Recently declassified pictures of the Atomic Bomb

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canav8
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Recently declassified pictures of the Atomic Bomb

Post by canav8 »

I thought some of you might enjoy seeing these. Have a look at the assembly of the atomic bomb and then loading into Enola Gay.

http://www.alternatewars.com/Bomb_Loadi ... _Guide.htm
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Doug
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Bruce Fenstermacher
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Re: Recently declassified pictures of the Atomic Bomb

Post by Bruce Fenstermacher »

Interesting. Did you know there is a museum in Las Vegas dedicated to the development of the atomic bomb. My wife Teresa and I toured it on one of our trips through Las Vegas on the way to Lake Havasu.
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Hawkeyenfo
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Re: Recently declassified pictures of the Atomic Bomb

Post by Hawkeyenfo »

Great perspective on things back then...... Thanks for posting!
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1952 Cessna 170B
1960 Piper Aztec (PA23-250)
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pdb
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Re: Recently declassified pictures of the Atomic Bomb

Post by pdb »

I grew up in Terrace Park, OH, and was 10 in 1961. Virtually all of the men in this little village of about 1,500 were veterans. Many, like my dad and my immediate neighbor (both Navy veterans), were in the Pacific. In the sixties, all were in the process of moving forward in their careers and didn't spend much time talking about the war.

My younger brother's best friend was Larry Van Kirk whose Dad, Theodore, better known as Dutch, was the navigator on the Enola Gay. He died very recently and was the last surviving crew member.

As kids, we had no idea who he was. He was just another dad who showed up for Little League games and battled nothing worse than crab grass.

My father knew, as did probably most of the other men his age. He wound up his navy combat career on Saipan where his LST was nearly sunk by Japanese shore batteries. He and his ship made it back to San Diego where they started training for the invasion of the Japanese mainland.

None of those guys were were looking forward to the final inning and very happy to hear of the surrender of Japan. They all were quietly grateful for the results of the Enola Gay and Bock's Car missions, and held their friend in high regard. He helped them get home which is all they wanted.
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bagarre
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Re: Recently declassified pictures of the Atomic Bomb

Post by bagarre »

Nearly 500,000 Purple Heart medals (awarded for combat casualties) were manufactured in anticipation of the casualties resulting from the invasion of Japan; the number exceeded that of all American military casualties of the 65 years following the end of World War II, including the Korean and Vietnam Wars. In 2003, there were still 120,000 of these Purple Heart medals in stock.[61] There were so many in surplus that combat units in Iraq and Afghanistan were able to keep Purple Hearts on-hand for immediate award to soldiers wounded on the field.

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Downfall
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daedaluscan
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Re: Recently declassified pictures of the Atomic Bomb

Post by daedaluscan »

If your at all interested in physics this is a great read:

http://www.amazon.ca/The-Making-Atomic- ... 1451677618
Charlie

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cfzxo
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Re: Recently declassified pictures of the Atomic Bomb

Post by cfzxo »

Little off the topic but back in the early 1950's we had a broken arrow incident up here in northern BC where I live. That is a very interesting story, B-36 was found on a mountain top when searching for another lost aircraft. The author of a book about the broken arrow was in town talking about his book and the other happenings in the area. It turns out that the Enola Gay had landed at a small military airstrip about 15 min north of me on the Skeena River at Woodcock. The Enola Gay was on route to Tinian . The old Woodcock air strip is still there but in poor shape, I still land there to see what condition it is in. It is private property now and the owner was trying to farm the surrounding land with little success.
When we where kids we used to race are cars on it, as time went by we would have fly ins with parachute club, and camp outs. The government didn't want the liability so it was sold to highest bidder,
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