COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP)
Paul Tibbets, the pilot and commander of the B-29 that dropped the atomic bomb on Hi roshima, Japan, died today. He was 92. Ti b b e t s d i e d a t hi s Columbus, Ohio, home, said Gerry Newhouse, a longtime friend. Tibbets suffered from a variety of health problems and had been in decline for two months. Tibbets had requested no funeral and no headstone, fearing it would provide his detractors with a place to protest, Newhouse said. Tibbets’ historic mission in the plane Enola Gay, named for hi s mothe r, marked the beginning of the end of World War II. It was the first use of a nuclear weapon in wartime.
