Tibbets, who wears an old Rolex his grandfather gave him and whose son is also named Paul W. Japan surrendered six days later, ending the war. B-29 dropped an atomic bomb on Nagasaki, killing about 70,000 people. The government in Japan has said that thousands of people have been categorized as still sick from the Hiroshima bombing's radiation.

The bomb destroyed much of Hiroshima and killed tens of thousands of its citizens. Tibbets Jr., was assigned to a predecessor of the 509th Bomb Wing when he piloted the Enola Gay in the world's first atomic bomb mission on Aug. Glen VanHerck, who has led the wing since February 2014. Tibbets IV took command of the 509th Bomb Wing during a ceremony at Whiteman Air Force Base in Missouri, replacing Brig. A grandson and namesake of the man who piloted the B-29 that dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan, during World War II took over leadership Friday of the United States' aging fleet of nuclear-capable B-2 stealth bombers.īrig.

The Enola Gay, the Boeing B-29 Superfortress that dropped the atomic bomb on Japan in World War II, stands amid dozens of vintage and historic aircraft in the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum in this 2003 file photo.