His awards include the Distinguished Flying Cross, the Bronze Star for service and the Legion of Merit. He also trained on B-2s at Whiteman in the 1990s, commanded a bomb squadron at the base and was a vice commander of the 379th Air Expeditionary Wing in southwest Asia in 2010-2011.
Strategic Command at Offutt Air Force Base in Nebraska. Tibbets, 48, previously served as deputy director for nuclear operations for the U.S. His grandfather would also tell them, Tibbets said, that “he’s counting on you, he’s counting on us, today’s generation of airmen, to continue as you do each and every day to raise the bar and set the standard and continue the great work that our nation relies on us to to do.” Tibbets V, told about 500 people attending the ceremony that his grandfather would be “touched by your appreciation for his service and the service of those that he was with back in that time.” Tibbets, who wears an old Rolex his grandfather gave him and whose son is also named Paul W. Japan surrendered six days later, ending the war. B-29 dropped an atomic bomb on Nagasaki, killing about 70,000 people.
The government in Japan has said that thousands of people have been categorized as still sick from the Hiroshima bombing’s radiation. The bomb destroyed much of Hiroshima and killed tens of thousands of its citizens.
Tibbets Jr., was assigned to a predecessor of the 509th Bomb Wing when he piloted the Enola Gay in the world’s first atomic bomb mission on Aug.