Guilt resulting from an absolute necessity of war. President, that Tomįerebee and his comrades deserve better than to be symbols of phony Invasion of Japan and the estimates are that a millionĪmericans and as many Japanese would have died in it. If we hadn'tįorced the surrender, there would have had to be a land In the last 50 years was what we brought about. None of us who were on the Enola Gay ever lost a minute'sīetter because I feel a large part of the peace we have had Hate that something like that had to happen to end the war.īut it was war, and we had to do something to end it. Maybe the first was the blast wave, and second was a gust of wind from the blast And the third one, Im not sure. I'm sorry an awful lot of people died from that bomb, and I This site states that the crew felt 3 consecutive shockwaves. Role-which Tom Ferebee rejected, saying, for example in 1995: Up in advance tried to press Tom Ferebee to admit guilt about his One journalist after another with their minds made Throughout his later years, Tom Ferebee was often questioned about Predicted that this four-sport star of baseball, football, basketball,Īnd track would be remembered one day around the world. Nearby Mocksville, where Tom Ferebee went to school, nobody could have Of the Enola Gay, among whom was a farm boy from Davie County, NC. The weight of that decision was placed on the shoulders of the crew World into a further, protracted, bloody struggle when the means wereĪvailable to end it-with, in the end, less suffering, destruction, and What would have been immoral, of course, would have been to force the Harry Truman's decision to use the bomb to end the war was immoral. Lessons of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, with unjustified suggestions that And, too often, revisionist historians have tried to rewrite the The decision to use the atomic bomb was an extraordinarily difficult Terrible conflict that history records as World War II. Helping to bring, finally, an end to the costly, destructive, most That fateful day when the first atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima, Responsibility as lead bombardier on the Enola Gay. Others will remember Tom Ferebee's carrying out his awesome, solemn Mentioned these fine personal qualities only in passing, but many Kind, gentle grandfather who enjoyed bass fishing and tending to hisīut, when death came to Thomas Wilson Ferebee, some of the media Would have invoked memories of a distinguished, decorated war veteran Ī career Air Force officer and a conscientious, hard-working realĮstate agent and most importantly, it would have kindled memories of a
President, when a remarkable North Carolina nativeĭied on March 16, a more perfect world would have dictated that hisĭeath be given far more attention than it received, attention that Government Publishing Office, TOM FEREBEE SAW HIS DUTY AND HE DID IT AT HIROSHIMA Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 146 (2000), Part 3 - TOM FEREBEE SAW HIS DUTY AND HE DID IT AT HIROSHIMA