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

Lonnie J. Potter added these comments in the current discussion
du jour ...

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.

I agree, but then, there are a LOT of inconsistencies and
"injustices" wrt war-time notoriety. One that comes immediately
to mind is the 1st of 2 flag raisings on Mt. Suribachi, Iwo Jima
23Feb45. The 6 flag raisers that did the 1st one, including
patrol leader/3rd Platoon leader/Easy Co. XO, 1Lt Harold
"George" Shrier, was a first flag raiser. Historically, this was
the significant event, but history has largely ignored it in
favor of the 2nd flag raising with the larger flag. The main
reason this is so was because Joe Rosenthal took his Pulitzer
Prize winning photo, which went to to be the most famous
photograph from WWII.

Another interesting fact about Little Boy and Fat Man was how
highly successful the propaganda campaign was with President
Harry Truman's radio broadcast with words to the effect "we will
rain war from the air until Japan surrenders unconditionally.
Since Japanese physisists knew that they'd been bombed twice by
atomic bombs, and the government of Japan including its Prime
Ministor and Emperor Hirohito thought that Truman meant
continuing atomic bomb attacks, that they so feared getting
entire cities destroyed with a single bomb that convinced
Hirohito to throw in the towel. However, depending on who you
want to believe, it would have taken at least a year, maybe two,
to produce another Uranium bomb, and perhaps 9-12 months to
produce enough Plutonium for even a 3rd bomb, much less one or
two per month.

And, of all the B-17 air crews and aircraft in the war over
Europe, all of which served valiantly and tens of thousands of
air crews were lost, it is only the Memphis Belle that is
remembered primarily because it was the first to make it to the
magic 25 missions and be relieved.

Thus, just like in sports, the space race, just about anything in
personal, political, military, or any other facet of life that is
first is remembered most. Sometimes, only the first is remembered
at all. Yet another example was Apollo 11, first to land on the
moon. Few people know anything at all about any other Apollo
mission save for Apollo 13, the first and only failure to make
it. And, how many remember the deaths of 3 astronauts in a freak
fire in Apollo 1 just being tested on the launch pad?

None of this is fair, certainly, but reality trumps all the other
cards in the game of life. One more interesting note on famous
first in WWII was the B-29 bomber Dinah Might, the first B-29 to
land on Iwo Jima, I think on D+13. It was the first of some 2,500
B-29s to land there and perhaps as many as 500 P-47 and P-51
escort fighters. Dinah Might went on to another "distinction",
this time tragic, in that it was later shot down in a mission
over Japan.

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.

Bockcar also had severe problems identifying the drop point for
the Nagasacki 2nd atomic bomb, hence Ground Zero from quite a
distance. I forget, but perhaps a mile or two, which
"contributed" to far less destruction and far few Japanes killed
in the initial blast. Yet, it was in reality Bockscar that ended
the war, not the Enola Gay. Of course, I take nothing away from
Paul Tibbets, I am only commenting on some common examples of why
Maj. Sweeney is almost unknown today.

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]

Yes, B-29 engines were extremely sensitive to supercharger boost
and fuel mixture thus many aircraft could not make it back to
Tinian or Guam without running out of fuel due to minor errors
from the flight engineer and/or unforeseen or unknown winds
aloft. I'm not sure, but wasn't the B-29 the first successful, or
maybe the first period, to have a flight engineer controlling the
complete operation of the engines?

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.

This perhaps proves my point as well as yours. I did not know
prior to reading your paragraph above that Sweeney landed on
Okinawa. I'm curious now to look at a map of the Pacific, but
certainly Okinawa was closer than Iwo by what, a couple hundred
miles? A great distance when you're running on fumes.

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

Lonnie, yours is indeed an outstanding commentary on Bockscar and
its flight crew. Thank you for posting it, I shall put your post
in a safe place for future reference.

--
HP, aka Jerry

Dan Edwards added these comments in the current discussion du
jour ...

Just wanted to add these to the cause...

