The Son of Enola Gay: General Paul Tibbets

Family is a cause worth fighting for. While many people argue that wars break out in the world whenever covetous leaders devastate our dreams of peace with their snap decisions, men and women who fight in wars more often than not say that the reason they are fighting is to protect their family.

A love for family was a primary factor in Paul Tibbets' decision to rise to the defense of his country during World War II. Tibbets enlisted into the army prior to United States involvement in the war, in 1937, having withdrawn from medical school at the University of Cincinnati. However, only a few years later, Tibbets was to be involved in one of the most crucial missions of the war.

On the morning of August 6, 1945, Tibbets piloted a B-29 bomber over Hiroshima, Japan. Following orders from the President of the United States, Tibbets and his crew of 13 dropped a 5-ton bomb nicknamed "Little Boy" over the city. Following the bomb's detonation, 140,000 citizens of Hiroshima were either left dead or injured.

Nothing but a sprawling expanse of ruin was left in the wake of the plane. Then-Colonel Tibbets had christened the bomber in honor of his mother: The Enola Gay.

(Note the irony: Enola Gay gave birth to her son in 1915 so that he could, oddly enough, name a plane after her that would give birth to its own "Little Boy.")

For Tibbets, war revolved around family.

Before dying on Thursday, November 1, 2007, at the age of 92, Tibbets let friends and family know that he did not want to be buried with a headstone, since a burial site for him would most likely become transformed into a site of protest by the bomb's opponents. Rather, he expressed a desire to have his ashes scattered over the English Channel, where he loved to fly during the war ( Source: "Pilot of the Enola Gay Defended Mission," by Julie Carr Smyth of the Associated Press).

While he was not proud of the deaths that he was responsible for on the morning of August 6, 1945, General Tibbets certainly was proud to be a defender of the United States -- home to his harshest critics as well as to the family who he sought to protect.

Although opinions may vary as to the ethics of his war mission, General Tibbets, who was a father and grandfather as well, will continue to be remembered to students of American History as the son of Enola Gay.