Members of the Enola Gay crew had been on Tibbets's B-17 crew in Europe: bombardier Ferebee (called by Tibbets "the best bombardier who ever looked through the eyepiece of a Norden bombsight") and navigator Van Kirk.Īmong others personally recruited by Tibbets for the 509th were the Enola Gay copilot, Lewis, Caron, tail gunner, Duzenbury, flight engineer, radar specialist Beser, and four members of the Bockscar flight crew: aircraft commander Chuck Sweeney, copilot Don Albury, bombardier Kermit Behan, and navigator James Van Pelt. They were mission specialists rather than flight crew members. Jacob Beser, the radar countermeasures officer are not on the list. Morris Jeppson, the assistant weaponeer, and Lt. But whereas 12 men were aboard the aircraft for the Hiroshima mission, only nine names are painted on the fuselage. Udvar-Hazy Center in Chantilly, Va., bears the same markings that it did in 1945, including the names of the flight crew from the historic mission, stencilled below the copilot's window. The Enola Gay, on display at the National Air and Space Museum's Steven F. Jacob Beser, radar countermeasures officer William "Deak" Parsons, weaponeer and ordnance officer Tibbets IV, a B-2 pilot and commander of the 509th Bomb Group.Ĭol. At Whiteman, Tibbets was able to visit with pride his grandson, Capt. In the 1990s, the Air Force assigned all of its B-2 bombers to 509th, based at Whiteman AFB, Mo. The heritage was preserved in various locations and missions through the years. It was re-designated the 509th Bombardment Group in 1946 and the 509th Bombardment Wing in 1947. It consisted of the 393rd Bomber Squadron, the 320th Troop Carrier Squadron, the 390th Air Service Group, the 603rd Air Engineering Squadron, the 1027th Air Materiel Squadron, the 1395th Military Police Company, and the First Ordnance Squadron (in charge of handling the atomic bombs).Īfter the war, the Group returned to the United States and was assigned to Roswell Army Air Base, N.M. It was a self-contained unit, with personnel strength of about 1770. The 509th deployed to Tinian in the Marianas in May 1945. The crews trained with practice bombs called "pumpkins" because of their size and shape, which was the same as "Fat Man" atomic bomb. The unit that dropped the atomic bombs was activated at Wendover Army Air Field, Utah, Dec. The 509th Composite Group/509th Bomb Wing