-Dan Edwards-

Good pics, Dan! Thanks for posting them

"Lonnie J. Potter" wrote in
message .. .
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





begin 666 B-29 Bockscar NMUSAF 11-10-06.JPG

Attachment decoded: B-29 Bockscar NMUSAF 11-10-06.JPG
`
end

begin 666 B-29 Bockscar nose art NMUSAF 11-10-06.JPG

Attachment decoded: B-29 Bockscar nose art NMUSAF 11-10-06.JPG
`
end

begin 666 B-29 Bockscar signage.JPG

Attachment decoded: B-29 Bockscar signage.JPG
`
end





--
HP, aka Jerry

First, I would like to thank Dan for the extra photos. Wright-Patt if I'm
not mistaken ??? Was stationed there back in 1990-1992. Base Chapel as a
Chaplain's Assistant and then I went to Desert Shield/Storm/Calm TDY
(Temporary Duty) as a Chaplain Assistant to the Chaplain for Gen.
Schwarzkopf, Fr. Jerry Mueller.

Finally, Jerry, the comments were with the aid and assistance of an email
friend of mine, Rick Tavares, who is working on the cause of getting the
Purple Heart to all our former POW's who died while in captivity. He is
also a member of the Tiger Survivors of the Korean War. A "good Joe" in my
book!!!

I find the photos and some of the comments from other users on this
newsgroup to be informative, and entertaining, with the exception of all the
"political" discussions, which instantly go to my ignore and kill files.

I am not a licensed pilot, and I've been lucky to have been able to "get
some stick time" with some fantastic aircraft in my military career. My
step-father (pictured) was right all along when he would say, "It's in the
AIR FORCE, Son!!! Fly high!!!"

To Dan, Jerry,and all pilots everywhere, "Fly high!!!"

Lonnie J. Potter
Corporal
US Marine Corps (1977-1981)
Shortest Marine in Marine Corps history (4 ft. 10 in.)
Staff Sergeant
US Air Force (Retired) (1982-1994)
Radio Operator for Air Force One & Two and Chaplain's Assistant
100% Disabled Desert Shield/Storm/Calm Veteran
Chaplain, Chapter 55, Madison County, KY
Disabled American Veterans
www.dav.org
Chaplain, Uniformed Services Disabled Retirees
www.usdr.org
Lifetime Member, Air Force Sergeants Association
www.afsahq.org

*Photo attached:
The Late William Conley Griffith
Staff Sergeant
US Air Force (Retired) (1952-1975)

Lonnie J. Potter added these comments in the current discussion
du jour ...

First, I would like to thank Dan for the extra photos.
Wright-Patt if I'm not mistaken ??? Was stationed there back
in 1990-1992. Base Chapel as a Chaplain's Assistant and then
I went to Desert Shield/Storm/Calm TDY (Temporary Duty) as a
Chaplain Assistant to the Chaplain for Gen. Schwarzkopf, Fr.
Jerry Mueller.

Finally, Jerry, the comments were with the aid and assistance
of an email friend of mine, Rick Tavares, who is working on
the cause of getting the Purple Heart to all our former POW's
who died while in captivity. He is also a member of the Tiger
Survivors of the Korean War. A "good Joe" in my book!!!

Thanks, again, Lonnie. Doesn't matter if you got a little
Beatles-esqe "with a little help from my friends," the important
thing was that you and he were able to provide such a fascinating
narrative.

I find the photos and some of the comments from other users on
this newsgroup to be informative, and entertaining, with the
exception of all the "political" discussions, which instantly
go to my ignore and kill files.

I am not a licensed pilot, and I've been lucky to have been
able to "get some stick time" with some fantastic aircraft in
my military career. My step-father (pictured) was right all
along when he would say, "It's in the AIR FORCE, Son!!! Fly
high!!!"

To Dan, Jerry,and all pilots everywhere, "Fly high!!!"

You, too! I am also not a pilot, just a "pilot" who enjoys
certain kinds of aviation photos although I am not at all an
expert nor anything really of a warfare or even WWII expert. Have
a great day!

Lonnie J. Potter
Corporal
US Marine Corps (1977-1981)
Shortest Marine in Marine Corps history (4 ft. 10 in.)
Staff Sergeant
US Air Force (Retired) (1982-1994)
Radio Operator for Air Force One & Two and Chaplain's
Assistant 100% Disabled Desert Shield/Storm/Calm Veteran
Chaplain, Chapter 55, Madison County, KY
Disabled American Veterans
www.dav.org
Chaplain, Uniformed Services Disabled Retirees
www.usdr.org
Lifetime Member, Air Force Sergeants Association
www.afsahq.org

*Photo attached:
The Late William Conley Griffith
Staff Sergeant
US Air Force (Retired) (1952-1975)


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Attachment decoded: Bill.jpg
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--
HP, aka Jerry