Enola Gay crew member dies at 87

[darrels joy]

Enola Gay crew member dies at 87




Morris ‘Dick’ Jeppson has died at age 87. He was a weapon’s specialist on the Enola Gay, and climbed into the bomb bay to arm the atomic bomb before the plane dropped it on Hiroshima in August 1945.

From the LA Times:

Worried about his family’s safety, he remained silent for decades about his role in the attack that killed at least 80,000 people, leveled two-thirds of the Japanese city and ignited controversy for having unleashed atomic power as a weapon.

When the Army Air Forces unit that flew the mission gathered in 1995, Jeppson attended and spoke in public about the bombing for the first time.

“You had a job to do, you just did it,” Jeppson had often said since then.
[...]

“People were looking down and seeing this enormous cloud coming up and the destruction spreading,” Jeppson told Time magazine in 2005. “And that’s the point that it’s somber because you know a lot of people are getting destroyed down there in the city.”

After the 12-plus-hour flight, the plane returned to Tinian Island in the Pacific, where Jeppson was unexpectedly greeted by a good friend who was a Navy lieutenant. They were sharing dinner when a Navy officer asked Jeppson, “What did you do today?” he recounted in Time. “I said, ‘I think we ended the war today.’ “

In 2002, Jeppson earned $167,500 by auctioning off some plugs he used during the bombing mission. The U.S. government tried and failed to block the sale for security reasons.

From the Washington Post:

Mr. Jeppson received the Silver Star and went on to a civilian career in electronics and applied radiation. He maintained that he had no regrets about the bombing. He told reporters that his wife’s car bore a bumper sticker that read “If there hadn’t been a Pearl Harbor, there wouldn’t have been a Hiroshima.”

Last year, Jeppson was interviewed by the Mainichi Shimbun and said the following in response to a question about future Americans apologizing for the bombing:

I think that one’s easy to answer. If it’s done once for an apology for something like that, think of all of the other things over history that should be apologized for, applying the same rule. It’s just not necessary. War is war. There was a good reason for it, put it into history books or whatever. But nobody down the road has any right to apologize for something that happened in the past.

This question comes up in the U.S. all the time. … (Like slavery,) it’s history. It’s all laid out. Why should anybody today apologize for anything that happened 150 years ago? It isn’t necessary. It’s giving somebody 150 years later a right to make this apology. No, they don’t have a right to make an apology.

Now only one last crew member of the Enola Gay, Theodore “Dutch” Van Kirk, remains alive.

http://www.japanprobe.com/2010/04/08...er-dies-at-87/

[revwardoc]

RIP Morris Jeppson. You didn't have to make up any excuses for doing your duty. Good work, soldier.

I like the bumper sticker, too.