Letter: A poem about Enola Gay
Published 12:00 am Saturday, July 18, 2015
Col. Paul Tibbets waves from the cockpit of the Enola Gay in a picture taken in August 1945 and now stored with the U.S. National Archives and Records Administration. Tibbets piloted the plane, which targeted and hit Hiroshima, Japan, with an atomic bomb Aug. 6, 1945.
Whatever happened to Enola Gay?
Or Curtis LeMay?
Or Edward Teller, that notable fella?
Or Harry Truman? A fine looking human
Who loved them both,
And they loved back,
LeMay and Teller,
Because or in spite of the president’s query:
Is the big bang any more than a theory?
LeMay would reply with his usual stance:
Fail-safe gives us each a good chance.
“I want more than a chance”
Said Teller aloud.
“Like Buddy, George Patton.
He speaks no Latin,
No German, no French, no Italian at all,
But rolled across the German Mall,
No fear of Tristan, Brangaena et al.”
Whatever did happen to Enola Gay?
She had a son along the way.
A pilot, an artist, equally fine –
He painted her name on his B-29.
Dr. Paul W. Doster
LaGrange