ENOLA GAY CREW - FIRST DAY COVER SIGNED CO-SIGNED BY: ENOLA GAY CREW (JACOB BESER), ENOLA GAY CREW (GEORGE R. CARON), ENOLA GAY CREW (PAUL W. TIBBETS) - HFSID 255422

ENOLA GAY CREW: PAUL W. TIBBETS, JACOB BESER, GEORGE R. CARON
Paul W. Tibbets, Jacob Beser, and George R. Caron of the Enola Gay all signed this 1954 first day cover honoring Liberty Symbol of the U.S.A.
First day cover signed "George R. Caron/Tail Gunner-Enola Gay", "Paul W. Tibbetts-Pilot", "Jacob Beser/Hiroshima-Nagasaki/Aug 6-9, 1945", all in blue and black ink. 6½x3½. First Day Cover honoring Liberty Symbol of the U.S.A. series. Postmarked Albany, New York, June 24, 1954. One 3-cent Statue of Liberty stamp affixed. FIRST DAY OF ISSUE. United States Army Air Force Colonel TIBBETS (1915-2007) was responsible for the organization, training and command of the world's first nuclear strike force. On the morning of Aug. 6, 1945, Colonel Tibbets piloted the Enola Gay, a Boeing B-29 Superfortress named after his mother, on its mission to drop the world's first atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan. Radar counter measures (RCM) observer JACOB BESER (1921-1992) was the only crew member of both the Enola Gay and Bock's Car, the two B-29s that dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki hastening the end of World War II. GEORGE R. CARON (1919-1995) was the tail gunner on the Enola Gay on its historic mission to drop an atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan on Aug. 6, 1945. Seated in the rear of the B-29, he was the first to see the mushroom cloud. Caron had been given a camera at the last moment and snapped a roll of photographs as the mushroom cloud ascended. His photographs of the explosion were printed on millions of leaflets that were dropped over Japan the next day. Lightly soiled and toned. Otherwise in fine condition.