VFR on Top
Dorkprop Driver
- Joined
- Nov 30, 2001
- Posts
- 306
Thought I'd share a few comments with everyone on one of my personal aviation heroes, my great-uncle George, who passed away on August 15th at the age of 84.
During World War II, Captain George Marquardt served as Operations Officer of the 393rd Bombardment Squadron (Very Heavy), 509th Composite Group, 20th Air Force. As a B-29 aircraft commander, George flew as part of the strike package on both the Hiroshima and Nagasaki atomic bombing missions, and was himself slated to drop the third atomic weapon on August 15th, the day after the Japanese surrendered.
George generally preferred not to talk about his WWII service, and it wasn't until I was 18 (which coincided with the 50th anniversary of the bombings) that I learned of the role he played in those historic missions. Up until that point, I'd never really understood his interest in my Civil Air Patrol activities whenever I saw him at family gatherings, always asking if I'd been flying lately.
Sadly, George was plagued with Parkinson's Disease for the last 15 or so years of his life, which robbed me of the opportunity to engage him in any substantive discussion on his WWII activities, something I greatly regret. I did however, have the benefit of the recollections of my late grandmother (his sister-in-law) and her tales of road trips from Salt Lake City out to Wendover for weekend hangar dances, where her sister Bernece and George first met.
I visited the National Atomic Museum in Albuquerque in late June, and had the incredibly good fortune to meet the sailor who, on the island of Tinian, painted the nose art on George's B-29, named "Up an' Atom" (which, coincidentally, is the name of the museum's gift shop). One of the great finds of that visit was a print of the 509th Group's photo annual for 1945, which General Paul Tibbets himself had re-published just last year.
Anyway, here's to you, George; blue skies and tailwinds, my friend.
During World War II, Captain George Marquardt served as Operations Officer of the 393rd Bombardment Squadron (Very Heavy), 509th Composite Group, 20th Air Force. As a B-29 aircraft commander, George flew as part of the strike package on both the Hiroshima and Nagasaki atomic bombing missions, and was himself slated to drop the third atomic weapon on August 15th, the day after the Japanese surrendered.
George generally preferred not to talk about his WWII service, and it wasn't until I was 18 (which coincided with the 50th anniversary of the bombings) that I learned of the role he played in those historic missions. Up until that point, I'd never really understood his interest in my Civil Air Patrol activities whenever I saw him at family gatherings, always asking if I'd been flying lately.
Sadly, George was plagued with Parkinson's Disease for the last 15 or so years of his life, which robbed me of the opportunity to engage him in any substantive discussion on his WWII activities, something I greatly regret. I did however, have the benefit of the recollections of my late grandmother (his sister-in-law) and her tales of road trips from Salt Lake City out to Wendover for weekend hangar dances, where her sister Bernece and George first met.
I visited the National Atomic Museum in Albuquerque in late June, and had the incredibly good fortune to meet the sailor who, on the island of Tinian, painted the nose art on George's B-29, named "Up an' Atom" (which, coincidentally, is the name of the museum's gift shop). One of the great finds of that visit was a print of the 509th Group's photo annual for 1945, which General Paul Tibbets himself had re-published just last year.
Anyway, here's to you, George; blue skies and tailwinds, my friend.
