![the enola gay the enola gay](https://www.gannett-cdn.com/presto/2020/08/04/PNJM/dc4c2409-ee36-4966-87fc-ba06e494da80-enola_gay_.jpg)
The Enola Gay was one of several aircraft to display the markings of the 6th BG including their circular “R” tail code. The aircraft was named after the mother of pilot Paul Warfield Tibbets, Jr. The 509th CG wanted to draw attention away from itself and replaced their own distinctive markings with those of the other bomb groups. Enola Gay, the B-29 bomber that was used by the United States on August 6, 1945, to drop an atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan, the first time the explosive device had been used on an enemy target. Sweeney and his Bock's Car crew dropped the second atomic bomb, 'Fat Man,' on Nagasaki. Before being captured by American forces, Tinian was a colony of the Japanese Empire and it was suspected that the local population may have been transmitting intelligence about American forces on the island. Enola Gay dropped the first atomic bomb, 'Little Boy,' was dropped at 8:15 a.m. The 6th ARW traces its lineage to the 6th Bombardment Group which was assigned to Tinian at the same time as the 509th CG. The Enola Gay was stored at an airfield in Arizona before being flown to Illinois. She flew a few more times after the war as it was used in an atomic test program in the Pacific. This time it gathered data about the weather in the lead up to dropping another atomic bomb this time on Nagasaki. The Enola Gay, a Silverplate B-29 Superfortress, was formerly assigned to the 509th Composite Group. On August 9, 1945, the Enola Gay flew again. A community partner originally donated the painting, which depicts the Enola Gay being prepared for the first atomic bombing mission, to the 6th Air Refueling Wing at MacDill Air Force Base, Florida before it was transferred to the 509th Bomb Wing. 1, 2021 at Whiteman Air Force Base, Missouri. 509th Bomb Wing leadership put The Peacemakers, a painting by John Shaw, on display on Dec. Tibbets, Jr., Pilot of the Enola Gay, the Plane that Dropped the Atomic Bomb on Hiroshima, Waves from His Cockpit before the Takeoff.