Straight Flush was the name of a B-29 Superfortress

B-29 Superfortress

The B-29 Superfortress is a four-engine propeller-driven heavy bomber designed by Boeing that was flown primarily by the United States Air Forces in late-World War II and through the Korean War. The B-29 was one of the largest aircraft to see service during World War II...

 (B-29-36-MO 44-27301, victor number 85) participating in the atomic bomb attack on Hiroshima

Hiroshima

is the capital of Hiroshima Prefecture, and the largest city in the Chūgoku region of western Honshu, the largest island of Japan. It became best known as the first city in history to be destroyed by a nuclear weapon when the United States Army Air Forces dropped an atomic bomb on it at 8:15 A.M...

 on August 6, 1945.

Assigned to the 393rd Bomb Squadron, 509th Composite Group

509th Operations Group

The 509th Operations Group is the flying component of the United States Air Force 509th Bomb Wing , assigned to Whiteman Air Force Base, Missouri. It is equipped with all 20 of the USAF's B-2 Spirit stealth bombers...

, it was used as a weather reconnaissance plane and flew over the city before the final bombing to determine if conditions were favorable for an attack. Pilot Claude Eatherly

Claude Eatherly

Claude Robert Eatherly was an officer in the U.S. Army Air Forces during World War II, and the pilot of a weather reconnaissance aircraft Straight Flush that supported the dropping of the atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan, August 6, 1945.-The bombing of Hiroshima:The Straight Flush was one of seven...

 later expressed remorse, received psychiatric hospitalization, and engaged in anti-nuclear activism, which may be the origin of urban legend

Urban legend

An urban legend, urban myth, urban tale, or contemporary legend, is a form of modern folklore consisting of stories that may or may not have been believed by their tellers to be true...

s that Eatherly, Enola Gay

Enola Gay

Enola Gay is a Boeing B-29 Superfortress bomber, named after Enola Gay Tibbets, mother of the pilot, then-Colonel Paul Tibbets. On August 6, 1945, during the final stages of World War II, it became the first aircraft to drop an atomic bomb as a weapon of war...

pilot Paul Tibbets

Paul Tibbets

Paul Warfield Tibbets, Jr. was a brigadier general in the United States Air Force, best known for being the pilot of the Enola Gay, the first aircraft to drop an atomic bomb in the history of warfare. The bomb, code-named Little Boy, was dropped on the Japanese city of Hiroshima...

, or other members of the two planes' crews went insane after the bombings.

Airplane history

Straight Flush was one of the fifteen Silverplate

Silverplate

Silverplate was the code reference for the United States Army Air Forces participation in the Manhattan Project during World War II. Originally the name for the aircraft modification project for the B-29 Superfortress to enable it to drop an atomic weapon, Silverplate eventually came to identify...

 B-29's used by the 509th in its deployment to Tinian

Tinian

Tinian is one of the three principal islands of the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands.-Geography:Tinian is about 5 miles southwest of its sister island, Saipan, from which it is separated by the Saipan Channel. It has a land area of 39 sq.mi....

. It was one of ten B-29s built at the Glenn L. Martin Company

Glenn L. Martin Company

The Glenn L. Martin Company was an American aircraft and aerospace manufacturing company that was founded by the aviation pioneer Glenn L. Martin. The Martin Company produced many important aircraft for the defense of the United States and its allies, especially during World War II and the Cold War...

 plant in Omaha, Nebraska

Omaha, Nebraska

Omaha is the largest city in the state of Nebraska, United States, and is the county seat of Douglas County. It is located in the Midwestern United States on the Missouri River, about 20 miles north of the mouth of the Platte River...

, as a "block 35" B-29 but then designated "block 36" to denote its special configuration. It was flown from Omaha to the 509th's base at Wendover Army Air Field

Wendover Air Force Base

Wendover Air Force Base is a former United States Air Force base in Utah now known as Wendover Airport. During World War II it was a training base for B-17 and B-24 bomber crews. It was the training site of the 509th Composite Group, the B-29 unit which dropped the Hiroshima and Nagasaki atomic bombs...

