Bomb: The Race to Build—and Steal—the World’s Most Dangerous Weapon Part 4, Chapter 25 Summary

Final Assembly

The Pilot

  • Paul Tibbets, a fighter pilot, gets a phone call from his concerned dad because a bunch of feds have been asking questions about him. What'd he do to deserve this kind of treatment?
  • Then he gets summoned to General Ent's office in Colorado. Now Tibbets is pretty confused.
  • Tibbets is interrogated by Army Counter-Intelligence, and then he's brought to meet Dr. Norman Ramsey, a professor of physics, who begins telling him all about atomic energy.
  • Even though they still haven't actually built an atomic bomb, Oppie knows that it will have to be delivered via airplane by a pilot with special training. Hence: Tibbets.
  • Tibbets has to devise a plan for how to safely deliver the still-hypothetical weapon.
  • Tibbets assembles a hand-picked crew to train, and they are known as the 509th Composite Group.