I believe it was Col Paul Tibbets. I will have to check and verify that.
Yes, the Doolittle Raids were commenced before the Bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki by the 509th Composite Group.
509th Composite Group
393d Bombardment Squadron, Heavy, 509th Composite Group.
393d Bomb Squadron, 509th Composite Group
The Enola Gay was a B-29 bomber assigned to the 509th Composite Group. The 509th trained extensively at Wendover Field, Utah, before deploying to the Marianas, where the nuclear missions originated on Tinian Island.
The bomber, piloted by the commander of the 509th Composite Group, Colonel Paul Tibbets.
In the summer of 1945, (July, August and September), George Zabelka was the Catholic chaplain to the 509th Composite Group on Tinian Island. The 509th was the Atomic Bomb Group. The Enola Gay and the Bockscar carried the atomic bombs that were used against the Japanese. Tinian Island was the base from which these planes took off and returned to in conducting the operation.
The Enola Gay crew (Hiroshima) and the Bock's Car crew (Nagasaki) were members of the 509th Composite Group, a unit specially trained for the atomic bombing missions. Hand-picked from the best aircrews being trained in the US in the mid-war period, the 509th crews underwent rigorous training.To accustom themselves to delivering the bulky atomic weapons of the era, they dropped concrete "pumpkin" practice bombs modeled after the actual bombs. Crews flew dozens of training missions in the US desert and in the Pacific theater practicing such drops.
In September 1944, he was selected to command the project at Wendover Army Air Field, Utah, that became the 509th Composite Group, in connection with the Manhattan Project.As commander of the 509th, he chose himself as the pilot to get the honor of being the pilot to deliver the first atomic bomb in combat.
Another B-29 bomber delivered the second bomb on Nagasaki on August 9, 1945. This B-29 was named "Bock's Car", after the name of the pilot. Both the Enola Gay and Bock's Car were aircraft assigned to the 509th Composite Group, operating from Tinian Island in the Marianas. The 509th was the only nuclear bomb group and had trained extensively at Wendover, Utah before deploying to the Pacific.
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