14 Facts About Kermit Beahan

Kermit King Beahan was a career officer in the United States Air Force and its predecessor United States Army Air Forces during World War II.

Kermit Beahan was the bombardier on the crew flying the Boeing B-29 Superfortress Bockscar on August 9,1945, that dropped the second atomic bomb on Nagasaki, Japan.

Kermit Beahan participated in the first atomic mission that bombed Hiroshima on August 6,1945.

In July 1940, Kermit Beahan joined the Army Air Forces as an aviation cadet but washed out of pilot training, becoming a bombardier instead.

Kermit Beahan was assigned to the 97th Bombardment Group and took part in the first B-17 raids in Europe by Boeing B-17 Flying Fortresses.

Kermit Beahan flew 13 missions over Europe, 17 missions over North Africa, and five credited combat missions in the Pacific with the 509th Composite Group.

Kermit Beahan was shot down and crash-landed four times.

Kermit Beahan returned to the United States as a bombing instructor in Barksdale, Louisiana.

Admiral Frederick L Ashworth, who participated on the mission as weaponeer, credited Beahan with saving the mission from failure by finding an opening in the clouds by which to complete the required visual bombing of the city.

Kermit Beahan survived a crash of a B-25 at National Airport Aug 19,1946.

Kermit Beahan remained in the Air Force until 1964, retiring as a lieutenant colonel.

In 1985, on the 40th anniversary of the Nagasaki bombing, Kermit Beahan said he would never apologize for the bombing, and that he had been thanked for his role by a group of 25 Japanese.

Kermit Beahan hoped that he would forever remain the last man to have dropped an atomic bomb on people.

Kermit Beahan was survived by his wife, the former Teresa Lavery of Belfast, Northern Ireland.