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[41], On 6 March 1945 (concurrent with the activation of Project Alberta), the 1st Ordnance Squadron, Special (Aviation) was activated at Wendover, again using Army Air Forces personnel on hand or already at Los Alamos. At 08:15 local time, they dropped the atomic bomb, code-named Little Boy, over Hiroshima. In 1995, he denounced the 50th anniversary exhibition of the Enola Gay at the Smithsonian Institution, which attempted to present the bombing in context with the destruction it caused, as a "damn big insult",[59] due to its focus on the Japanese casualties rather than the brutality of the Japanese government. Showing Editorial results for paul tibbets. After leaving the Air Force in 1966, he worked for Executive Jet Aviation, serving on the founding board and as its president from 1976 until his retirement in 1987. Paul Tibbets: Hey, you've got to correct that. When he was eight, his family moved to Hialeah, Florida, to escape from harsh midwestern winters. The professional competence, aerial skill, and devotion to duty displayed by Captain Tibbets reflect great credit upon himself and the United States Air Force. The son of a prosperous businessman, Paul Warfield Tibbets was born at Quincy, Illinois, on February 23 1915. . [1], After graduation, Tibbets was assigned to the 16th Observation Squadron, which was based at Lawson Field, Georgia, with a flight supporting the Infantry School at nearby Fort Benning. However, he attended for only a year and a half as he changed his mind about wanting to become a doctor. [17], Tibbets flew the lead bomber Butcher Shop[18] for the first American daylight heavy bomber mission on 17 August 1942, a shallow-penetration raid against a marshalling yard in Rouen in Occupied France, with Armstrong as his co-pilot. We have estimated He attended the Squadron Officer School at Maxwell Air Force Base, Alabama, in 1996, and then qualified on the B-2 Spirit at Whiteman in 1997. [49][50], On 5 August 1945, Tibbets formally named his B-29 Enola Gay after his mother. Paul Warfield Tibbets Jr. Biography - Facts, Childhood, Family Life He died in 2007. Following his retirement from the USAF, Tibbets served the air taxi company Executive Jet Aviation. He became a member of the founding board of the company and eventually served as its president. He has a pure loving kind heart personality. Paul Harrison Tibbitt IV is a former SpongeBob SquarePants crew member. [45], The ground support echelon of the 509th Composite Group received movement orders and moved by rail on 26 April 1945, to its port of embarkation at Seattle, Washington. [57] The 509th Composite Group was awarded an Air Force Outstanding Unit Award in 1999. [59] He was inducted into the National Aviation Hall of Fame in 1996.[71]. wikipedia.en/Paul_Tibbets.md at main chinapedia/wikipedia.en We recommend you to check the complete list of Famous People born on 23 February. Major American newspapers published interviews and pictures of his wife and children. When he was five years old the family moved to Davenport, Iowa, and then to Iowas capital, Des Moines, where he was raised, and where his father became a confections wholesaler. This was not Tibbets's regular aircraft, Red Gremlin, nor his regular crew, which included bombardier Thomas Ferebee and navigator Theodore Van Kirk, who later flew with him in Enola Gay. He is best known as the pilot who flew the B-29 Superfortress known as the Enola Gay (named after his mother) when it dropped Little Boy, the first of two atomic bombs used in warfare, on the Japanese city of Hiroshima.. Paul Tibbets was a brigadier general in the United States Air Force. Search instead in Creative? Ent gave Tibbets a choice of three possible bases: Great Bend Army Airfield, Kansas; Mountain Home Army Airfield, Idaho; or Wendover Army Air Field, Utah. Its role was to transition pilots to the B-29. Air Force general to retire after probe finds misconduct Special to The Times. He was then selected for training on the B-1 bomber at Dyess Air Force Base, Texas, and was posted to a B-1 squadron, the 37th Bomb Squadron at Ellsworth Air Force Base in South Dakota. Now in Montgomery with his wife, son Gene Tibbets recalls the turmoil that followed the explosion. He successfully dropped his bomb upon reaching the Target city, this single attack being the culmination of many months of tireless effort, training and organization unique in the Army Air Forces history, during which he constantly coped with new problems in precision bombing and engineering. Paul III Tibbets and Gene Tibbets. At the time of his death, he was -2007 years old. Of course, Paul was the pilot of the Enola Gay B-29 Superfortress