4 August 2014
Champaign Exchanger
Volume 89, No. 5
National Best Club Bulletin
Editor - Tom Williams, Sr.
1980-1981, 1981-1982, 1986-1987
1987-1988, 1998-1999, 2012-2013
11 August 2014 - No Noon Meeting
I'm On Vacation
Coming Events
18 August 2014
Tom Williams - The 109 U.S. National
Monuments And 35 National Memorials
Board Meeting Following
.
The U.S. has 109 protected areas known as National
Monuments and we have 35 National Memorials. The
1906 Antiquities Act authorized the president to proclaim
"historic landmarks, historic and prehistoric structures,
and other objects of historic or scientific interest" as
national monuments. The United States Congress can
also establish National Monuments by legislation.
25 August 2014
Stephanie Record, Director
Crisis Nursery of Champaign County
Our speaker today is a friend of our club, Stephanie Record,
the Executive Director of the Crisis Nursery of Champaign
County. On July 9th they celebrated the 30th Anniversary of
opening their doors in two rooms in Burnham Hospital on
Springfield Ave. In the past 30 years they have served 15,000
county children. Be sure to attend today as we'll be presenting
them with many supplies for their children.
1 September 2014
No Noon Meeting
GiveAKidAFlagToWave Program
More details will be forthcoming as we get closer to the
holiday from Committee Chairman Frank Scantlebury.
The Labor Day Parade is not as big a parade in terms of
spectators with children but we still need to have someone to
ride in the back of the truck and a couple members to help the
Urbana Exchangites pass out the flags. We've been handing
Our president promises
out between 900-1,350 flags at the Labor Day Parade.
to return from vacation.
8 September 2014
Sue Grey, President & CEO
United Way of Champaign Co.
We're pleased to have the President & CEO of the United
Way, Sue Grey, speak to our club this Monday. Sue joined
the United Way in 2006 and was named the organizations
leader in November 2012. This will be her first time to speak
to our club and I look forward to meeting and hearing Sue.
The United Way is an outstanding community organization.
Coming Events
15 September 2013 (Monday 6:00 PM)
Annual Exchange Club Picnic
Hosted By Dottie & Walt Mikucki
The date has now been set and we will be having our picnic
this year on September 15th at Dottie and Walt Mikucki's
home in the Maynard Lake Subdivision. This is always one
of the fun events of the year so you don't want to miss out on
the great food and fellowship. Mark your calendar, invite a
good friend (Frank, that's Lula), and start planning which of
your favorite covered dishes you'll bring. Remember, I love
chocolate cake and chocolate pie.
29 September or 6 October 2014
Take A Tour Of A Local Facility
Four years ago I started a new program for our club - taking
a guided tour of one of our community's interesting
facilities. Our inaugural tour was the world famous
Beckman Institute in September 2010. We followed up
that tour with a June 2012 tour of Flightstar Aviation at
Willard Airport, then an October 2012 tour of CERL
(Army Corps of Engineers Research Laboratory), and a
September 2013 tour of the Champaign County Historical Museum in the old Cattle
Bank. It's my hope to continue the tradition with another good tour this fall.
27 October 2014
Proudly We Hail Awards
Eligible Recipients Needed
After honoring 26 families for correctly and proudly flying the American Flag over a
4-year period, I was unable to come up with six worthy recipients last year. In order for
that not to happen again this year I need the help of all our members. As you traverse the
city over the next six weeks make a note of the address of people you see that are flying
the flag properly and turn their address in to me at one of our luncheons. If they are
flying it at night it must be lit up or they don't qualify for our award. With your help we
can honor six deserving families again this year.
6 December 2014
Mid-Year Ed Conference
Bloomington, Illinois
This annual conference is a must attend for club officers
& directors and one of the requirements for the District
100% Club Award. It's your chance to find out what's
going on around the district, get new ideas from other
clubs, and get any questions you may have answered by
other knowledgeable Exchangites. I'll have the details
in November.
The Enola Gay's Rendezvous with History
One of 15 "Silverplate" B-29s assigned to the 393rd Bombardment (Very
Heavy) Squadron of the 509th Composite Group of the XXI Air Force on
Tinian Island, the bomber now know as the Enola Gay was designated
simply as No. 82 until 5 August 1945. On that day it was selected as the
strike plane for OPERATION CENTERBOARD I, the first atomic attack
mission against Japan, by Lt. Col. Paul W. Tibbets, the 509th commander.
