For the record . . .

For the record, Colonel Paul Tibbets [who was promoted to Glory] appeared at
Embry Riddle Aeronautical University in Prescott Arizona some three or four
years ago. Although Colonel Tibbets dropped the first nuclear device on
Hiroshima Japan, it must be noted that Major Sweeney, flying a B-29 by the
name of Bockscar, flew the second atomic strike against Japan. Although his
name is not readily known. It was the second bomb that was dropped by Major
Sweeney that convinced Japan to give it up. I find it amazing that Colonel
Tibbets, a heroic gentleman, name is known and that Major Sweeney is not.
Maybe we should educate people to this fact.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bockscar
Bockscar
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Bockscar, sometimes called Bock's Car or Bocks Car, is the name of the
United States Army Air Forces B-29 bomber that dropped the "Fat Man" nuclear
weapon over Nagasaki on August 9, 1945, the second atomic weapon used
against Japan.

The name painted on the aircraft after the mission (shown here) is a pun on
"boxcar" after the name of its aircraft commander, Captain Frederick C.
Bock.

Atomic bomb mission
Bockscar was flown on that day by the crew of another B-29, The Great
Artiste, and was commanded by Major Charles W. Sweeney, commander of the
509th Composite Group's only bomber squadron, the 393rd. The Great
Artiste, which was the assigned aircraft of the crew with whom Sweeney most
often flew, was slotted in preliminary planning to drop the second bomb, but
it had been fitted with observation instruments for the Hiroshima
mission.

Bockscar had been flown by Sweeney and crew C-15 in three test drop
rehearsals of inert "Fat Man" assemblies in the eight days leading up to the
second mission, including the final rehearsal the day before. Rather than
move the instrumentation from The Great Artiste to Bockscar, a complex and
time-consuming process, the crews of The Great Artiste and Bockscar switched
planes. The result was that the bomb was dropped by Bockscar, flown by the
crew C-15 of The Great Artiste.

There was confusion over the name of the plane because an initial eyewitness
account by reporter William L. Laurence of the New York Times said that the
second bomb had been dropped from The Great Artiste. Laurence, who
accompanied the mission as part of Bock's crew, had interviewed Sweeney and
his crew in depth and was aware that they referred to their airplane as The
Great Artiste. Except for Enola Gay, none of the 393rd's B-29s had yet had
names painted on the noses, and unaware of the switch in aircraft, Laurence
assumed victor 77 was The Great Artiste.

Kokura was the primary target, but when Bockscar arrived at its rendezvous
point off the coast of Japan the third aircraft of its flight (the photo
ship Big Stink) was not present. After fruitlessly waiting 40 minutes,
Sweeney and Bock proceeded to Kokura but found it obscured by clouds.
Sweeney had orders to drop the atomic bomb visually if possible, and after
three unsuccessful passes over Kokura, conferred with weaponeer Commander
Frederick Ashworth (USN). They agreed to strike the secondary target,
Nagasaki.

A combination of factors including confusion about a malfunctioning transfer
pump made fuel consumption a critical factor. Ashworth did not want to be
forced to dump the bomb into the sea and decided to make a radar bombing run
if necessary. However, enough of an opening appeared in the cloud cover
to allow Bombardier Kermit Beahan to confirm Nagasaki and the bomb was
dropped, with ground zero being about 3/4 mile from the planned aiming
point. This combined with Nagasaki's position on the foothills (as opposed
to Hiroshima's mostly flat terrain) resulted in lower overall casualties
than in Hiroshima, with much of the blast confined in the Urakami Valley.[9]

Because of the delays in the mission, the B-29 did not have sufficient fuel
to reach the emergency landing field at Iwo Jima, so Major Sweeney flew the
aircraft to Okinawa, where, despite being unable to make contact with the
control tower, he made a safe landing with virtually empty fuel tanks.

