BOCK'S CAR CREW (FRED OLIVI) - AUTOGRAPH LETTER SIGNED - HFSID 175180
Price: $460.00
FRED J. OLIVI
The co-pilot of Bock's Car when it dropped Fat Man onto Nagasaki, Japan signed this
handwritten letter
ALS: "Fred J. Olivi", 1½p, front and verso, 7½x11. No place, no date. To Kosta Kamporis,
Laval, Quebec. Penned in lower portion and on verso of an undated TLS to him. In Part: "In
the photo with the mushroom cloud, you will notice the tail section of our B-29 Bockscar in the
lower right hand corner. I imagine you got this one from the Smithsonian Inst." In a long
postscript, Olivi continues, in part: "Yes, I did help rebuild the bridge system in Chicago in the
Loop and its branches of the Chicago River starting in 1950. I started from basic engineering
having had some experience reading blueprints and having technical knowledge…."
Commissioned a Second Lieutenant just a year earlier, Fred J. Olivi (1921-2004) was the
co-pilot on Bock's Car, the B-29 bomber that dropped the world's second and last atomic
bomb used in war on Nagasaki, Japan on Aug. 9, 1945, hastening the end of WWII. Japan
officially surrendered on Sept. 2, 1945, V-J Day. Olivi left the military in 1947 and was hired
by as a draftsman with the city bridge commission in Chicago, Illinois, rising to manager of
bridge operations and maintenance until his retirement in 1986. He also wrote a book on the
Nagasaki raid, Decision At Nagasaki: The Mission That Almost Failed (1999). Fine
condition.
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