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HEADLINES

NOVEMBER 2, 2007 FRIDAY 2A

[[image - map of the Northern Hemisphere with locations marked 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 9, 10, and 11]]

HE NAMED ENOLA GAY FOR HIS MOTHER

[[image - photograph of Paul Tibbets speaking into microphone]]

Photos by The Associated Press

Gen. Paul W. Tibbets, pilot of the B-29 bomber that dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima, believed more people would have died in a full-scale invasion of Japan than died in the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

Hiroshima pilot dies at 92

^[[d. 11/1/07]]

Paul Tibbets said bombing hastened end of war.

BY JULIE CARR SMYTH
of The Associated Press

1 COLUMBUS, Ohio — Paul Tibbets, who etched his mother's name — Enola Gay — into history on the nose of the B-29 bomber he flew to drop the atomic bomb over Hiroshima, died Thursday after six decades of steadfastly defending the mission. He was 92.

Tibbets seemed more troubled by other people's objections than by having led the crew that killed tens of thousands of Japanese in a single stroke. The attack marked the beginning of the end of World War II.

Tibbets grew tired of criticism for delivering the first nuclear weapon used in wartime, telling family and friends that he wanted no funeral service or headstone because he feared a burial site would only give detractors a

[[image - photograph of Paul Tibbets standing next to B-29 Superfortress bomber "Enola Gay"]]

Col. Paul W. Tibbets stands beside the B-29 Superfortress bomber the Enola Gay in 1945.

place to protest.

And he insisted he slept just fine, believing with certainty that using the bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki saved more lives than they erased because they eliminated the need for a drawn-out invasion of Japan.

"He said, 'What they needed was someone who could do this and not flinch — and that was me,'" said journalist Bob Greene, who wrote the Tibbets biography, "Duty: A Father, His Son, and the Man Who Won the War."

Tibbets died at his Columbus, Ohio, home after a two-month decline caused by a variety of health problems, said Gerry Newhouse, a longtime friend.

Tibbets, a 30-year-old colonel at the time, and his crew of 13 dropped the five-ton "Little Boy" bomb over Hiroshima the morning of Aug. 6, 1945. The blast killed or injured at least 140,000.

Three days later, the U.S. dropped a second atomic bomb on Nagasaki, killing at least 60,000 people. Tibbets did not fly in that mission. The Japanese surrendered a few days later.