, Utah

Utah

Utah is a state in the Western United States. It was the 45th state to join the Union, on January 4, 1896. Approximately 80% of Utah's 2,763,885 people live along the Wasatch Front, centering on Salt Lake City. This leaves vast expanses of the state nearly uninhabited, making the population the...

, on April 2, 1945, and assigned to Eatherly and crew C-11, and departed Wendover June 8, 1945, arriving at Tinian on June 13.

It was originally assigned the victor number 5 but on August 1 was given the triangle N tail markings of the 444th Bomb Group as a security measure and had its victor number changed to 85 to avoid mis-identification with actual 444th BG aircraft. It was named Straight Flush, purportedly based on a gambling

Gambling

Gambling is the wagering of money or something of material value on an event with an uncertain outcome with the primary intent of winning additional money and/or material goods...

 penchant of Eatherly.

From June to August it flew 11 training missions, and six combat missions in which "pumpkin bomb

Pumpkin bomb

Pumpkin bombs were conventional high explosive aerial bombs developed by the Manhattan Project and used by the United States Army Air Forces against Japan during World War II...

s" (five-ton TNT bombs with the same handling characteristics as the nuclear weapons) were dropped on Japanese industrial targets. Eatherly's crew bombed Tokyo

Tokyo

, ; officially , is one of the 47 prefectures of Japan. Tokyo is the capital of Japan, the center of the Greater Tokyo Area, and the largest metropolitan area of Japan. It is the seat of the Japanese government and the Imperial Palace, and the home of the Japanese Imperial Family...

 (20 July), Otsu

Otsu

Ōtsu, or Otsu, may refer to:* Ōtsu, Shiga, Japan** Ōtsu Station, a railway station on the Tōkaidō Main Line ** Ōtsu incident, an assassination attempt on Tsarevich Nicholas Alexandrovich of Russia...

 (24 July), Kanose

Kanose, Niigata

was a town located in Higashikanbara District, Niigata, Japan.As of 2003, the town had an estimated population of 2,753 and a density of 10.68 persons per km²...

 (26 July), and Maizuru (29 July) in Straight Flush, while Capt. Charles D. Albury and crew C-15 used it to bomb Koromo

Koromo

Koromo may refer to:*Koromo, a variety of koi*Koromo, Mali*Koromo, a former name of Toyota, Aichi*Japanese word for clothing...

. On August 6, Straight Flush flew a mission over Japan as a weather patrol aircraft for the Hiroshima bombing

Atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki

During the final stages of World War II in 1945, the United States conducted two atomic bombings against the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan, the first on August 6, 1945, and the second on August 9, 1945. These two events are the only use of nuclear weapons in war to date.For six months...

; two days later, it made its final combat flight, a bombing raid on Yokkaichi.

One source (Campbell) states that on the first Pumpkin mission, on July 20, Eatherly attempted to bomb the Imperial Palace

Kokyo

is the main residence of the Emperor of Japan. It is a large park-like area located in the Chiyoda area of Tokyo close to Tokyo Station and contains several buildings including the main palace , the emperor left Kyoto Imperial Palace for Tokyo...

 through overcast as a "target of opportunity" but missed, hitting a bridge called Gofukubashi. The attack was contrary to bombing restrictions (to protect the person of Emperor Hirohito

Hirohito

, posthumously in Japan officially called Emperor Shōwa or , was the 124th Emperor of Japan according to the traditional order, reigning from December 25, 1926, until his death in 1989. Although better known outside of Japan by his personal name Hirohito, in Japan he is now referred to...

) but apparently was not punished.

In November 1945 it returned with the 509th to Roswell Army Air Field

Walker Air Force Base

Walker Air Force Base is a closed United States Air Force base located three miles south of the central business district of Roswell, a city in Chaves County, New Mexico, US...

