I want you to go visit them, look at them, talk to them, do whatever you want. I've got a squadron in training in Nebraska - they have the best record so far of anybody we've got. And so he said, "I don't know what to tell you, but I know you happen to have B-29s to start with. Drop simultaneously in Europe and the Pacific because of the secrecy problem - you couldn't drop it in one part of the world without dropping it in the other. ST: Interesting that they would have dropped it on Europe as well. He said that when General Arnold asked which of them could do this atomic weapons deal, he replied without hesitation, "Paul Tibbets is the man to do it." I said, "Well, thank you, sir." Then he laid out what was going on and it was up to me now to put together an organisation and train them to drop atomic weapons on both Europe and the Pacific - Tokyo.
General Ent looked at me and said, "The other day, General Arnold offered me three names." Both of the others were full colonels I was lieutenant-colonel. He gave me an explanation which probably lasted 45, 50 minutes, and they left.
We've gotten to the point now where we can't go much further till we have airplanes to work with." What we're doing is trying to develop an atomic bomb. And Norman said: "OK, we've got what we call the Manhattan Project. With him was a man wearing a blue suit, a US Navy captain - that was William Parsons, who flew with me to Hiroshima - and Dr Norman Ramsey, Columbia University professor in nuclear physics. A man named Lansdale met me, walked me to General Ent's office and closed the door behind me. I got to Colorado Springs the next morning perfectly on time. He said, "Bring your clothing - your B4 bag - because you're not coming back." Well, I didn't know what it was and didn't pay any attention to it - it was just another assignment. He says he just got a call from General Uzal Ent at Colorado Springs, he wants me in his office the next morning at nine o'clock. PT: One day I'm running a test on a B-29, I land, a man meets me. When did you get word that you had a special assignment? ST: Now by 1944 you were a pilot - a test pilot on the programme to develop the B-29 bomber.
And I started out that way but about a year before, I was able to get into an airplane, fly it - I soloed - and I knew then that I had to go fly airplanes. He said, "You're going to be a doctor," and I just nodded my head and that was it.
PT: I didn't think that, my father thought it.
And I was going to school at Gainesville, Florida, but I had to leave after two years and go to Cincinnati because Florida had no medical school. My dad had been in the real estate business down there for years, and at that time he was retired. If you want to go kill yourself, go ahead, I don't give a damn." Then Mom just quietly said, "Paul, if you want to go fly airplanes, you're going to be all right." And that was that. When I told them I was going to leave college and go fly planes in the army air corps, my dad said, "Well, I've sent you through school, bought you automobiles, given you money to run around with the girls, but from here on, you're on your own. She was Enola Gay Haggard before she married my dad, and my dad never supported me with the flying - he hated airplanes and motorcycles. And that particular moment changed the whole world around. But once upon a time, you flew a plane called the Enola Gay over the city of Hiroshima, in Japan, on a Sunday morning - Augand a bomb fell. I noticed as we sat in that restaurant, people passed by. Now we've had a nice lunch, you and I and your companion.