He said, “You’re going to be a doctor,” and I just nodded my head and that was it. I didn’t think that, my father thought it. And Iwas 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 – Aug– and 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. Me and Paul Tibbets, 89 years old, brigadier-general retired, in his home town of Columbus, Ohio, where he has lived for many years.
