16 Facts About Claude Eatherly

Claude Robert Eatherly was an officer in the US Army Air Forces during World War II.

Claude Eatherly piloted the weather reconnaissance aircraft Straight Flush that supported the atomic bombing of Hiroshima.

Claude Eatherly was born in Van Alstyne, Texas, fifty miles northeast of Dallas.

Claude Eatherly graduated from bomber school and was commissioned a second lieutenant in August, 1941.

Claude Eatherly left the Air Force in 1947 as a major, and worked at an oil company in Houston, Texas where he became a sales manager for a Mobil gasoline station.

Shortly after leaving the Air Force in 1947, Claude Eatherly took part in arrangements for a raid on Cuba by American adventurers hoping to overthrow the government; here the former weather pilot's responsibilities would involve a flight of bomb-laden P-38 Lightnings obtained as war surplus.

The plot was uncovered, and Claude Eatherly was arrested and prosecuted, serving time in jail for this offense.

Claude Eatherly claimed to have become horrified by his participation in the Hiroshima bombing, and hopeless at the possibility of repenting for or earning forgiveness for willfully extinguishing so many lives and causing so much pain.

Claude Eatherly held up banks and broke into post offices without ever taking anything.

Claude Eatherly was convicted of breaking and entering in West Texas.

Claude Eatherly then became a salesman in a garage and might have attempted suicide again by drug.

William Bradford Huie, in The Hiroshima Pilot, cast doubt on the Claude Eatherly story, pointing out that Claude Eatherly continued to practice for potential future nuclear bombing missions in the years following the war.

Claude Eatherly believes that pacifist and anti-nuclear activists created or exaggerated elements of Eatherly's story for propaganda purposes, and that Eatherly cooperated in this mythmaking from desire for fame or attention.

Enola Gay pilot and commanding officer of the 509th Composite Group, Colonel Paul Tibbets, said in his autobiography "Flight of the Enola Gay" that he couldn't understand why Claude Eatherly felt so guilty.

Claude Eatherly died in 1978 at the Veterans Hospital in Houston, of cancer.

Claude Eatherly left behind a wife, Ann, and two daughters.