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In February 1942, Paul became the Squadron Commander of the 340th Bomb Squadron, 97th Bombardment Group, destined for England. A year later he got his pilot wings at Kelly Field, Texas and was commissioned a 2nd Lieutenant. So, on February 25th, 1937, Paul enlisted as a flying cadet in the Army Air Corps at Fort Thomas, Kentucky. Later he attended the Universities of Florida and Cincinnati in pursuit of a career in medicine, but his determination to fly was greater than that of a career both parents wanted for him. His teen years were spent attending Western Military Academy. From that day on, Paul knew he had to fly. As part of an advertising stunt, he threw Baby Ruth candy bars, with paper parachutes attached, from a biplane flying over a crowd gathered at the Hialeah horse track near Miami. Later his parents moved to Florida where, at the age of twelve, Paul had his first airplane ride. was born in Quincy, Illinois on February 23rd, 1915. He and veterans groups said too much attention was being paid to Japan's suffering and not enough to its military brutality. In 1995, Gen Tibbets denounced as a "damn big insult" a planned 50th anniversary exhibition of the Enola Gay at the Smithsonian Institution that put the bombing in context of the suffering it caused. Gen Tibbets said it was not meant as an insult but the US government formally apologised. In 1976, Gen Tibbets was criticised for re-enacting the bombing at an air show in Texas.Ī mushroom cloud was set off as he over flew in a B-29 Superfortress in a stunt that outraged Japan. Gen Tibbets said then: "Thousands of former soldiers and military family members have expressed a particularly touching and personal gratitude suggesting that they might not be alive today had it been necessary to resort to an invasion of the Japanese home islands to end the fighting." On the 60th anniversary of Hiroshima, the surviving members of the Enola Gay crew - Gen Tibbets, Theodore J "Dutch" Van Kirk (the navigator) and Morris R Jeppson (weapon test officer) said: "The use of the atomic weapon was a necessary moment in history. On the 60th anniversary of the bombing, the three surviving crew members of the Enola Gay - named after Tibbet's mother - said they had "no regrets". The five-ton "Little Boy" bomb was dropped on the morning of 6 August 1945, killing about 140,000 Japanese, with many more dying later. Paul Warfield Tibbets Jr died at his home in Columbus, Ohio, aged 92. The commander of the B-29 plane that dropped the first atomic bomb, on Hiroshima in Japan, has died.