Bomb unit L11 was selected for combat use and on 31 July the U-235
projectile and target were installed along with the four initiators – making
Little Boy ready for use the next day. An approaching typhoon required
postponing the planned attack of Hiroshima on 1 August. Several days are
required for weather to clear, and on 4 August the date was set for two days
later. On 5 August Lt. Col. Paul W. Tibbets, the 509th commander, selected
B-29 No. 82 for the mission, renamed the Enola Gay after his mother, over
the objections of its pilot Robert A. Lewis. Little Boy was loaded on the
plane the same day.
At 1400 on 5 August the first combat atomic bomb Little Boy was loaded
onto a trailer and taken to the loading pit where a hydraulic lift raised it into
the bomb bay of the Enola Gay. At 1530 Parsons began practicing his new
task of in-flight propellant insertion. At 1600 Tibbets had his mother’s
name, Enola Gay, painted on the strike plane. At 1730 the Enola Gay taxied
on to the pad for pre-mission testing.
The preflight briefing for the 7 flight crews began at about 2000. The flight
briefings for the weather planes occurred at 2300; the strike plane flight
briefing was at midnight. At 0015 on 6 August assembly on the flight line
began. About 0200 the crew boarded the Enola Gay and took off at 0245.
The Enola Gay rendezvoused with the observation planes over Iwo Jima at
0605. Little Boy was armed at 0730. At 0741 Tibbets began the climb to the
drop altitude above 30,000 feet. The Enola Gay came within sight of the
Empire, as bombing crews called it, at about 0750 as it approached the
southern tip of Shikoku Island.
The weather plane over the primary target radioed good conditions at 0830
and Tibbets announced that Hiroshima would be their destination. At 0909
Hiroshima came into view. At 0913.30 the bombardier, Thomas Ferebee,
took control of plane in preparation for release. At 0914.17 the Aioi Bridge
appeared in the Norden bombsight cross-hairs and Ferebee initiated the
automatic release sequence. At 0915.17 Little Boy dropped away. The fall to
the burst altitude of 600 meters lasted 43 seconds, at that moment Little Boy
had a vertical velocity of 335 meters/second, just a bit faster than sound.
As soon as the bomb was released Tibbets took control and the Enola Gay
began its escape maneuver. Eleven and a half miles from the detonation
point and nearly a minute after the explosion the plane was rocked by the
shock wave travelling directly out from the fireball, and then several seconds
later it was struck by a second weaker shock reflected from the ground.
Aside from the sighting of a single fighter, the flight back from the mission
was uneventful. The mushroom cloud, which had climbed to 40,000 feet,
was visible from the plane for almost an hour and a half, finally being lost
from sight at 1041, 363 miles from Hiroshima.
At 1458, after a textbook perfect mission lasting 12 hours and 13 minutes,
the Enola Gay landed at Tinian Island.
Enola Gay
The Enola Gay was transferred by the U.S. Air
Force to the Smithsonian
Institution on 4 July 1949.
The airplane's last flight
ended on 2 December 1952
when it touched down at
Andrews Air Force Base,
Maryland, where it
remained in outdoor
"storage", unprotected and
unattended, as part of the
Smithsonian Institution's
collection until July 1961.
The Enola Gay was then
disassembled and stored
indoors at the Paul E.
Garber Facility in Suitland,
Maryland where it
underwent a restoration
form 1984 to 1995.
The
forward fuselage was
displayed at the National
Air & Space Museum in
a controversial exhibit in
May 1995 before being
moved to its permanent
location at the Steven F.
Udvar-Hazy Center where
its assembly was officially
completed on 18 August
2003.
4 August 2014 Meeting
Invocation
Pledge of Allegiance
.
Attendance
Attendance Drawing
.
Today's Meeting
Announcements
Frank Scantlbury seemed to be in a
better mood today because finally, after
many months of testing and pain, the
doctors found out what's ailing him. The
reason for the tremendous amount of
lower back pain he's been in recently has
been diagnosed as being caused by bone
cancer. The cancer has now moved into
his bones. That's the bad news. The good
news is that now he can quit worrying
about what might be wrong and start
attacking the problem with the appropriate
treatments.
Thomas Williams, Jr.
