General Paul Tibbits RIP

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Paul Tibbets, who etched his mother's name — Enola Gay — into history on the nose of the B-29 bomber he flew to drop the atomic bomb over Hiroshima, died Thursday after six decades of steadfastly defending the mission. He was 92.

Throughout his life, Tibbets seemed more troubled by other people's objections to the bomb than by him having led the crew that killed tens of thousands of Japanese in a single stroke. The attack marked the beginning of the end of World War II.

Tibbets grew tired of criticism for delivering the first nuclear weapon used in wartime, telling family and friends that he wanted no funeral service or headstone because he feared a burial site would only give detractors a place to protest.

And he insisted he slept just fine, believing with certainty that using the bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki saved more lives than they erased because they eliminated the need for a drawn-out invasion of Japan.

"He said, 'What they needed was someone who could do this and not flinch — and that was me,'" said journalist Bob Greene, who wrote the Tibbets biography, "Duty: A Father, His Son, and the Man Who Won the War."

Tibbets, 92, died at his Columbus home after a two-month decline caused by a variety of health problems, said Gerry Newhouse, a longtime friend.

The atomic bombing of Japan ended WWII and saved more than one million lives. It also spared the Japanese people the horrible suffering they would have had to endure had the US and its allies had to invade. The bombing also saved some portion of the Japanese people the decades of suffering they would have had to endure in whatever portion of the Japanese islands which would have been annexed into the Soviet Union because the USSR had declared war on Japan in the closing days of the conflict and would have wanted their share of the spoils if they had participated in an invasion.

That General Tibbits wished to be buried without ceremony and in an unmarked grave is infinitely sad. He and the other aircrew from the Enola Gay and the Boxcar deserve the gratitude of the people of the United States not an anonymous grave.

As with most things which are wrong in the US the fault lies with the political left. In their relentless quest to condemn the US for any and everything under the sun they have twisted that thing which brought the war to a close and ended the dying and the torment into a "war crime".

May General Tibbits rest in peace and may his nation one day purge itself of the disease of the political left and give him the public honor he deserves.