My father flew B-29s during the war. These are very good photographs and very historic. Despite the controversy over the Enola Gay, its crew and support people, it remains a very historic aircraft that accomplished a mission changing the course of the war and the shape of the world. God bless all those that were involved in this endeavor to shorten the war and save thousands of American and Japanese lives. Jack Reinhardt

I am alive today because I was on Leyte in the Phiipnes when the Atom bombs were dropped. We were staying in shape waiting for orders to board ships to invade Japan. Thanks to President Harry Truman the 81st Infantry "Wildcat" Division did not have to invade Japan with blazing guns. The 81st Division was the 2nd division to land in Japan for the occupation. We landed in Hirosaki in the Aomori Prefacture which is the northernmost area of Honshu, the main island of Japan. Thanks again Harry Truman.

Since i saw the movie with Robert Taylor when i was a kid that the Enola Gay is a main interest for me.I simply admire the guys who flew it.

Awesome, just awesome! It is good to know the world's history is being so well preserved.

Are there any high-resolution versions available? EDITORS' REPLY: We'll look into it and let you know if we hear of a HD version.

Last month I visited the museum, both places, I can admired the B 29. It was a big plane and thanks to it and the crew, WWII finished, and many lives were safe.

In 1988 I was in the Washington DC area for an installtion project with my company. While there I toured the Paul Garber facility with great interest. During the tour we walked by the fuselage of the Enola Gay which had it's wings removed and was placed against a wall in the hangar. With no ropes around the aircraft and a gaping hole where the wings would attach, I saw a unique opportunity. I just walked up to the open wing root and leaned into the most famous bombay in aviation history. Having flown in B-52s for the USAF, I knew what it was like to be around special weapons, but this was truly amazing and a once-in-a-lifetime occaision. My hat's off to the excellent work done by the restoration crews at Garber to preserve such a special aircraft for the lessons we can learn from it and the crew who flew and maintained it.

I never dreamed I would see the inside of this historic plane. Thanks. Frank Maurer

I"ll never forget this name. It ended WW2 and saved many lives and our freedom. To bad this kind of history and sacrifice that our citizens were proud to fight for aren't taught in our schools today and so much mis-information that isn't real history. I know my grandchildren will never learn the real truth of our USA history.

I was a Radar Tech. in the 1950's on B-29's and there is a serious misstatement about the radar. The box behind the "scope" was called a Slant Range Computer that provided information to the radar scope, ONLY! The Norden and Radar bomb systems were completely seperate! There was a frindly competition between the Bombardier and the Radar Operators. Who were commissoned officers at that time. EDITORS' REPLY: Curator Roger Connor of the National Air and Space Museum found the following, from pg. 77 of the “Summary Technical Report of Division 14, National Defense Research Committee: Military Airborne Radar Systems” – i.e. the folks who developed the equipment (referring specifically to the AN/APA-5 and AN/APQ-5 Low Altitude Bombing Systems): “A potentiometer or selsyn tie-in between the radar scanner and the Norden stabilizer makes the azimuth cross hair correspond with the azimuth of the Norden telescope. The bombardier, by operating the azimuth stabilizer knobs in the usual manner, steers the plane to the proper release point by synchronizing the target on this azimuth cross hair.” Connor adds: Perhaps at the time of the correspondent’s experience, the slant range computers could drop on their own, but this was not the case at the end of World War II, when the Norden and the bombardier were still essential to initiating bomb release.

Thanks for the photos of the inside of the plane. I took my Dad to see this plane a few years ago. He was stationed on Tinian with the 77th Air Servise Sq and worked on B29s including the Enola Gay. He'll like seeing these photos.

25 years ago I was privileged to be an intern at the Garber Facility and was allowed to climb into the cockpit one afternoon during a break---awesome....

As a pilot and military history & warbird enthusiast, it was a great pleasure and privilege to meet Paul TIbbets at an airshow a few years back. Hearing him speak and getting to shake his hand and thank him personally was a moment I'll never forget. My father-in-law was a SeaBee during the war and, in early August 1945, was on a ship headed for what would have been the invasion of Japan. I don't think it's an exaggeration to say that my wife is here today because of what Tib and his crew did. I brought her to meet him the following day at that airshow. Though she was shy about it at the time (she thought she'd tear up too much to actually shake his hand), I know that she treasures the photo of herself with the man who undoubtedly saved her Dad's life, along with so many other Americans. A great man, and a great American.

For Ann. You state that "I know my grandchildren will never learn the real truth of our USA history." Maybe then that is the responsibility of those who do know the truth to educate our youth. Not just the grandchildren, but the parents of those grandchildren as well. By the way, an excellent, well-balanced book (and the best that I've read so far) is "Downfall: The End of the Imperial Japanese Empire" by Richard Frank.

I'm glad at least one person recognizes that there is ongoing controversy as to the morality of the decision to bomb Hiroshima and Nagasaki. President Truman was a friend of my Uncle and a heroic figure in my household and I appreciate the moral dilema he faced with this decision. To this day, I have not resolved the issue, but I respect those who carried out their orders and applaud the Smithsonian for the work of restoration and preservation of the Enola Gay. May we always have to wrestle with such decisions. They should never be easy.

