Paul Tibbets Quotations

When I came in here and saw this thing, the symbols, looking the way it looked, ... I wanted to get right in there and taxi it out.

I wanted to climb in and fly it,

The movie 'Above and Beyond' starring Robert Taylor didn't get anything right, ... 'Above and Beyond' script writers put the words, 'Oh my God, what have we done?' into my mouth,' Tibbets said. 'I never said that. Bob Lewis (the copilot) wrote 'my God' in his journal he was keeping on the flight. That's how I remember it, anyway.'

I am an airman, a pilot. In 1945, I was wearing the uniform of the U.S. following the orders of our commander-in-chief.

I will go only so far as to say that I knew what an atom was.

I'm proud that I was able to start with nothing, plan it, and have it work as perfectly as it did... I sleep clearly every night.

A bright light filled the plane. The first shock-wave hit us. We were eleven and a half miles slant range from the atomic explosion but the whole airplane cracked and crinkled from the blast... We turned back to look at Hiroshima. The city was hidden by that awful cloud... mushrooming, terrible and incredibly tall.