What airfield did the enola gay take off from
“I was real thrilled because I saw him every day for I don’t know how long and when I told him, his eyes got as big around as saucers. Let’s go down to the air museum and get a book and have it autographed for me.’ ” “He’d written a book and I told her (wife Vivian), ‘I’d like to have it. Tibbets gave a lecture at the Palm Springs Air Museum. “I met Paul Tibbets,” he said, proudly pointing to a black and white sketch of the Enola Gay, signed, “Paul Tibbets, Pilot 6 Aug. Many years after his tour in Tinian, Gorham got to meet the man who flew the Enola Gay into history. “They thought they were going to be executed,” he said. He said the prisoners - there were 34 of in the group - couldn’t understand why they were being treated so well. So they all got to know when I showed up, they were going to get something.” 45 out and lay it on the table - and I’d got get cigarettes and candy bars and Coke. Gorham said during his four-hour watch on board, he’d take three or four of the guys at a time - “I’d take my. Japanese prisoners of war were in the hospital in there. “We picked up POWs from Honolulu and took them back to the States for medical reasons. Howze (AP-134), the men made a stop in Hawaii. On the way home aboard the transport ship USS General R.L. We sat there and waited to get orders to go home.” “We left there and we went to Eniwetok - it was flat and I counted 23 palm trees on it,” Gorham said. World War II would be declared over a little more than a week later. I had no idea what he was talking about.” (Later) this fella came over and said, ‘You guys might as well pack your clothes because this war is going to be over with very shortly.’ He came back later and told us they dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima. I was already up watching - I was on guard then. Gorham watched the Enola Gay depart - to parts unknown to Gorham at the time - around 2:45 a.m. Paul Tibbets, named the bomber for his mom the day before he took off on the bombing mission to Hiroshima, Japan. The heavy cruiser USS Indianapolis delivered parts and enriched uranium for the atomic bomb, dubbed “Little Boy,” to the island. “Then all of a sudden, you see this big white thing coming toward that plane which was the atomic bomb. Incidentally we weren’t allowed to have cameras.” we knew something was up but nobody said anything. We watched them retrofitting that plane and nobody could figure out what it was.
“We were set up about 40 or 50 yards from the Enola Gay. “It just showed up out of nowhere and was just sitting on the landing strip out there,” Gorham said. The aircraft landed on Tinian July 6, 1945. On Tinian, the men installed their guns near North Field - the airfield at the northern end of the island that would soon be home to the Enola Gay - the Boeing B-29 Superfortress bomber that would deliver the decisive blow of World War II. We took the smaller 20s and 40s and went to Tinian.” “We went through training, but we never took them anyplace. His gum line was permanently disfigured and he still has problems with his teeth. “It stung me and I was bleeding like a stuck hog and the only thing I could think of was where the guy was next to me, because I was going to nail him - but he was gone.”
What airfield did the enola gay take off from cracked#
“So it cracked my teeth on that side and a couple on the other side,” he said. “I almost got my head knocked off training on that 90 mm gun.”Ī timing device got stuck in the compartment where the shell is loaded and when the Marine next to him tried to dislodge the device, he jerked on it really hard and the metal casing hit Gorham in the face. “They took a bunch of us and put us on a 90 mm gun crew there,” he said. Gorham was on Guam about five months, and while there, they disbanded the 14th Light AA unit and the men were sent in early 1945 to Saipan, where he joined another anti-aircraft unit. That was the first line of defense coming in from the ocean on the west side of the island.” I was up on what was the Japanese small aircraft airfield. “We went in behind the invading forces and set up their anti-aircraft stuff. “Hectic, real hectic,” he said of the action. “Went first to Honolulu and they took 19 of us and put us on a ship and sent us down to Guam,” where he was an anti-aircraft gunner, working 20 mm and 40 mm guns.