ENOLA GAY CREW - FIRST DAY COVER SIGNED CO-SIGNED BY: ENOLA GAY CREW (PAUL W. TIBBETS), ENOLA GAY CREW (COLONEL THOMAS W. FEREBEE) - HFSID 46280

ENOLA GAY CREW: PAUL W. TIBBETS and THOMAS W. FEREBEE
Paul W. Tibbets and Thomas W. Ferebee sign a Philatelic Envelope honoring the United Nations and 60¢ Special Delivery Rate.
Philatelic Envelope signed: "Thomas W. Ferebee" and "Paul W. Tibbets", 6½x3½. First Day Cover honoring the United Nations and 60¢ Special Delivery Rate, one 60-cent United Nations stamps affixed, postmarked United Nations, New York, October 22, 1971, FIRST DAY OF ISSUE. United States Army Air Force Colonel Paul W. Tibbets (1915-2007) was responsible for the organization, training and command of the world's first nuclear strike force. On the morning of August 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. Thomas W. Ferebee (1918-2000) was the bombardier on board the Enola Gay and was responsible for dropping the first atomic bomb, "Little Boy", on Hiroshima, Japan. Ferebee initially trained for a position on the Boston Red Sox, but joined the Army when he didn't make the team. A knee injury put him into flight school instead of Army training. He remained in the Air Force until the 1970s, serving in Korea and retiring as a colonel. He worked as a real estate agent after retirement. The bomb killed 66,000 and injured 69,000 people, not including long-term victims of radiation exposure. However, the atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki (August 9) hastened the surrender of Japan, ending WWII. Physicist Norman Ramsey, who went on to win a Nobel Prize for development of the atomic clock, supervised the transfer of the atomic bomb components from Los Alamos to Tinian, the island where the Enola Gay was based. Fine condition.