Saturday, June 2, 2012
Went over to Wendover
Historic Wendover Airfield
Newly restored Control Tower
Officers Club (Resto in progress)
Hangar (790 windows per each!)
Deuce and a Half (The Tour Bus)
Jeep (The Tour Taxi)
Bomb Assembly Building
A-Bomb Graffiti
A-Bomb loading pit
Targeting "Butt"
Enola Gay Hangar
Hangar Interior
Cruise Missile
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I like the first, third, and last photos best. I bet this was fascinating; how long was the tour? Looks like it was pretty well attended. Did you get the missle out on the salt flats during the ride?
ReplyDeleteI'm tempted to say a 3-hr tour but it was actually 3 1/2 hrs.
ReplyDeleteThere was so much information to absorb! I wanted to just sit there and soak everything in, but we kept moving.
Wendover was where ballistics testing of the physical A-Bomb casings occurred as well as their assembly on site of the various bits and pieces manufactured throughout the US. At one time there were 150 A-Bombs ready to use. When I asked the foundation head what would've happened had Japan not surrendered he said "I knew Paul Tibbets. He was a lot more 1-dimensional than people believe, and I asked him that very question. Tibbets told me "We would've bombed the s..t out of Japan."
Awesome photos! Looks like you had a better day for a tour than I did in March, 2006 - the wind was blowing the dust off the dry lake beds, and it was pretty miserable... great historic documentation, Randal! We had dinner in one of the hangars, I believe the first one you showed, with the 790 windows - the wind was blowing so hard we could barely hear the band, and when the outhouses blew over, that was the end of the evening - that was the only "plumbing" there was for the dinner, and with over 200 people all having consumed mass quantities of beverages and food... we beat a hasty retreat to the air conditioned hotel/casino!
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ReplyDeleteI would LOVE to visit! Am I correct, there were never any actual nuclear devices at Wendover, but they practiced the bomb runs from there to southern California? Will probably get lambasted on this blog, but I believe it was a mistake to use the weapons. As it was, we had complete air superiority over Japan at the time (not to mention total control of the seas surrounding the island) and were bombing cities with conventional explosives at will. BTW, have visited Hiroshima, and got an eerie feeling as to what happened. The skeleton of a public building still stands as a stark reminder.
ReplyDeleteThe tour guide didn't clarify whether or not bombs were assembled onsite or not. He was brand new and read often from a script. So I defer to your knowledge as I have none.
ReplyDeleteAnyone who thinks using an A-Bomb is the ultimate answer has to be the ultimate judge. It's a position none of aspire to.
Not sure, but I believe the weapons pieces and parts were transported to Tinian Island by ship, final assembled, then the bombers and support aircraft flew from there.
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