- He was the pilot of the B-29 Superfortress "Enola Gay", which dropped the atomic bomb "Little Boy" on Hiroshima on 6 August 1945.
- The name of his B-29 "Enola Gay" was actually the name of Tibbets' mother.
- Children from first marriage = Paul III, Gene; child from second marriage = James.
- Died in his Columbus, Ohio, home at the age of ninety-two. He had suffered small strokes and heart failure in his final years and had been in hospice care. Tibbets laid down in his will that there should be no funeral service after his death and no headstone for fear this might lead to demonstrations at his grave. He wanted to ensure that his resting place could never be a pilgrimage site for opponents of the use of nuclear weapons. Tibbets asked to be cremated, and have his ashes dispersed into the waters of the English Channel.
- As a means of thwarting the actions of prospective anti-nuke protesters after his death, Tibbets requested that there be no funeral arrangements, and that he be buried in an unmarked grave site.
- The B-29 (#44-8629) he piloted that dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima killing almost 80,000 people, is currently housed at the Smithsonian Institution.
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