Tom Williams, Sr.
6 Exchangites & 0 Guests
$10.00 Dottie Mikucki
(Absent)
This will not be Frank's first rodeo with
cancer as he has survived it a couple times
before. There's one thing I know about
Frank and that is he is a fighter and I
think he can beat this cancer like he has
the others. The man has nine lives and I
believe he still has some left and will whip
this too.
It was a beautiful Monday today with the
temperature in the mid-80s and the sun
shining brightly. Perfect day for a ride in
a convertible on the way from our club
meeting..
I expected that we would have poor
attendance today with Wally Lehman
way up in the northeastern part of Canada
on a 23 day trip and with Richard and
Dottie unable to attend. Wally's really
pushing the envelope this time for his age
group and I hope he holds up. This makes
nearly six weeks spent in the northeast
over the past two months and this time he
has to try to keep up with an attractive
young lady 48-years his junior. Oh, to be
young and healthy again!
-
Today's Meeting
no
This week is the 69th Anniversary of the
bombing on Hiroshima (August 6th) and
Nagasaki (August 9th), Japan. Just one
week after the second bombing the
Japanese surrendered officially ending
World War II in the Pacific. Germany
had surrendered earlier in 1945.
With the above anniversary falling during
this week and the anticipated poor
attendance we most likely would have this
week, I thought it would be appropriate to
do a program on the bombings, the
ramifications of the bombing, and the
hundreds of thousands of lives that were
ultimately saved by not having to invade
the Japanese homeland. After all, the
Japanese didn't believe in surrender and
our experience in the battles for the islands
in the Pacific gave every indication the
casualties would be monumental. The use
of nuclear weapons is a terrible thing and
I hope that they never have to be used
again, but I firmly believe in this case
that the net effect was saving lives.
Donations
$$$ Green Box News Notes $$$
$1.00
Norma Dieker – For the two birthday girls - Anne Johnston
and Nancy Williams.
$5.00
Anne Johnston – Just Because
$1.00
Frank Scantlebury – Because I'm feeling good .
today. (Frank, we're happy that you now know what's
ailing you and the doctors can begin treatment.)
$2.00
Nancy Williams – In honor of our speaker and for the
beautiful weather we've been having.
$10.00
Tom Williams – Because I am looking forward to
making my presentation today, because I wish
every one of our members better health, and to say
happy birthday to Richard (last Friday) and Nancy
and Anne whose birthdays are this Thursday.
$1.00
Thomas Williams – For the St. Louis Cardinals
victories last weekend.
Brig. General Paul Warfield Tibbets, Jr.
February 23, 1915 - November 1, 2007
years. A summary report by the United
States Strategic Bombing Survey issued
on July 1, 1946, estimated that 60,00070,000 had been killed & 50,000 injured.
After releasing the bomb, Col. Tibbets
executed a well-rehearsed diving turn to
avoid the blast effect. In his memoir
“The Tibbets Story,” he told of “the
awesome sight that met our eyes as we
turned for a heading that would take us
alongside the burning, devastated city.”
“The giant purple mushroom, which the
tail-gunner had described, had already
risen to a height of 45,000 feet, 3 miles
above our own altitude, and was still
boiling upward like something terribly
alive,” he remembered.
Brig. Gen. Paul Warfield Tibbets Jr.,
commander and pilot of the Enola Gay,
the B-29 Superfortress that dropped the
atomic bomb on Hiroshima in the final
days of World War II, died yesterday at
his home in Columbus, Ohio. He was 92.
Three days later, an even more powerful
atomic bomb — a plutonium device —
was dropped on Nagasaki from a B-29
flown by Major Charles W. Sweeney.
On August 15, Japan surrendered,
bringing World War II to an end.
His granddaughter Kia Tibbets, of
Columbus, said in confirming the death
that General Tibbets had been in failing
health for several months.
The crews who flew the atomic strikes
were seen by Americans as saviors who
had averted the huge casualties that were
expected to result from an invasion of
Japan. But questions were eventually
raised concerning the morality of atomic
warfare and the need for the Truman
administration to drop the bomb in order
to secure Japan’s surrender.
In the hours before dawn on August 6,
1945, the Enola Gay lifted off from the
island of Tinian carrying a uranium
atomic bomb assembled under extraordinary secrecy in the vast endeavor
known as the Manhattan Project.
