Co-pilot Olivi, who was the final member added to theĬrew by Tibbets, arrived at Wendover in January after the others had already left for Cuba. Was sent on a two-month training mission to Batista Field outside of Havana to practice long-range flying over water. It trained at Wendover until January 1945, when it Crew C15 eventually consisted of four officers (Albury, Kermit Beahan, James Van PeltĪnd Olivi) and five enlisted men (Ed Buckley, John Kuharek, Ray Gallagher, Albert "Pappy" Dehart and Abe Spitzer). Sweeney was assigned to train Crew C15, piloted by Captain Don Albury. One of the first people brought in by Tibbets to train crews for the 393rd was Major Charles Sweeney, who at the time was training B-29 pilots at Grand Island, Within the 509th, the 393rd Bomb Squadron was entrusted with delivering the bombs. "On December 17, the five squadrons at Wendover became formally unified under Tibbets as the 509th Composite Group." In August 1944 he was commissioned as a Second Lieutenant.īy the fall of 1944, over 1500 military specialists fromīeen brought together at Wendover Field in the Utah desert and divided into squadrons to prepare in secret for what would eventually become the atomic bombings of Underwent officer's training, in hopes of becoming a pilot. The 19-year-old enlisted in the Air Corps against his mother's wishes four months later he was called to duty. Join the service, because he was the sole male provider of his mother and sister. When war with Japan broke out, he did not immediately Olivi was born Januin the Pullman section of Chicago. While his view may have been obscured, his memory and subsequent perspective of theįrederick J. This was the only time that Olivi has ever been to Nagasaki, and even then he saw almost nothing of theīustling seaport town below because of cloud cover - both natural and bomb-induced. Of man using atomic weapons against his fellow human beings. Time, the plane dropped a 10,000 pound plutonium bomb known as the "Fat Man" over the city, killing more than 70,000 people in what, at this point in time, is the last instance Fred Olivi, the 23-year-old Chicago-born son of Italian immigrants, flew over Nagasaki as third pilot in the aircraft Bockscar. His thoughts on various aspects related to the bombing thus prove to Somehow managed to avoid the media - both American and Japanese. While finally getting around to putting his thoughts down in a self-published book, Olivi has Operations and Maintenance with the City of Chicago. He has lived his life in relative anonymity, retiring nine years ago as Manager of Bridge
Terms with his role in the dropping of the atomic bomb. Fred Olivi hopes that mankind will never again use atomic weapons, but he has also long ago come to Tens of thousands in the city fifty years ago. Nagasaki, but rather one that explores the personal story of a young American who helped pilot the B-29 that delivered the bomb which killed This is not an article that attempts to examine the larger political and moral issues surrounding the dropping of the atomic bomb on For many, the term "Nagasaki" elicits the kind of mixed reaction that World War II commemorations are presently evoking around the world. It isĭifficult for most people outside of Japan to conceptualize the atomic bombing of Nagasaki without envisioning overlapping images of the war's conclusion and theīeginning of the nuclear age. Hiroshima are associated with the beginning of the atomic age, and August 15th and VJ Day with the war's end, August 9th and Nagasaki fall schizophrenically in between.
For much of the rest of the world, however, the commemoration evokes a complicated series of memories. Schedules and offer a collective silent prayer that the tragedy never be repeated.įor the residents of Nagasaki the commemoration of the fiftieth anniversary of the dropping of an atomic bomb on the city is a simple, solemn occasion marked by Those too young to have witnessed the horror of the occasion will pause from their busy Mourn the loss of their friends and loved ones who perished that sultry August morning. Old enough to remember the death and destruction visited on the city fifty years ago by a single atomic bomb, will once again relate their tales of survival and wailing sirens will resonate throughout the Urakami Valley until their cries break up in the distance and precipitate a moment of silence on the part of the people of Nagasaki.
RELECTIONS FROM ABOVE REFLECTIONS FROM ABOVE: AN AMERICAN PILOT'S PERSPECTIVE ON THE MISSION WHICH DROPPED THE ATOMIC BOMB ON NAGASAKI