Brig. General Paul Tibbets

SUMMARY: We are offering two important historic relics-namely the flight suit Colonel Paul Tibbets wore on the Enola Gay when it dropped the first atomic bomb and the DSC he was awarded for the mission is attached to the uniform.

SOLD

Paul Warfield Tibbets, Jr. (1915 – 2007). General Tibbets 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.

General Tibbets was selected to organize and lead the 509th Composite Bomb Group or 'the atomic bombers' which operated from the Pacific Island of Tinian in the Marianas and from there they dropped the first two atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August of 1945. Tibbets was the command pilot during the the first strike on Hiroshima during which he flew as the lead pilot of the Enola Gay.We also offer a book on the history of the 509th .

General Tibbets enlisted in the United States Air Force in 1937. Soon thereafter he was commissioned a second lieutenant. He gained flying experience in the European theater as a lead bomber pilot in the 8th Air Force and he also flew in the Mediterranean theater. He gained a reputation as "the best" and he even was accorded the honor of flying General Eisenhower on several occasions. When he was assigned the task of assembling the bomb group that would make history over Japan he selected many of the men he flew with in Europe in the 8th Air Force to become part of the crew of The Enola Gay.

This offering is a one of a kind artifact from the history making event that caused the Japanese to surrender and thus bring WW II to a close. This flight suit or uniform is the one Tibbets wore to Hiroshima and it was identified as such by Tibbets in the letter of provenance displayed at the end of this listing. The suit has the generic Air Force patch on the left shoulder that is seen in a photograph that was taken as Tibbets disembarked from the Enola Gay after retuning from the strike on Hiroshima (see above).The flight suit bears a manufacurer's label: Suit, Summer, Flying An 6550, Size M, 38 Order 44-6258 AF Aircraft Appliance Corp Chicago, IL. The medal attached to the uniform is the Distinguished Service Cross (DSC) that was awarded to Tibbets on Tinian by Air Force General Spaatz. The image to the left was General Tibbets wearing the flight suit with the attached medal at the time the present owner acquired it from him in 1979.The suit has the same construction as other flight suits from the 509th (see reference to RW Krauss at the end of the write up).

According to survivors of the 509th they did not attach much importance to these garments and many of them were worn as regular clothes or for performing household chores such as working in the garden after the war.The Tibbets suit is tan in color and it is in pristine condition having been carefully preserved for over 50 years. The Distinguished Service Cross is still attached to the left chest. Fine details regarding its construction will be provided to any interested buyer.One additional important point-as far as we can determine from multiple sources each crew member had only one flight suit.

The Distinguished Service Cross (DSC) is the second highest military decoration of the United States Army, awarded for extreme gallantry and risk of life in actual combat with an armed enemy force. Actions that merit the Distinguished Service Cross must be of such a high degree to be above those required for all other U.S. combat decorations but not meeting the criteria for the Medal of Honor. The Distinguished Service Cross is equivalent to the Navy Cross (Navy and Marine Corps) and the Air Force Cross (Air Force).The photograph above shows General Spaatz preparing the award Colonel Tibbets the Distinguished Service Cross.Note, Tibbets is holding his pipe in his left hand.

The only medal ribbon that can be worn above the DSC is of course The Medal of Honor.The letter of provenance for this item makes it clear that the medal attached to the suit is the one awarded to then Colonel Tibbets immediately after he disembarked from the Enola Gay following the strike on Hiroshima. But to reinforce this contention we did additional research on the construction of The DSC medal circa 1945. We used as a reference the book The Call of Duty (Strandberg and Bender) which details how these medals were made and their distinguishing characteristics. For example, the device that goes through the top of the ribbon and which allows the medal to be pinned to a uniform is referred to as the 'slot brooch'. DSC medals manufactured by the Robbins Co. in 1945 had a characteristic black metal 'slot brooch' as does the one attached to the uniform offered here.

LETTER OF PROVENANCE:The letter of provenance that accompanies this flight suit and medal reads as follows:--"The light weight summer flying suit was worn by myself and the members of the crew while on the first atomic mission. Our first strike was on August 6, 1945, against Hiroshima.I was the pilot of the "Enola Gay" which dropped the first bomb. This is the uniform I wore that day when the first atomic bomb was dropped. The Distinguished Service Cross on the uniform is the one given to me by General Spaatz after our first mission--Paul W. Tibbets."

Several years after he had gifted the flight suit and medal to the present owner General Tibbets attempted to buy the flight suit and medal back and there is a letter from General Tibbets documenting that proposed buy back which the present owner retained. This attempt to reaquire the items speaks volumes about their authenticity. It is our theory that the effort to recover the flight suit was prompted by an interview with the auhor Bob Greene during which Green discussed with Tibbets the potential value of artifacts related to his career. The interview occured in 2000 and the attempt to recover these items by Tibbets occurred in 2002.The interviews were later published in the book Duty:A fatrher, His Son and the Man Who Won The War. by Mr. Greene.

Both the suit and the medal are in remarkable condition with no major flaws or defects. The suit shows some construction features that were peculiar to the flying suits worn by the 509th Composite Bomb group such as the leg pockets.***

This suit is part of an archive of items that were obtained from Tibbets and those items will be offered for sale separately.

This offering is for both the flight suit and the Distinguished Service Cross that was awarded to General Tibbets on Tinian following the successful flight of The Enola Gay.Both the flight suit and the medal are in remarkable condition as shown.

All items sold by the History Buff, Inc. come with documentation and a certified opinion as to authenticity.

Price: PRICE ON REQUEST-SERIOUS BUYERS ONLY PLEASE

**This photograph was kindly provided by Mr. Bob Krauss

***Mr. Krauss is the owner of a similar flight suit that was obtained from another pilot of the 509th and it is Mr. Krauss's opinion, based on the images we provided to him , that the appearance of the two flight suits is identical thus helping to affirm the authenticity of the Tibbets flight suit.