Monday, October 20, 2003
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Enola Gay crewman protests absence from exhibit

Name among three missing from inscription

Morris "Dick" Jeppson speaks about his experiences aboard the Enola Gay on Sept. 2 at his home in Las Vegas. Jeppson is stepping out of the shadows of history to protest his absence from a Smithsonian exhibit that does not include his name. AP Photo

Morris "Dick" Jeppson has lived his life quietly, avoiding the spotlight that inevitably follows a man who helped drop the first atomic bomb, which exploded over Hiroshima and killed an estimated 140,000 people.

For years, Jeppson exchanged letters with U.S. servicemen but avoided speaking publicly about his role as a crew member aboard the flight.

Now 81, Jeppson has come forward to protest his exclusion from a new exhibit displaying the original B-29 bomber at the National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C.

Jeppson's name, along with two others, is missing from a list of crew members long-ago stenciled on the side of the infamous Enola Gay by the military, an oversight he believes could have lasting historical implications.

"My concern is that the real story might be lost," Jeppson said.

Museum officials emphasize the military was responsible for creating the list and there are no plans to add the names of the three crewmen, saying such a move would be contrary to its restoration efforts.

It was nearly 60 years ago when Jeppson, a bright-eyed second lieutenant in the Air Force, was recruited to be part of a top-secret program that would change the world.

In those days, no one used the words "atomic bomb." It was known simply as "gadget." Security was so tight that every time Jeppson visited the Los Alamos National Laboratory he had to remove Air Force insignia from his uniform so people working at the New Mexico lab wouldn't know the military was getting ready to use a nuclear weapon.

Several men trained to arm the bomb. It was the luck of a coin toss that put Jeppson on the Enola Gay on Aug. 6, 1945, the only combat mission he would ever fly.

Shortly after takeoff from Tinian Island, Jeppson climbed into the aircraft's bomb bay along with Navy Capt. William Parsons to begin arming the bomb. They did it in-flight because the military feared an armed bomb would be devastating should there be a crash during takeoff.

A few hours later, after the sun had risen over the Pacific, Jeppson climbed back into the bomb bay and changed the bomb's plugs, the final sequence in arming the bomb. Moments later, pilot Col. Paul Tibbets took the plane up to 30,000 feet and within an hour the bomb was dropped on Hiroshima, the first of two atomic bombs which helped bring an end to World War II and effectively ended the need to invade Japan.

"It's not a proud thing. It was a devastating thing," Jeppson said. "It's unfortunate, but it probably saved hundreds of thousands of American lives and many more Japanese lives."

After receiving his discharge from the military, Jeppson turned to graduate studies at University of California, Berkeley, and starting a family. Today he lives in Las Vegas with his wife, Molly, retired after a career spent at the helm of a handful of high-tech companies and working as consultant for the Department of Energy. For years, he chose not to speak publicly about his role in the Hiroshima mission. His first public appearance was in 1995 for the 50th anniversary of the mission.

Now he is afraid that over time the importance of his role, along with Parsons and Air Force 1st Lt. Jacob Beser, who was a radar countermeasures officer on the plane, will diminish. Instead of 12 men on the Enola Gay, people will think there were only nine.

Officials at the new Udvar-Hazy Center at the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum say the display featuring the Enola Gay will be in an open-air space filled with some 200 aircraft and 135 large space artifacts.

Dik Daso, the Smithsonian's curator of modern military aircraft, said all the aircraft inside the center are significant pieces, including a retired Concorde and the first Boeing 707, and it would be wrong to focus on one particular aircraft.

Stations will be set up throughout the center with text and images providing context when the center opens Dec. 15, Daso said. Other than being listed on the airplane, the Enola Gay crew will not be mentioned anywhere else in the exhibit, he said.

"It's just the way we're set up. ... All the artifacts are being treated exactly the same." he said.

But that may be an error of omission, said George Hicks, who has served as an Enola Gay historian, producing two documentaries on the mission and its crew.

"They have an obligation to be 100 percent accurate," said Hicks, who oversees The National Civil War Museum in Harrisburg, Pa. "If they got a little bit of the story, that's not enough. You can't tell it all, but there are certain facts you've got to get right."

He urged museum officials to make some accommodation, suggesting all 12 names appear on one of the kiosks or in a museum pamphlet.

"The practical matter is that the mission wouldn't have flown without them," Hicks said.

Museum officials stressed the center will be a "work-in-progress" for several years and it's likely more historical context will be added.

"There is absolutely no possibility that the 12-man crew will ever be forgotten," Daso said.