Six and a half hours later, under clear
skies, then-Colonel Tibbets, of the
Army Air Forces, guided the fourengine plane he had named in honor of
his mother toward the bomb’s aiming
point, the T-shaped Aioi Bridge in the
center of Hiroshima, the site of an
important Japanese Army headquarters.
At 8:15 a.m. local time, the bomb known
to its creators as Little Boy dropped free
at an altitude of 31,000 feet. Forty-three
seconds later, at 1,890 feet above ground
zero, it exploded in a nuclear inferno that
left tens of thousands dead and dying and
turned much of Hiroshima, a city of
some 250,000 into a scorched ruin.
Estimates for the dead and injured in the
bombing have varied widely over the
General Tibbets became a symbolic
figure in the controversy, but he never
wavered in defense of his mission.
“I was anxious to do it,” he told an
interviewer for a documentary, “The
Men Who Brought the Dawn,” marking
the 50th anniversary of the Hiroshima
bombing. “I wanted to do everything
that I could to subdue Japan. I wanted
to kill the bastards. That was the attitude
of the United States in those years.” “I
have been convinced that we saved more
lives than we took,” he said, referring to
both American & Japanese casualties
from an invasion of Japan. “It would
have been morally wrong if we’d have
had that weapon and not used it and let
a million more people die.”
Paul Tibbets Jr. was born on February
23, 1915, in Quincy, IL. His father was a
salesman in a family grocery business.
His mother, the former Enola Gay
Haggard, grew up on an Iowa farm and
was named for a character in a novel her
father read shortly before she was born.
The family moved to Miami, and at age
12 Paul Tibbets took a ride with a
barnstorming pilot and dropped Baby
Ruth candy bars on Hialeah racetrack in a
promotional stunt for the Curtiss Candy
Company. He was thrilled by flight, and
though his father wanted him to be a
doctor, his mother encouraged him to
pursue his dream.
After attending the University of Florida
and the University of Cincinnati, he
joined the Army Air Corps in 1937.
On August 17, 1942, he led a dozen B-17
Flying Fortresses on the first daylight
raid by an American squadron on
German-occupied Europe, bombing
railroad marshaling yards in the French
city of Rouen. He flew General Dwight
Eisenhower to Gibraltar in November
1942 en route to the launching of
Operation Torch, the invasion of North
Africa, and participated in the first
bombing missions of that campaign.
After returning to the United States to
test the newly developed B-29, the first
intercontinental bomber, he was told in
September 1944 of the most closely held
secret of the war: scientists were working
to harness the power of atomic energy to
create a bomb of such destruction that it
could end the war.
He was ordered to find the best pilots,
navigators, bombardiers & supporting
crewmen and mold them into a unit that
would deliver that bomb from a B-29.
Lt. Gen. Leslie R. Groves Jr., who
oversaw the Manhattan Project, said in
his memoir “Now It Can Be Told” that
Colonel Tibbets had been selected to
train the crews because “he was a superb
pilot of heavy planes, with years of
military flying experience, and was
probably as familiar with the B-29 as
anyone in the service.”
He took command of the newly created
509th Composite Group, a unit of 1,800
men who trained amid extraordinary
security at Wendover Field in Utah.
In the summer of 1945, Colonel Tibbets
oversaw his unit’s transfer for additional
training on Tinian, in the Northern
Marianas. On July 16, an atomic bomb
was successfully tested in the New
Mexico desert, and when Japan ignored a
surrender demand issued at the Potsdam
Conference, Col. Tibbets completed
final preparations to drop a uranium
bomb.
The Enola Gay, with a crew of 12,
carried out a flawless mission, delivering
the bomb on time, almost precisely on
target and with no opposition from
Japanese fighters. When the plane
returned to Tinian, Gen. Carl Spaatz,
the commander of the Strategic Air
Forces in the Pacific, presented Col.
Tibbets with the Distinguished Service
Cross, the Army Air Forces’ highest
award for valor after the Medal of Honor.
Remaining in the military after the war,
he served with the Strategic Air
Command, the nation’s nuclear bombing
force, and became a one-star general.
After retiring in 1966, he was president
of Executive Jet Aviation, an air-taxi
company in Columbus.
