George Cherry of Johnsonburg views photos taken during his military service in the Army Air Corps during World War II. Cherry was stationed on Tinian Island in the South Pacific, where he worked on the Enola Gay B-29 bomber prior to the aircraft dropping the first atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan.

Former airplane mechanic helped inspect Enola Gay prior to Hiroshima bombing

By Amy Cherry
Daily Press Staff

    As today marks the 63rd anniversary of the United States’ World War II bombing of Hiroshima, Japan, local resident George Cherry, 83, of Johnsonburg recollects his experience as an airplane mechanic on the Enola Gay, the aircraft which dropped the first atomic bomb in history.

After being drafted into the Army Air Corp. in 1942 at the age of 20, Cherry spent the next three years in the military.

During that time he was stationed on Tinian Island, one of three of the Northern Marianas Islands including Saipan and Guam, located in the South Pacific.    

    “I was stationed all over the U.S.,” Cherry said.

    Cherry began his military career at airplane mechanic school in Weatherford, OK. He was then assigned to Tinker Air Base in Oklahoma City, OK. After becoming a propellor specialist following training by the Curtis Wright Corp., in Caldwell, NJ, Cherry was assigned to the Harvard Army Air Force Base in Nebraska where he worked on B-17 and B-24 bombers.

    From the midwest, Cherry was sent to Seattle, WA where he was deployed to Tinian Island. According to Cherry, troops

endured a 45-day boat trip while the island was in the process of being secured and was not setup to land planes.

    “We worked on the island for one-year while bombing Japan,” according to Cherry. “At the time of the Hiroshima bombing the war was going pretty good.”

    Once the Enola Gay arrived on the Tinian Island, access was restricted to the aircraft. Cherry explained that at the time the B-29 was a new bomber, and didn’t need much mechanical work. He and his fellow mechanics inspected the plane, prior to the bombing raid. He added that the plane was on the island for several days, during

which time he met the crew, including the pilot, Paul Tibbets.

    “When we helped load the bomb (code named “Little Boy”), we didn’t know it was an atom bomb,” Cherry said. “We thought it was just a big bomb.”

    He explained the bomb was so large they had to dig a pit to place it in. The Enola Gay drove over the pit where crew

members lifted to bomb onto the plane.

    The Enola Gay was accompanied on the Hiroshima mission by two additional B-29’s, Necessary Evil, used to photograph the bombing and The Great Artiste, used as a blast measurement instrumentation aircraft.

    Cherry said many of the troops stationed in the South Pacific only found out after the Enola Gay returned that it dropped an atom bomb.

    “If we wouldn’t have dropped this bomb, we would have lost at least a million soldiers in Japan, ” Cherry explained. “We found out there was a second atom bomb on the island, and that surprised all of us. It was the talk of the island, which was only five miles by seven miles big.”

    Although Japan surrendered on August, 15, 1945, ending World War II, Cherry only returned to the U.S. in November. After returning Cherry married Mary Chupa of Pittsburgh, in January. During the war, Chupa, a Washington County native, was a welder on Neville Island along the Ohio River where she worked on landing boats. For a brief time Cherry worked as a rigger at the same location assembling barges. The couple eventually returned to Johnsonburg where Cherry was employed at the local paper mill.