From the mid '40s to the mid '50s, I was often referred to as a hero. It's depending on who's giving me the treatment. How would you say history has treated you?Ī. With the 50th anniversary of the bombing this summer, the 79-year-old Tibbets _ who served from 1958 through 1961 as 6th Air Division commander at MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa _ agreed to answer written questions.
Paul Tibbets Jr., the pilot of the Enola Gay, has refrained from publicly getting involved in the debate over the airplane, named after his mother.
Since the controversy began about a year ago, retired Brig.