on it's secret mission during. Studs Terkel Interview with Enola Gay Pilot Paul Tibbets, 2002 75 Years Ago: The Flight of the Enola Gay - National Air and Space Museum [22], In the leadup to Operation Torch, the Allied invasion of North Africa, the commander of the Eighth Air Force, Major General Carl Spaatz was ordered to provide his best two pilots for a secret mission. Lewis would fly the mission as Tibbets's co-pilot. Pilot launched Atomic Age over Hiroshima - Los Angeles Times Tibbets remains a polarizing figure to this day. He is the grandson of Paul W. Tibbets Jr., the pilot of the aircraft that dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima in 1945. [13], Tibbets returned to Maxwell Air Force Base, where he attended the Air War College. He was one of the founding board members and attempted to extend the company's operations to Europe, but was unsuccessful. Using his expert knowledge, Captain Tibbets resolved a system anomaly, which would have inhibited release, within minutes of striking his targets. [3] "There was no favoritism when I was chosen for bombers," Tibbets recalled, "The Air Force can't afford to put someone in a job for which they're not qualified. In June 1955, he graduated from the Air War College in Montgomery, Alabama, and then served at the Allied Air Forces in the Central Europe Headquarters at Fontainebleau, France, as the director of war plans. [53] The regularly assigned aircraft commander, Robert A. Lewis, was unhappy to be displaced by Tibbets for this important mission, and became furious when he arrived at the airfield on the morning of 6 August to see the aircraft he considered his painted with the now-famous nose art. He did not once apologise for the horrendous act of bombing the Japanese city of Hiroshima that shocked the world on 6 August 1945. [82] Above and Beyond (1952) depicted the World War II events that involved Tibbets; Robert Taylor starred as Tibbets and Eleanor Parker played the role of his first wife Lucy. On this Wikipedia the language links are at the top of the page across from the article title. He was seen as one of the most successful United States Air Force pilot of all times. The bomb, code-named Little Boy, was dropped on the Japanese city of Hiroshima. Brigadier General Paul Warfield Tibbets Jr. 1915-2007. The attack marked Little Boy as the first nuclear weapon used in warfare and the bomber as the first aircraft to drop an atomic bomb. Copyright 2022 by the Atomic Heritage Foundation. At the time, he thought to himself, "People are getting killed down there that don't have any business getting killed. Those are not soldiers." In the early 1950s, he remained involved in the development of the Boeing B-47 Stratojet. From July 1950 to February 1952, he remained the B-47 project officer at Boeing in Wichita. This article is about the WWII United States Air Force pilot. Tibbets did not inform his family or his commanding officer, and the couple arranged for the notice to be kept out of the local newspaper. Paul Tibbets - Biography - IMDb Explore historical records and family tree profiles about Lucy Tibbets on MyHeritage, the world's family history network. He was elevated to the position of first lieutenant while he was stationed at the U.S. army post of Fort Benning.. Armstrong was an experienced combat veteran against German targets, but he was in his forties and had been severely injured in a fire in the summer of 1943. Paul Tibbets - Ancestry.com This doctor explained to him about his former classmates who failed the program and ended up in drug sales. Their two sons, Paul III and Gene Wingate Tibbets, were born in 1940 and 1944, respectively. It was a passion of mine to serve. [24] "By reputation", historian Stephen Ambrose wrote, Tibbets was "the best flier in the Army Air Force. Did Paul Tibbets express regret about dropping the bomb? He is a member of famous Actor with the age 92 years old group. Paul III was born in 1940, in Columbus, Georgia, and graduated from Huntingdon College and Auburn University. In February 1942, he became the commanding officer of the 340th Bombardment Squadron of the 97th Bombardment Group, which was equipped with the Boeing B-17. [83] Tibbets was also the model for screenwriter Sy Bartlett's fictional character "Major Joe Cobb" in the film Twelve O'Clock High (1949), and for a brief period in February 1949 was slated to be the film's technical advisor until his replacement at the last minute by Colonel John H. Tibbets married his wife, Andrea, in about 1953 or 1954. Elmira's connection with Paul Tibbets Jr. and the Enola Gay Employing the new Joint Direct Attack Munition, Captain Tibbets successfully targeted 16 separate impact points and destroyed