Airplane history

Bockscar, B-29-36-MO 44-27297, victor number 77, was assigned to the 393rd
Bomb Squadron of the 509th Composite Group. One of 15 Silverplate B-29s used
by the 509th on Tinian, Bockscar was built at the Glenn L. Martin Aircraft
Plant at Omaha, Nebraska at what is now Offutt Air Force Base, as a Block 35
aircraft. It was one of 10 modified as a Silverplate and re-designated
"Block 36". Delivered on March 19, 1945, to the USAAF, it was assigned to
Capt. Frederick C. Bock and crew C-13 and flown to Wendover Army Air Field,
Utah.

It left Wendover on June 11, 1945 for Tinian and arrived June 16. It was
originally given the victor number 7 but on August 1 was given the triangle
N tail markings of the 444th Bomb Group as a security measure and had its
victor changed to 77 to avoid misidentification with an actual 444th
aircraft.

Bockscar was also used in 13 training and practice missions from Tinian, and
three combat missions in which it dropped pumpkin bombs on industrial
targets in Japan. Bock's crew bombed Niihama and Musashino, and 1st Lt. Don
Albury and crew C-15 bombed Toyama.

It returned to the United States in November 1945 and served with the 509th
at Roswell Army Air Field, New Mexico. It was nominally assigned to the
Operation Crossroads task force but there are no records indicating that it
deployed for the tests. In August 1946 it was assigned to the 4105th Base
Unit at Davis-Monthan Army Air Field, Arizona, for storage.

At Davis-Monthan it was placed on display as the aircraft that bombed
Nagasaki, but in the markings of The Great Artiste. In September 1946 title
was passed to the Air Force Museum (now the National Museum of the United
States Air Force) at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio, but it was not
moved there until September 26, 1961, where its original markings were
restored.

Bockscar is now on permanent display at the National Museum of the United
States Air Force, Dayton, Ohio. This display includes a replica of the "Fat
Man" bomb and signage that states that it was "The aircraft that ended
WWII". This is in contrast to the display of Enola Gay at the Smithsonian's
Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center, where little mention is made of that aircraft's
role in WWII.

In 2005, a short documentary was made about Charles Sweeney's recollections
of the Nagasaki mission aboard Bockscar, including details of the mission
preparation, titled "Nagasaki: The Commander's Voice."

Regularly assigned crew

Crew C-13 (manned "The Great Artiste" on the Nagasaki mission)

a.. Capt. Frederick C. Bock, aircraft commander
b.. Lt. Hugh C. Ferguson, co-pilot
c.. Lt. Leonard A. Godfrey, navigator
d.. Lt. Charles Levy, bombardier
e.. Master Sgt. Roderick F. Arnold, flight engineer
f.. Sgt. Ralph D. Belanger, assistant flight engineer
g.. Sgt. Ralph D. Curry, radio operator
h.. Sgt. William C. Barney, radar operator
i.. Sgt. Robert J. Stock, tail gunner


Nagasaki mission crew

Crew C-15 (normally assigned to The Great Artiste):

a.. Maj. Charles W. Sweeney, aircraft commander
b.. Capt. Charles Donald Albury, co-pilot (pilot of Crew C-15)
c.. 2nd Lt. Fred Olivi, regular co-pilot
d.. Capt. James Van Pelt, navigator
e.. Capt. Raymond "Kermit" Beahan, bombardier
f.. Master Sgt. John D. Kuharek, flight engineer
g.. Staff Sgt. Ray Gallagher, gunner, assistant flight engineer
h.. Staff Sgt. Edward Buckley, radar operator
i.. Sgt. Abe Spitzer, radio operator
j.. Sgt. Albert Dehart, tail gunner

Also on board were the following additional mission personnel:

a.. Cmdr. Frederick L. Ashworth (USN), weaponeer
b.. Lt. Philip Barnes (USN), assistant weaponeer
c.. 2nd Lt. Jacob Beser, radar countermeasures