Thomas Wilson Ferebee, the bombardier who dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima in World War II, died on Thursday. He was 81.
Col. Ferebee was 26 on Aug. 6, 1945, and already a major and a veteran of 64 missions when the B-29 Enola Gay took off for Japan with the first nuclear weapon ever deployed.
Col. Ferebee, who retired from the Air Force in 1970, said he never felt guilty but was sorry the bomb killed so many.
“I’m sorry an awful lot of people died from that bomb, and I hate to think that something like that had to happen to end the war,” he said in a 1995 interview on the 50th anniversary of the bombing.
“Now we should look back and remember what just one bomb did, or two bombs,” he said. “Then I think we should realize that this can’t happen again.”
America’s bombing of Hiroshima and the blast at Nagasaki three days later left more than 100,000 dead and led to the end of the war.
The only other man who has dropped a nuclear bomb in war, Nagasaki bombardier Kermit Beahan, died in 1989
After World War II, Col. Ferebee served as a deputy commander for maintenance in several B-47 Stratojet bomber wings. He flew aboard B-47s during the Cold War and B-52s during the Vietnam War. His decorations included the Silver Star, Legion of Merit, two Distinguished Flying Crosses and the Bronze Star.
