The Bockscar Conversation

Today, while at the Air Force museum, I spoke with an older gentleman about a plane and people. When you first walk into the museum, you are welcomed by Boeing B-29 bomber. It is a beautiful plane by itself, but it has an amazing, if not tragic, history behind her.

This is the lesser know plane that put a stop to WW2. As we all (should) know, the Enola Gay dropped the first nuclear bomb on Hiroshima, Japan. A few days later, after Japan still did not surrender, another nuclear bomb was dropped. This bomb, "Fat man" was dropped on Nagaski, and effectively ended the war. The plane that dropped the bomb is this plane, Bockscar.


"Fat man"

Anyway, as I stood in awe looking at this plane, an older man asked if I knew what I was looking at. My response was, "Yes, sir. This is the second plane that ended the war." After that, he smiled and told me thank you for knowing this.

After inquiring why, he went on to tell me how he had been sitting there for about half an hour, and not one person younger than him gave the plane any real attention. As he said, they are all too busy looking at the jets with the missiles and rockets. I told him that it was sad that most people my age and younger have no idea about half of the amazing histories behind most of these planes. We talked for a good 10 minutes about this plane and that plane, and then went our seperate ways. It really struck a chord with me that so many people are sooooo ignorant of what sacrifices have been made and what has been done in our world (both good and bad).