General Tibbets is survived by his wife,
Andrea; his sons Paul 3rd, of North
Carolina; Gene, of Alabama, and James,
of Columbus; six grandchildren; and
several great-grandchildren. His marriage
to his first wife, Lucy, ended in divorce.
Kia Tibbets said her grandfather would
be cremated. “He didn’t want a funeral
because he didn’t want to take the
chance of protesters or anyone defacing
a headstone,” she said.
General Tibbets’s wartime experiences
were dramatized in the 1952 MGM
movie “Above and Beyond,” in which he
was portrayed by Robert Taylor.
As the years passed, however, his image
suffered in some quarters. While he was
deputy chief of the United States military
supply mission in India in 1965, a proCommunist newspaper denounced him as
“the world’s greatest killer.” In 1976, he
drew a protest from Hiroshima’s mayor,
Takeshi Araki, when he flew a B-29 in a
simulation of the Hiroshima bombing at
an air show in Texas.
In 1995, the Enola Gay’s forward
fuselage and some other parts of the
plane
were
displayed
at
the
Smithsonian’s National Air and Space
Museum in Washington.
Veterans’ groups and some members of
Congress denounced a proposed text for
the exhibition, contending that it
portrayed the Japanese as victims and the
Americans as vengeful. Their protest
resulted in the resignation of the
museum’s director, Dr. Martin Harwit,
and the withdrawal of almost all material
in the exhibition providing visitors with
historical background. Gen. Tibbets’s
plane — the name Enola Gay freshly
repainted — was left to speak for itself.
In December 2003, the Enola Gay found
another home. Fully restored and
completely assembled, it went on display
at the newly opened Smithsonian air
museum branch outside Dulles Airport
in Northern Virginia.
The previous spring, General Tibbets
visited the Virginia Aviation Museum
in Richmond. “There is no morality in
war,” The Virginian-Pilot quoted him as
saying then. “A way must be found to
eliminate war as a means of settling
quarrels between nations.”
At the same time, Tibbets expressed no
regrets over his role in the launching of
atomic warfare. “I viewed my mission as
one to save lives,” he said. “I didn’t
bomb Pearl Harbor. I didn’t start the
war, but I was going to finish it.”
Left to Right, Standing:
Lt. Col. John Porter,
ground maintenance
officer; Capt. Theodore
Van Kirk, navigator;
Major Thomas Ferebee,
bombardier; Col. Paul
Tibbets, pilot and
commander of 509th
Group; Captain Robert
Lewis, copilot; and Lt.
Jacob Beser, radar
countermeasure officer.
Kneeling: Sgt. Joseph
Stiborik, radar operator;
SSgt. George Caron,
tail gunner; Pfc. Richard
Nelson, radio operator;
Sgt. Robert Shumard,
assistant engineer; and
SSgt Wyatt Duzenbury,
flight engineer. Col. Porter
was not on the aircraft
during the flight.
Exchange, America's Premier Service Club, working to make our communities better places to live.
Chartered
27 July
1926
Exchange,
America's
Firefighter of the Year
Premier Service Club, working to make our communities better places to live.
Champaign Exchange Club
1812 Coventry Drive
Champaign, IL 61822
Phone: (217) 356-1057
Meeting Every Monday at
12:00 Noon Except Holidays
Police Officer of the Year
Nursing Scholarships
A.C.E. Award
Prevention of Child Abuse
Time Out Teddy
Crisis Nursery
O’Charley’s Restaurant
730 W. Town Center Blvd.
Eastern Illinois Food Bank
President: Tom Williams, Sr.
National Day of Service
Immediate Past President
Thomas Williams, Jr.
Believe in the Blue
Secretary/Treasurer:
Nancy Williams
Directors:
Richard Adkins
Norma Dieker
Anne Johnston
Wally Lehman
Dottie Mikucki
Frank Scantlebury
E-Mail: [email protected]
Website: www.champaignexchangeclub.com
Seniors Vial of Life
Campaign For Kids
GiveAKidAFlagToWave
One Nation Under God
Freedom Shrines
Proudly We Hail Awards
Book of Golden Deeds
Student of the Month/Year
Don Moyer Boys & Girls Club Snacks
For Kids
Salvation Army Bell Ringing
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Champaign
Exchange Club
1812 Coventry Drive
Champaign, IL 61822
Tom Williams, Editor
Americanism - Child Abuse Prevention - Community Service - Service to Youth