Dutch gave me a facsimile of his actual Hiroshima log, and it was invaluable in terms of reconstructing the mission. In 20, I interviewed Dutch Van Kirk extensively. In the late 1960s, I served briefly with then-Col. Air Force navigator-bombardier and still-rated commercial pilot, I had been trained in much the same way. Having been born into an aviation family and as a former U.S.
I also realized that a comprehensive biography of the three men as a unit, if you will, had never been written. My confidence in attempting to speak for the men was bolstered by my own background. Two of my three subjects, Tom Ferebee and Ted “Dutch” Van Kirk, were non-pilot flying officers. Harder: I have long been interested in writing about the neglected historiography of non-pilot, officer aircrewmen: the observers, navigators, bombardiers, and electronic warfare officers. Harder is the author of The Three Musketeers of the Army Air Forces, which chronicles how the lives of Paul Tibbets, Tom Ferebee, and Ted Van Kirk changed after they flew a mission that dropped an atomic bomb on Japan on August 6, 1945, helping to end World War II.Īir & Space: Why did you want to write this book? The song, on his cd "Recognition," remembers Ferebee as referring to "the one big thing" he'd done, noting he'd visited Japan after the war and, after seeing "planes all tooled for suicide attacks, I left there thinking we'd made that war end sooner." He adds, "Someday when I meet my maker, I'll know then if my one big thing was right.This story is a selection from the June-July issue of Air & Space magazine BuyĪ B-52 navigator-bombardier in the Vietnam War, Robert O. įollowing Thomas Ferebee's death, singer-songwriter Rod MacDonald wrote "The Man Who Dropped The Bomb On Hiroshima," a song directly quoting him from an interview MacDonald did for Newsweek's "Where Are They Now" feature in July 1970. He was survived by his wife, Mary Ann Ferebee, who donated his collection of military documents and objects to the North Carolina Museum of History in Raleigh. He died at his home in Windermere, Florida at the age of 81. Like Tibbets, Ferebee never expressed regret for his role in the bombing, saying "it was a job that had to be done." He then worked as a real estate agent in and around Orlando, Florida.
Air Force in December 1970 at McCoy AFB, Florida as a master navigator (bombardier) with the rank of colonel. Ferebee spent most of his USAF career in the Strategic Air Command, serving during the Cold War and in Vietnam. Like Tibbets, Ferebee remained in the military in the years after World War II as the U.S. In the summer of 1944, he was recruited by Colonel Paul Tibbets to be part of the 509th Composite Group which was formed to drop the atomic bomb. After two years of flight school, Ferebee was assigned as a bombardier in the European theater, completing more than 60 bombing missions. A knee injury kept him from service in the infantry but he was accepted into flight training. After training for a small position with the Boston Red Sox and not making the team, he joined the Army. Talented in athletics since childhood, he earned awards in track, basketball, and football. In 1935, at age 17, he attended Lees-McRae College in Banner Elk, NC. Thomas Wilson Ferebee was born on a farm outside Mocksville, North Carolina, as the third of eleven children raised in a Methodist family.