After almost a week of sharing their experiences during World War II, touring sites where the blood of friends have been shed, and creating new friendships with many, the crew of the Enola Gay closed another chapter of time spent in the Marianas, this time in a vastly different manner than their goodbyes to the islands almost six decades ago.<\/p>\n
Retired Brig. Gen. Paul Tibbets, Morris Jeppson, and Theodore Van Kirk said goodbye yesterday, taking with them fond memories of the commemoration of the 60th anniversary of the Battles of Saipan and Tinian.<\/p>\n
\u201cI really enjoyed it and I am very happy to have come here,\u201d said Tibbets just minutes before his departure to Hong Kong yesterday afternoon at the Saipan International Airport. \u201cYou all have been very nice and I\u2019m glad to have shared with you. It\u2019s been a pleasure.\u201d<\/p>\n
Van Kirk and Jeppson, who departed on an earlier flight, said their stay here will always be remembered.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis was far more than I expected,\u201d said Van Kirk. \u201cMy daughter and I had a great time\u2026the hospitality we received, from the time we arrived, was outstanding and unbelievable. I am amazed at how the island has changed.\u201d<\/p>\n
Van Kirk said that, although the bombing of Hiroshima on August 6, 1945 were criticized by many, it was for the good of all mankind, and seeing the way the island has prospered makes it \u201call worth it.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cMany criticized what we did, but that\u2019s because they do not know what it\u2019s about,\u201d he said. \u201cMany lives were saved worldwide, and even seeing how beautiful everything here is and how the people here are\u2026it\u2019s just all worth it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, Jeppson said his perception of the island now surpasses his anticipation prior to arriving.<\/p>\n
\u201cI did not really know what to expect before I came here, but after everything, it\u2019s been great and I\u2019d have to tip my hat to the people for everything they\u2019ve done for us,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
During their stay, the crew also donated several items to the people of the CNMI.<\/p>\n
Jeppson and Van Kirk made contributions to the CNMI Museum, with Jeppson donating 40 posters detailing the Enola Gay\u2019s mission and Van Kirk donating two videotapes of the 1995 historical documentary on the Enola Gay. Tibbets also donated several of his books on the Enola Gay to Gov. Juan N. Babauta yesterday morning. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
After almost a week of sharing their experiences during World War II, touring sites where the blood of friends have been shed, and creating new friendships with many, the crew of the Enola Gay closed another chapter of time spent in the Marianas, this time in a vastly different manner than their goodbyes to the islands almost six decades ago.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-82012","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82012","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=82012"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82012\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=82012"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=82012"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=82012"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}