In February 1942, he became the commanding officer of the 340th Bombardment Squadron of the 97th Bombardment Group, which was equipped with the Boeing B-17.
After the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, he flew anti-submarine patrols over the Atlantic. Tibbets enlisted in the United States Army in 1937 and qualified as a pilot in 1938.
He is best known as the pilot who flew the B-29 Superfortress known as the Enola Gay when it dropped Little Boy, the first of two atomic bombs used in warfare, on the Japanese city of Hiroshima. was a brigadier general in the United States Air Force.