critical military production facilities including the Smederevo Petroleum Product Storage near Belgrade, a radio relay facility, and an arms production plant in Kragujevac. BRIGADIER GENERAL PAUL W. TIBBETS IV > Air Force > Biography Display - AF Paul Warfield Tibbets Jr. (23 February 1915 1 November 2007) was a brigadier general in the United States Air Force. [4], Tibbets received a Master of Science degree in Human Factors Engineering from the University of Idaho in 2000, and was a non-resident student at the Air Command and Staff College at Maxwell Air Force Base in Alabama in 2001. He has a full head of silver hair. Courtesy of the Joseph Papalia Collection. Contribute to chinapedia/wikipedia.en development by creating an account on GitHub. After his undergraduate work, Tibbets had planned on becoming an abdominal surgeon. When he was five years old the family moved to Davenport, Iowa, and then to Iowa's capital, Des Moines, where he was raised, and where his father became a confections wholesaler. Paul Warfield Tibbets III was born November 19, 1940 in Columbus, Georgia and he passed away peacefully at the Stoneybrook Memory Care Home in West Monroe, Louisiana, on October 20, 2016 following a courageous battle with Alzheimer's. 87 Paul Tibbets Photos and Premium High Res Pictures - Getty Images EDITORIAL All Sports Entertainment News Archival Browse 87 paul tibbets stock photos and images available, or start a new search to explore more stock photos and images. Family (1) Trivia (6) He was the pilot of the B-29 Superfortress "Enola Gay", which dropped the atomic bomb "Little Boy" on Hiroshima on 6 August 1945. A few weeks later, Tibbets flew the Supreme Allied Commander, Lieutenant General Dwight D. Eisenhower, to Gibraltar. [56] He became a celebrity, with pictures and interviews of his wife and children in the major American newspapers. Paul Tibbets Jr. was born on Feb. 23, 1915, to Paul Warfield Tibbets and Enola Gay Haggard, in Quincy, Ill. Hiroshima Bomber Paul Tibbets did not once repent the heinous action In his later years, he. Although Tibbets was too young to remember World War I, he does remember his father coming home in uniform, after serving overseas as a captain with the 33rd Infantry Division. National Museum of Nuclear Science & History. Gen. Paul Tibbets, Jr. - Veterans Funeral Care Paul Tibbets was a retired Air Force brigadier general who flew the Enola Gay (named after his mother) when it dropped Little Boy, on the Japanese city of Hiroshima. In simulated combat engagements against a P-47 fighter at the B-29's cruising altitude of 30,000 feet (9,100m), he discovered that the B-29 had a smaller turning radius than the P-47, and could avoid it by turning away. The story of Colonel Paul Tibbets, the pilot of the Enola Gay, the bomber that dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima. Norstad backed down, and the mission was successfully flown at 20,000 feet (6,100m). Nov. 2, 2007 12 AM PT. In the 1950s, he was involved in the development of the Boeing B-47 Stratojet and also held the command of the 308th Bombardment Wing and the 6th Air Division. He served as a military attach in India for a couple of years. Following his cremation, his ashes were scattered over the English Channel. Paul Warfield Tibbets IV is the grandson of Paul W. Tibbets Jr., the pilot of the aircraft that dropped an atomic bomb on the Japanese city of Hiroshima in 1945. He was also interviewed in the 1970s for the British documentary series The World at War. The family again shifted to Hialeah, Florida, when Tibbets was 8. Tinian was approximately 2,000 miles (3,200km) away from Japan, so it took six hours to reach Hiroshima. Tibbets passed away on November 1, 2007. Meanwhile, he took training in private flying at the Opa-locka Airport in Miami. In late May 1945, the 509th was transferred to Tinian Island in the South Pacific to await final orders. 1944 Sep 1st Selected to lead the 509th Composite Group. I am supposed to be a bomber pilot and destroy a target. "[2], Tibbets entered the United States Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, Colorado, from which he graduated in 1989 with a Bachelor of Science degree, majoring in Human Factors Engineering. [3] There, he qualified on the Boeing B-52 Stratofortress, making him one of the few pilots qualified to fly all three of the USAF's strategic bombers: the B-1, B-2 and B-52. [15] It had been hastily assembled to meet demands for an early deployment, and arrived without any training in the basics of high altitude daylight bombing. By Eric Malnic. The first American daylight heavy bomber mission saw Tibbets flying the lead bomber Butcher Shop on August 17, 1942, with Armstrong as his