I'm glad at least one person recognizes that there is ongoing controversy as to the morality of the decision to bomb Hiroshima and Nagasaki. President Truman was a friend of my Uncle and a heroic figure in my household and I appreciate the moral dilema he faced with this decision. To this day, I have not resolved the issue, but I respect those who carried out their orders and applaud the Smithsonian for the work of restoration and preservation of the Enola Gay. May we always have to wrestle with such decisions. They should never be easy.

The B-29 and I were together during the Korean War when I was a B-29 pilot flying missions from Okinawa to North Korea. This experience matured me (age 24) and made me realise what the United States could continue to do with its air power. My 10 man crew was a well trained professional organization that got the job done on each of our 10-12 hour missions. Our last scheduled mission was also the last of the War in July 1953. The B-29 was now ready for retirement and being replaced by the B-47. I am now a resident of Washington DC and enjoy visiting the Air and Space Museums. Hugo Schmidt

My uncle, Robert Merwin Pilchard, was a B-29 pilot who flew in the first daylight raid over Japan, out of Chengdu China. For that mission he earned the gold star. Navigation problems led to his plane crashing in the Himalayas, where locals found and buried the crew. Countless others perished in the B-29 program in the pursuit of ultimately delivering the atom bomb. He knew when leaving Illinois for China that his chances of survival were slim- hundreds of B-29's and their crews were lost to crashes, mechanical failures and enemy fire. But they were all committed to the project that ultimately led to the Enola Gay's successful mission.

I MET THE ORIGINAL CREW OF THE ENOLA GAY ON SAIPAN BEFORE THEY DROPPED THE ATOMIC BOMB. I WAS ON AN LST ANCHORED OFF SAIPAN AND USED TO WATCH THEM COMING BACK FROM BOMBING RUNS TO JAPAN. MY CURIOSITY GOT THE BEST OF ME AND ONE DAY TREKKED UP TO THE AIRFIELD TO SEE THE B29'S FIRST HAND.I SPOKE TO THE CREW AND THEY WERE MOST CORDIAL AND ANSWERED ALL MY QUESTIONS.I DIDN'T OWN A CAMERA AND WAS SORRY I WASN'T ABLE TO PHOTOGRAPH THEM. THE NAME OF THE PLANE STUCK IN MHY HEAD ALL THESE YEARS NEVER DREAMING THAT I PICKED THE RIGHT GROUP OF PILOTS AND CRERW TO SPEAK TO.

My father, just out of high school, fought island to island headed towards Japan. I have stories, photos, and two Bronze Stars from him. I believe I would not have been born if President Truman had not dropped the bomb(s). Just thinking about my existence...I'm grateful to two heroes: my Dad and President Truman.

Family history... My grandmother dropped the s and added the t to our last name of my Father Delbert Wayne Tibbett, his father Curtis Tibbett,whose parents were Oliver J. and Martha E Tibbets, Uncle Cecil Fern Tibbet TEC5 11 Field Hosp World War 11. some how we are all related.. incl My sister Sharon Tibbett all deceased and buried in Silverwood Ind. I have read so many stories, and things my mother has remembed, it is amazing what I have learned about my family history. I am proud of our name no matter how you spell it..

I was in the USAF, the 509th BOMB WING, in 1957-1962. This was the same group that bombed Japan. My father was in Leyta, Phillipines during this time. I have some photos of him and his fellow army buddies. It was a sad & dangerous time for everyone. My family & I have been to see the Air & Space Museum and I told them stories about this time and my dad. We are so blessed to have the freedoms we do, thanks to our fighting military of all branches. PAUL W. WILSON USAF 509TH BOMB WING

It is all very well to talk after the event, if it was morally correct, etc etc, i have the DVD,s from the history of the 2dWW and all you need to do is look at the ilands the marines had to invade, the japs preferred to die rather than surrender, and Okinawa was a,foretaste of what was to come, if the marines had to invade mainland japan, many thousands of marines would have been killed, so at the time to drop the bomb was the correct thing to do, politicaly corect or not, and all the bleeding hearts who did not have to go and risk their lives can go and take a jump in the ocean of Okinawa and visit the sunken ships the Kamikazies sank. and visit the graves of all the dead marines who are buried in those ilands. and thousand of lives of prisoners were saved by having the the camps in asia freed from the japs, by the way, i am not an american i am australian originaly from holland and i went tru the war so I KNOW what it was like .joseph theeboom

I recently attended an event entitled "The Atomic Bombings of WW II: The Views of the Radar Man held at the National Electronics Museum in Linthicum, Maryland. Jacob Beser, the Radar Man was the only man to fly on both the strike B-29's that delivered the A-bombs to Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Jacob Beser passed away in 1992 and his son Jerome had presented Jacob's original manuscript of the speech he was to present at a conference a week before he died. What a thrill to be a part of this informative presentation and hear Jacob's thoughts and opinions communicated through his son. The manuscript illustrated Jacob's time as a student at Johns Hopkins University, his enlistment at the start of the war and his extensive training in the USAAC; all in preparation for the missions he played a major role in. One thing I did not know was that Jacob Beser was an Amateur Radio Operator and attributed his success as the Radar operator to the skills he learned while practicing the art of Ham Radio. At the conclusion of the presentation, I noticed that his family was selling Jacob's original QSL cards with his signature on the back. Of course, I just had to take one home with me (being an amateur Radio Operator myself). I will always keep Jacob's QSL card as a memento of the great presentation I attended and as a memento of a great man who served his country well.