American life's by doing what they did not counting all the people at home keeping such a huge secret's . they truly were/are the great generation .
I remember being vilified, reviled, and disparaged for remarks I made on this topic several years ago. I think my main critic has gone on to his reward, but just the same, I will remain taciturn on this subject.
I've been there many times and seen that plane among all the others. It is one of the best museums we've been to. Almost equal to the Smithsonian.
Joe
I have been to the museum in the past and viewed this aircraft...I had a great conversation with my sons about it and what history it had been involved in....I hope to travel there again someday.
My late father was a member of the first US Naval landing party to inspect Nagasaki after the bomb.
I remember learning this in history class in school .
The Japs asked for a war, and they got one. They never imagined that their country would be bombed, and then occupied by the United States. My great uncle was killed by them in the Philippines in 1944.
My Dad fought them, in the Army Air Corps, and he hated them. He never had a good word to say about the Japanese.
...They started it, we finished it, and in the process saved countless lives...good way to end it,..Truman made a wise decision! ...Pearl Harbor was a really bad idea on the Japs part...
...My Dad was in Europe, his brother was in the European theater also...other Uncles were also split between both theaters of operation...I have bring backs from all of them...
My Dad was in North China when the bomb was dropped. Probably saved his life, as he might have been moved to Japan to help with the invasion.
My uncle and his B-29 were # 4 or 5 on list to drop the bomb, if Japan didn't surrender after Nagasaki. Fortunately they surrendered, we only had two bombs. I was supposed to get his Flight gear with the variable density goggles from his collection that was on display at the Hill AFB Museum. Cousins had other plans.
He dodged another bullet during the Cuban Missile Crisis. He had a pic on his desk, since I was a kid, that I didn't get the story to, until a year before he passed. It was a "posterity" photo of him and his crew with their B-47 on the tarmac ready to go. They were waiting for Kennedy to call, and give them a go, ...for a one way mission to Moscow. The bomb in that plane never killed any Russians, but everyone in that crew, died from cancer, or Leukemia.
My grand dad was with the Navy SeaBees in the South Pacific when the war ended. Those two big bombs may have very well saved his life.