co-pilot, while raiding in Rouen in Occupied France, against a marshaling yard. Listen to Paul Tibbets's Oral History on Voices of the Manhattan Project, Manhattan Project Spotlight: Paul Tibbets. On 7 December 1941, Tibbets heard about the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor while listening to the radio during a routine flight. Paul Tibbets was a retired Air Force brigadier general who flew the Enola Gay (named after his mother) when it dropped Little Boy, on the Japanese city of Hiroshima. The atomic bomb, code-named "Little Boy", was dropped over Hiroshima at 08:15 local time. From September 1944 until May 1945, Tibbets and the 509th Composite Group trained extensively at Wendover Air Force Base in Wendover, Utah. On June 26, 1940, young pilot Lt. Paul W. Tibbets, Jr., was summoned to aid Col. Samuel R. Hopkins, whose wife and son were in a terrible automobile accident near Elmira. [10] While there he was promoted to captain. Grandson of legendary Air Force pilot reflects family legacy Paul Tibbets was a brigadier general in the United States Air Force. Blake Stilwell. He spent 22 months there on this posting, which ended in June 1966. When Paul Tibbets died in January 2007, he had been retired from the Air Force since 1966. The two married on May 4, 1956, and had a son named James. You have got to leave the moral issue out of it. Gen.. For his grandson, see, United States Air Force general (19152007), Atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, 17th Bombardment Operational Training Wing (Very Heavy), European-African-Middle Eastern Campaign Medal, Enola Gay: The Men, the Mission, the Atomic Bomb, "Paul Tibbets Jr., who flew plane that dropped first atomic bomb, dies at 92", "General Paul Tibbets Reflections on Hiroshima", "Literary Fallout: The legacies of Hiroshima and Nagasaki", "Miamian who bombed Hiroshima in 1945 dies", "Paul W. Tibbets Jr., Pilot of Enola Gay, Dies at 92", "Paul Tibbets Jr., 92; piloted Enola Gay over Hiroshima", "Paul Tibbets: A Rendezvous with History by Di Freeze", "Face of Defense: Grandson Carries on Grandfather's Service", "Grandson of Enola Gay Pilot Takes Command of B-2 Bomb Wing", "Man Who Dropped Atomic Bomb on Hiroshima Dies at 92", "Tibbets did his duty, and this country should be thankful", "Duty: A Father, His Son, and the Man Who Won the War", General Paul Tibbets: Reflections on Hiroshima, A dramatic retelling of the Hiroshima mission with Paul Tibbets. Bonsai worked at the 100-F Area at Hanford during the Manhattan Project. Three weeks later he was named the commanding officer of the 340th Bombardment Squadron of the 97th Bombardment Group, equipped with the B-17D. [51][52] Enola Gay, serial number 4486292, had been personally selected by him, on recommendation of a civilian production supervisor, while it was still on the assembly line at the Glenn L. Martin Company plant in Bellevue, Nebraska. So, how much is Paul Tibbets worth at the age of 92 years old? Scroll Down and find everything about him. Wilson was the Army Air Force project officer who provided liaison support to the Manhattan Project. Updated January 04, 2023 10:44:57. Tibbets met a divorcee named Andrea Quattrehomme while he was posted in France. His family returned to Alton, Illinois, in the late 1920s. He returned to Whiteman in July 2003, where he served as a T-38 and B-2 flight examiner, director of operations of the 325th Bomb Squadron and then the 13th Bomb Squadron. Paul Tibbets's Timeline 1915 Feb 23rd Born in Quincy, Illinois. He was seen as a national hero who had ended the war with Japan. His body was cremated because he had earlier instructed that no funeral was to be held and no headstone was to be constructed for him, as he was skeptical that his resting place could be used by opponents of the bombing for protests and destruction. Paul Tibbets was created on Feb 23, 1915 in Quincy, Illinois, USA while Paul Warfield Tibbets Jr. BRIG GEN Paul Tibbets, RIP | Military.com His citation read: The President of the United States of America, authorized by Act of Congress, July 2, 1926, takes pleasure in presenting the Distinguished Flying Cross to Captain Paul W. Tibbets IV, United States Air Force, for extraordinary achievement while participating in aerial flight as a B-2 Mission Commander, at or near Yugoslavia, on 8 April 1999. Tibbets was born in . He died in West Monroe, Louisiana, in 2016. He then attended the Joint Forces Staff College in Norfolk, Virginia in 2009, and the NATO Defense College in Rome in 2010. He died on November 1, 2007 in Columbus, Ohio, USA. It was piloted by Doug Davis and dropped candy bars to the crowd that attended the Hialeah Park Race Track races. Accordingly, Tibbets first flew