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They started preparations for the dropping of the world’s first atom bomb.
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Boeing B-29 Superfortresses arrived on the field, as part of an operation code named “Silverplate”. These buildings were known as the “Technical Site”, and were located as far as possible from the rest of the base for security and also for safety in the event of an accident. South of the main airbase and runways, a facility was built for development of the technology necessary to drop the first atomic weapons. He and another fellow named Poptonich were responsible for the bomb trainer building, to take care of the trainers and keep an eye on the bombardiers. ‘Bomb Trainer’ was the job title Charles Westbrook held there. The training of Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress and Consolidated B-24 Liberator groups began in April 1942. By late 1943 there were some 2,000 civilian employees and 17,500 military personnel at Wendover. For much of the war the installation was the Army Air Force‘s only bombing and gunnery range.
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Wendover’s mission was to train heavy bomb groups. Jeppson’s death leaves Theodore Van Kirk, 89, the Enola Gay’s navigator, as the plane’s last survivor.Crew of B-29 “Enola Gay” Col. his stepsons, Mike Sullivan of Pahrump, Nev., and John Sullivan of Lakeport, Calif., and a stepdaughter, Jane Ross, of Midland, Ontario a brother, Lawrence, of Salt Lake City 11 grandchildren and 10 great-grandchildren. two daughters from his first marriage, Nancy Hoskins of Colorado Springs and Carol English of Medford, Ore. Jeppson is survived by their daughter, Sally Jeppson, of Gackle, N.D. Jeppson’s first marriage ended in divorce. He sold the plugs for $167,500 to a retired physicist who collected military memorabilia. The Justice Department sought to block the auction on the grounds that the plugs were government property and perhaps contained secret data, but a federal judge in San Francisco ruled in favor of Mr. Jeppson sought to auction off Enola Gay souvenirs he had brought back with him: a green electronic plug designed to prevent an accidental detonation in flight, and a spare among the red plugs that armed the bomb and were destroyed when it exploded. He worked on nuclear projects at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California and later founded a company that manufactured high-power microwave heating systems for industrial use and food processing. “The rest of us saw the billowing clouds and the mushroom cloud rising,” he told The Las Vegas Sun in 2000. When the bomb detonated above Hiroshima, the Enola Gay’s tailgunner was the only crewman who witnessed the explosion, Mr. He divided his time between Wendover and the New Mexico desert before departing for Tinian and the final preparations to drop the bomb. Lieutenant Jeppson was assigned to help the Manhattan Project scientists who were assembling the bomb at Los Alamos, N.M., to understand its electronic devices. The bomb was dropped at 8:15 in the morning and exploded 43 seconds later, creating an inferno that left tens of thousands dead or dying. Tibbets Jr., brought the four-engine B-29 Superfortress over Hiroshima. Parsons of the Navy, the officer in overall control of the uranium bomb known as Little Boy, Lieutenant Jeppson checked its circuits, timing devices and radar components.Īfter a flawless six-and-a-half-hour flight, the bomb systems working perfectly, the Enola Gay’s pilot, Col.
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6, 1945, Lieutenant Jeppson was making his first and only combat flight.Īs the assistant to Capt. When the Enola Gay lifted off from the island of Tinian in the South Pacific in the early hours of Aug.
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His death was announced by his wife, Molly. Jeppson, who was 87 and lived in Las Vegas, was the next-to-last survivor of the 12 men who carried out history’s first atomic strike. Jeppson, an Army Air Forces electronics specialist who helped arm the atomic bomb aboard the Enola Gay as it flew to Hiroshima, died March 30 at a hospital in Las Vegas.