Saturday, August 15, 1998

A man who went flying into history

By Bob Greene

COLUMBUS, Ohio -- The air museum was just across a little roadway from my hotel, so I walked over one recent morning.

The air museum -- its official name is the Ohio History of Flight Museum -- is a modest affair on the periphery of Port Columbus. Three bucks to get in, with the feel of a big old hangar, the air museum is filled with antique planes and historic engines and photos related to Ohio's relationship with air travel.

Which, when you think of it, is considerable. The Wright brothers came from Ohio, and John Glenn, and Neil Armstrong -- from man's first successful powered venture off the ground and into the sky, to man's first step onto the surface of the moon, Ohio may be the state that has had the most significant influence on flying.

I was the first visitor to the museum on this particular day; the fellow selling tickets hadn't yet turned on all the lights. I walked around the place, and looked into the gift shop (no one on duty), and there it was.

A T-shirt.

With, on its front, an artist's full-color rendition of the atomic bomb exploding over Hiroshima, the mushroom cloud black and orange and white.

In big capital letters, the T-shirt proclaimed: "V-J DAY." V-J Day was 53 years ago this month -- Aug. 14, 1945. The day the bomb was dropped on Hiroshima was Aug. 6, the day the bomb was dropped on Nagasaki was Aug. 9. The T-shirt was selling for $18.

The man who had sold me my ticket to the air museum came walking by, and I said, "Does Mr. Tibbets come around much?" and the man said, "Not that often. Once in a while."

Mr. Tibbets is Paul Tibbets. He lives here -- right here in central Ohio. He's 82. People who know him say he's a person who doesn't like to call attention to himself, who has no interest in seeking publicity.

My dad is of Paul Tibbets' generation; it used to amaze me when my dad would come home from work and say he'd been buying a tie in a men's store in downtown Columbus and had run into Paul Tibbets. Two men of the World War II generation, picking up some business clothes.

Paul Tibbets, although his name may not be familiar to many people these days, did two things that place him at the forefront of the story of this nation. Really, the two things are the same thing:

He carried out the single most violent and destructive act in the history of the world.

And he ended World War II. He won the war for the United States and the Allies.

Now, it can be said that both of those were more accurately the actions of many people, working together. But Col. Tibbets was the one entrusted with the duty. And he carried it out.

He flew the Enola Gay -- he was the pilot who dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima. Enola Gay was his mother's name -- that's the name he chose to be painted on the plane.

He was 29 when he flew that 9,000-pound bomb to Japan and dropped it on a city full of people. At least 80,000 men, women and children died that day. People who have spoken to him over the years say his feelings about what he was asked to do are unequivocal and that they never vary. "I've never lost a night's sleep over it, and I never will," he said once. And: "No second thoughts. The bomb did what it was supposed to do. It ended the war."

These days there is a renewed interest in World War II, and a renewed appreciation of what that generation of Americans did for their country -- and for freedom itself. People are noticing something: that the Americans who fought that war don't go around telling stories about themselves.

Tibbets doesn't. He lives around here, and he goes on with his life, and people say if you run into him at a sandwich shop, you'd never guess who he was. His grandson, Paul Tibbets IV, is an Air Force captain and was written up in the paper here the other day; the grandson said, "I love what I'm doing. I love serving our country."

The T-shirt in the air museum was designed to look like a souvenir from a rock band's tour. On the back it said: "Pacific Victory Tour." There were places and dates: "Tokyo Raid -- April 18, 1942." "Guadalcanal -- August 7, 1942." "Iwo Jima -- February 19, 1945." "Hiroshima -- August 6, 1945."

Outside the air museum, it was a warm and beautiful summer morning in central Ohio. Land of the free.

Chicago Tribune