Major General Mark W. Clark to Gibraltar from Polebrook and then the supreme allied commander, Lieutenant General Dwight D. Eisenhower, to Gibraltor a few weeks later. Tibbets quickly earned a reputation as one of the best pilots in the Army Air Force. [48] Project Alberta's "Destination Team" also sent most of its members to Tinian to supervise the assembly, loading, and dropping of the bombs under the administrative title of 1st Technical Services Detachment, Miscellaneous War Department Group. View popular celebrities life details, birth signs and real ages. All rights reserved. They arrived at Wendover, Utah, for training and practice bombing on June 14. EDUCATION. Tibbets later received an invitation from President Harry S. Truman to visit the White House. You can find out how much net worth Paul has this year and how he spent his expenses. "Hiroshima; Enola Gay's Crew Recalls The Flight Into a New Era", Paul Tibbets interviewed in 1982 by Ann Blythe, Paul Tibbet interviewed by Kermit Weeks at Weeks Air Museum, Florida, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Paul_Tibbets&oldid=1136780636, People associated with the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, United States Army Air Forces bomber pilots of World War II, Recipients of the Distinguished Service Cross (United States), Recipients of the Distinguished Flying Cross (United States), Short description is different from Wikidata, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, This page was last edited on 1 February 2023, at 02:47. Furthermore, two representatives from Washington, D.C. were present on the island:[44] the deputy director of the Manhattan Project, Brigadier General Thomas Farrell, and Rear Admiral William R. Purnell of the Military Policy Committee. Pilot launched Atomic Age over Hiroshima. [35] Tibbets was told that he would be in charge of the 509th Composite Group, a fully self-contained organization of about 1,800 men, which would have 15 B-29s and a high priority for all kinds of military stores. The film Above and Beyond (1952) depicted the World War II events involving Paul Tibbets, with Robert Taylor starring as Tibbets and Eleanor Parker as his first wife, Lucy. After the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, he flew anti-submarine patrols over the Atlantic. In his later years, he would draw the ire and criticism of nuclear activists something he would make no apologies for. Tibbets was made the deputy of Colonel Frank A. Armstrong Jr. after the latter replaced group commander Lieutenant Colonel Cornelius W. Cousland. His net worth has been growing significantly in 2021-2022. It dawned on Tibbets that:.mw-parser-output .templatequote{overflow:hidden;margin:1em 0;padding:0 40px}.mw-parser-output .templatequote .templatequotecite{line-height:1.5em;text-align:left;padding-left:1.6em;margin-top:0}, I am just like that if I get to thinking about some innocent person getting hit on the ground. Gen. Paul W. Tibbets, Jr., seen here, says Friday's visit to Hiroshima by U.S. [43], With the addition of the 1st Ordnance Squadron to its roster in March 1945, the 509th Composite Group had an authorized strength of 225 officers and 1,542 enlisted men, almost all of whom deployed to Tinian, an island in the northern Marianas within striking distance of Japan, in May and June 1945. He was the pilot of the B-29 Superfortress "Enola Gay", which dropped the atomic bomb "Little Boy" on Hiroshima on 6 August 1945. [68] They had a son, James Tibbets. Spouse and Children. The following day, according to the terms of Operations Order No. Paul Tibbets and the Enola Gay. His father worked there as a confections wholesaler. 1989 Bachelor of Science, Human Factors Engineering, U.S. Air Force Academy, Colorado Springs, Colo. 1996 Squadron Officer School, Maxwell AFB, Ala. 2000 Masters of Science, Human Factors Engineering, University of Idaho, Moscow. . Gen. Paul W. Tibbets Jr., the pilot in command of the "Enola Gay" when it dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan, Aug. 6, 1945. Discover today's celebrity birthdays and explore famous people who share your birthday. [88] An interview with Tibbets also appeared in the movie Atomic Cafe (1982),[89] as well as was in the 1970s British documentary series The World at War,[90] and the "Men Who Brought the Dawn" episode of the Smithsonian Networks' War Stories (1995). He is best known as the pilot who flew the B-29 Superfortress known as the Enola Gay (named after his mother) when it dropped Little Boy, the first of two atomic bombs used in warfare, on the Japanese city of Hiroshima.. Tibbets enlisted in the United States Army in 1937 and . The bomb, code-named Little Boy, was dropped on the Japanese city of Hiroshima. Children James Tibbets, Gene Tibbets, Paul III Tibbets Spouse Andrea Quattrehomme (m. 1956-2007), Lucy Wingate (m. 1938-1955) Books Return of the Enola Gay, The Tibbets story, Tibbets Story Mission Hiroshim Learn How rich is He in this year and how He spends money? 