But when Tibbets died at age 92, he requested cremation with no headstone – and no funeral - military honors or not. His grandson is an Air Force Academy graduate who came up flying B-2 Spirit bombers. His family was also a proud military family. He even re-enacted the bombing in a B-29 during a 1976 Texas air show and denounced the Smithsonian’s exhibition of the actual plane when it debuted because of the exhibition’s focus on the suffering of the Japanese people and not the brutality of the Japanese military. He proudly named his airplane Enola Gay after his beloved mother. Enola Gay Crew (Theodore Van Kirk) - Autographed Signed Photograph. Last surviving member of Enola Gay crew to drop atomic bomb on. The 13-man crew for the Enola Gay on its historic Hishoma run were as follows: Colonel Paul Tibbetts, pilot and mission commander. WW2 photos show crew of the Enola Gay B-29 bomber returning after. At the time of the Hiroshima bombing, he was one of the youngest but most experienced pilots in the Army Air Forces. Crew,Atomic Bomb plane,military,Enola Gay,Dave Davis,ACME,Mariana. Enola Gay Model Airplane Signed by Hiroshima Flight Crew Members - Navigator Dutch Van Kirk & Weaponeer Morris Jeppson All > Military & War All >. It wasn’t that Tibbets wasn’t proud of his service. But instead of being interred at home or at Arlington National Cemetery with all his brothers in arms, he was cremated and his ashes spread across the English Channel.
![flight crew of the enola gay flight crew of the enola gay](https://www.b-29s-over-korea.com/Paul-Tibbets-Tribute/images/Personally-signed-by-Tibbets.jpg)
He was the man who dropped the first atomic weapon used in combat against an enemy city. The ground crew of the B-29 Enola Gay which atom-bombed Hiroshima, Japan. He was never forgotten, however, and never would be. When Paul Tibbets died in January 2007, he had been retired from the Air Force since 1966.