, New Mexico

New Mexico

New Mexico is a state located in the southwest and western regions of the United States. New Mexico is also usually considered one of the Mountain States. With a population density of 16 per square mile, New Mexico is the sixth-most sparsely inhabited U.S...

. From March to August 1946 it was assigned to the Operation Crossroads

Operation Crossroads

Operation Crossroads was a series of nuclear weapon tests conducted by the United States at Bikini Atoll in mid-1946. It was the first test of a nuclear weapon after the Trinity nuclear test in July 1945...

 task force, then rejoined the 509th BG at Roswell.

In June 1949 Straight Flush was transferred to the 97th Bombardment Group at Biggs Air Force Base, Texas

Texas

Texas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...

, then sent to Tinker Air Force Base

Tinker Air Force Base

Tinker Air Force Base is a major U.S. Air Force base, with tenant U.S. Navy and other Department of Defense missions, located in the southeast Oklahoma City, Oklahoma area, directly south of the suburb of Midwest City, Oklahoma.-Overview:...

 in April 1950 for modification to TB-29 trainer specifications at the Oklahoma City Air Materiel Area.

Subsequent assignments were to:

• 2nd Radar Calibration Squadron, Elmendorf Air Force Base
  Elmendorf Air Force Base
  Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson is a United States military facility adjacent to Anchorage, the largest city in Alaska. It is an amalgamation of the former United States Air Force Elmendorf Air Force Base and the United States Army Fort Richardson, which were merged in 2010.-Overview:The...
  
  , Alaska
  Alaska
  Alaska is the largest state in the United States by area. It is situated in the northwest extremity of the North American continent, with Canada to the east, the Arctic Ocean to the north, and the Pacific Ocean to the west and south, with Russia further west across the Bering Strait...
  
   (April 1953), and the
• 5025th Maintenance Group, Elmendorf AFB (August 1953).

In December 1953 it was sent to the 3040th Aircraft Storage Squadron at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base

Davis-Monthan Air Force Base

Davis–Monthan Air Force Base is a United States Air Force base located within the city limits, and approximately south-southeast of downtown, Tucson, Arizona....

, Arizona

Arizona

Arizona ; is a state located in the southwestern region of the United States. It is also part of the western United States and the mountain west. The capital and largest city is Phoenix...

, where it was scrapped in July 1954.

Hiroshima mission crew

Crew C-11 (regularly assigned to Straight Flush)

• Major Claude R. Eatherly, Aircraft Commander
• 2nd Lt. Ira C. Weatherly, Co-Pilot
• Captain Francis D. Thornhill, Navigator
• 2nd Lt. Frank K. Wey, Jr, Bombardier
• 2nd Lt. Eugene S. Grennen, Flight Engineer
• S/Sgt. Pasquale Baldasaro, Radio Operator
• Sgt. Albert G. Barsumian, Radar Operator
• Sgt. Gillen T. Nicely, Tail Gunner
• Sgt. Jack Bivans, Assistant Engineer/Scanner

Other aircraft named Straight Flush

Three FB-111A strategic bombers of the USAF 509th Bomb Wing

509th Bomb Wing

The 509th Bomb Wing is a United States Air Force unit assigned to the Air Force Global Strike Command, Eighth Air Force. It is stationed at Whiteman Air Force Base, Missouri....

, serials 68-0256, 69-6503, and 69-6512, carried the name and original nose art of Straight Flush on their nose wheel doors while based at Pease Air Force Base, New Hampshire

New Hampshire

New Hampshire is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. The state was named after the southern English county of Hampshire. It is bordered by Massachusetts to the south, Vermont to the west, Maine and the Atlantic Ocean to the east, and the Canadian...

, in the 1970s and 1980s.

Source

• Campbell, Richard H., The Silverplate Bombers: A History and Registry of the Enola Gay and Other B-29s Configured to Carry Atomic Bombs (2005), ISBN 0-7864-2139-8
• 509th CG Aircraft Page, MPHPA