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National Museum of Nuclear Science & History

509th Composite Group (Joseph Papalia)

Oral History
General Paul Tibbets – Reflections on Hiroshima
February 23, 2016
Tom Ryan: In the early morning of August 6, 1945, three B-29 bombers departed from Tinian Island in the Pacific Ocean. Six hours later, they changed the course of history. A single atomic bomb dropped from the Enola Gay exploded over Hiroshima, Japan. In an instant, over four square miles of the city and an […]
Oral History
The Hiroshima Mission
July 27, 2015
Narrator: Apparently aloof from the rest of World War II, the solitary 509th, still unaware of its own purpose, carries on its puzzling training schedule. Their orders: practice runs to nearby islands. Then their own private missions to Japan, always above thirty thousand feet, always alone or in threes, always to drop just one bomb. Each […]
Oral History
Jacob Beser’s Lecture
Jacob Beser:  The story which we could tell. And one point that Dr. Wittman, though, which I wish you would please keep in mind—and this is true not only in this situation, but any historical event  should be evaluated in the context in which it took place, the context and the times in which it […]
Oral History
The Atomic Bombers
July 23, 2015
Interviewer: At two forty-five in the morning of August 6, 1945, the B-29 Enola Gay took off from North field on Tinian. Aboard the plane were thirteen men a thing called “the Gimmick.” Some fourteen hundred miles and six hours later, the Enola Gay reached her appointment with history. The time was fifteen minutes and seventeen […]
Oral History
Bob Caron’s Tape to Joe Papalia
July 20, 2015
Bob Caron: Oh, now for comments on Bob Lewis. I do not know what the hell to say about that, Joe. Bob calls me fairly frequently on his WATS [Wide Area Telephone Service] line, and I kind of feel like I am in the middle of something. He is very bitter, and very bitter towards [Paul] […]
Oral History
William Downey’s Interview – Part 2
July 13, 2015
William Downey: The depersonalization of the world, and what the Soviet Union does to their own people in mental hospitals in the process of destroying them, so all people would be destroyed everywhere. So, it is not the peace I want. It is not peace that I want. It is peace with justice. It is […]
Oral History
William Downey’s Interview – Part 1
William Downey: Now, as I remarked, one of the security officers told me a little time before, there was going to be a really fantastic new thing, only one of the greatest things that ever happened in the history of the world. This kind of hyperbole I never took too seriously anyway. The night of the […]
Oral History
Ray Gallagher’s Accounts of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki Missions
July 9, 2015
Raymond Gallagher: My name is Ray Gallagher. I am from Chicago, Illinois. The purpose in making this tape is because of an event that took a part of my life, and also of the lives of a group of men of which I was associated in 1945, during World War II. I was assigned to a […]
Oral History
Ray Gallagher and Fred Olivi’s Interview – Part 2
July 1, 2015
Announcer: You are listening to Extension 720. Here once again is your host, Milt Rosenberg. Milton Rosenberg: As we are tonight talking about the Hiroshima and Nagasaki missions, whose 43rd anniversary comes this weekend, we are talking with Robert Messer, Professor of History at the University of Illinois Chicago and with two participants in those […]
Oral History
Ray Gallagher and Fred Olivi’s Interview – Part 1
June 25, 2015
Announcer: Here is your host and moderator, Milton Rosenberg. Milton Rosenberg: Our guests tonight all know a great deal about the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, but from different vantage points, two of them from the vantage point of being up in the air and helping to drop the bombs. They are Fred Olivi, who […]