2001 Air Command and Staff College . Jones Construction Company. Tibbets initially wanted to become an abdominal surgeon. You said 89. [28], When General Henry H. "Hap" Arnold, the Chief of United States Army Air Forces, requested an experienced bombardment pilot to help with the development of the Boeing B-29 Superfortress bomber, Doolittle recommended Tibbets. Above and Beyond (1953) - Turner Classic Movies He was married to Andrea P. Quattrehomme and Lucy Frances Wingate. Paul Warfield Tibbets Jr. was born on February 23, 1915, in Quincy, Illinois. [64], Tibbets then attended the Air Command and Staff School at Maxwell Air Force Base, Alabama. The result of this attack was tremendous damage to the city of Hiroshima, contributing materially to the effectiveness of our strikes against the enemy. His wife is Andrea P. Quattrehomme (4 May1956 - 1 November2007)( his death)( 1 child), Lucy Frances Wingate (19 June1938 - 1955)( divorced)( 2 children). Northumberland man was navigator on Enola Gay crew After flying 43 combat missions, he became the assistant for bomber operations on the staff of the Twelfth Air Force. After leading the first American daylight heavy bomber misson in Occupied France in August 1942,Tibbets was selected to fly Major General Mark W. Clark from Polebook to Gibraltar in preparation for Operation Torch, the allied invasion of North Africa. [20][21], On that first mission, Tibbets saw in real time that his bombs were falling on innocent civilians. Famously known by the Family name Paul Warfield Tibbets Jr., was a great United States Air Force pilot. The group consisted of around 1,800 men who were supposed to be equipped with 15 B-29s and were to be given high priority for any kind of military stores. [5] In February 2014, he became Deputy Director for Nuclear Operations at the United States Strategic Command, at Offutt Air Force Base in Nebraska, where he was responsible for the nuclear mission of the nation's ballistic missile submarines, intercontinental ballistic missiles, and strategic bombers. Paul Warfield Tibbets, Jr. (February 23, 1915 - November 1, 2007) was a brigadier general in the United States Air Force, best known for being the pilot of the Enola Gay, the first aircraft to drop an atomic bomb in the history of warfare. I was told that it wasn't because of who I was, but because it was the best fit."[2]. He is remembered for flying the first aircraft that dropped an atomic bomb, the 'B-29 Superfortress' known as "Enola Gay." Courtesy of the Joseph Papalia Collection. [3] After his undergraduate work, Tibbets had planned on becoming an abdominal surgeon. As the University of Florida had no medical school at that time, Tibbets completed his second year from the university and then took a transfer to the University of Cincinnati to finish his pre-med studies. Paul Warfield Tibbets, Sr. (1889 - 1968) - Genealogy - geni family tree He is the grandson of Paul W. Tibbets Jr., the pilot of the aircraft that dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima in 1945. Atomic Bombings - Paul Tibbets (Pilot, Enola Gay) - 9/11 Reckoning [2], From October 2007 to August 2009, Tibbets was stationed at NATO headquarters in Brussels. [76], The President of the United States of America, authorized by Act of Congress July 9, 1918, takes pleasure in presenting the Distinguished Service Cross to Colonel (Air Corps) Paul Warfield Tibbets, Jr., United States Army Air Forces, for extraordinary heroism in connection with military operations against an armed enemy while serving as Pilot of a B-29 Very Heavy Bomber in the 393d Bombardment Squadron, 509th Composite Group (VH), Twentieth Air force, while participating in a bombing mission on 6 August 1945, over Japan. The Army Air Forces received the B-29-45-MO with the serial number 44-86292 on May 18 and the 509th assigned it to crew B-9 commanded by Capt. In . He was commissioned as a second lieutenant and received his pilot rating in 1938 at Kelly Field in San Antonio. [13] Tibbets had recently been given a battlefield promotion to colonel, but did not receive it, as such promotions had to be confirmed by a panel of officers. He was the Deputy Director for Nuclear Operations in the Global Operations Directorate of the United States Strategic Command, where he was responsible for the nuclear mission of the nation's ballistic missile submarines, intercontinental ballistic missiles, and strategic bombers.