Thomas Wilson Ferebee, the
bombardier who dropped the atomic
bomb on Hiroshima in World War II,
died Thursday. He was 81.
Ferebee was 26 on August 6, 1945,
and already a major and a veteran of
64 missions when the B-29 Enola
Gay took off for Japan with the first
nuclear weapon ever deployed.
Ferebee, who retired from the Air Force as a colonel in 1970,
said he never felt guilty but was sorry the bomb killed so many.
"I'm sorry an awful lot of people died from that bomb, and I
hate to think that something like that had to happen to end the
war," he said in a 1995 interview on the 50th anniversary of the
bombing.
"Now we should look back and remember what just one bomb
did, or two bombs," he said. "Then I think we should realize
that this can't happen again."
America's bombing of Hiroshima and the blast at Nagasaki three
days later left more than 100,000 dead and led to the end of the
war.
The only other man who has dropped a nuclear bomb in war,
Nagasaki bombardier Kermit Beahan, died in 1989. Japan
surrendered on August 14, 1945, five days after the Nagasaki
bomb was dropped.
The Enola Gay's pilot, retired Brig. Gen. Paul Tibbets, had
hand-picked Ferebee for his crew and called him "the best
bombardier who ever looked through the eyepiece of a Norden
bomb site."
Ferebee's death leaves only four surviving members of the
Enola Gay's crew: Tibbets, navigator Ted Van Kirk, weapons
officer Morris Jeppson and radio operator Richard Nelson.
Ferebee also participated in the first U.S. bombing raid on Nazi
occupied France in 1942 and was the lead bombardier for the
Allies' first 100-plane daylight raid in Europe.
After World War II, he served as a deputy commander for
maintenance in several B-47 Stratojet bomber wings. He flew
aboard B-47s during the Cold War and B-52s during the
Vietnam War. His decorations included the Silver Star, Legion
of Merit, two Distinguished Flying Crosses and the Bronze Star.
Survivors include his wife, Mary Ann Conrad Ferebee, and four
sons.
