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Claude Eatherly
Claude Robert Eatherly (October 2, 1918 – July 1, 1978) was an officer in the U.S. Army Air Forces during World War II. He 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. His parents, James E. “Bud” Eatherly and Edna Bell George, were both farmers, and Eatherly himself dropped out of North Texas State Teachers' College in Denton in his senior year to join the Army Air Corps in December, 1940. He graduated from bomber school and was commissioned a second lieutenant in August, 1941.
Eatherly was the pilot of Straight Flush, one of seven B-29s of the 393d Bomb Squadron of the 509th Composite Group that took part in the Hiroshima mission, which was the culmination of ten months of training during World War II. It departed Tinian Island at approximately 0137 hours on the morning of August 6, 1945, a little more than an hour ahead of the Enola Gay (which carried the bomb) and flew over Hiroshima with the task of reporting the weather conditions.[citation needed] After reporting the weather was good over the target, Eatherly turned Straight Flush for home, and was over 300 miles (480 km) from ground zero when the bomb exploded.
Eatherly desperately wanted to remain in the air force, but — following reassignment to meteorology training — was caught cheating on coursework and ousted into honorable discharge. He 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.[clarification needed] Consumed by guilt, he attempted suicide by drugs in a hotel in New Orleans, but he survived and was treated in Waco, Texas in a psychiatric hospital for soldiers. His mental condition slowly deteriorated.[citation needed]
Jerome Klinkowitz, in Pacific Skies: American Flyers in World War II, writes:[citation needed]
Shortly after leaving the Air Force in 1947, 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 Eatherly was arrested and prosecuted, serving time in jail for this offense.
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. He tried speaking out with pacifist groups, sending parts of his paycheck to Hiroshima, writing letters of apology, and once or twice may have attempted suicide. At one point "he set out to try to discredit the popular myth of the war hero [by] committing petty crimes from which he derived no benefit: he was tried for various forgeries and forged a check for a small amount and contributed the money to a fund for the children of Hiroshima. He held up banks and broke into post offices without ever taking anything." He was convicted of forgery in New Orleans, Louisiana and served one year between 1954 and 1955 for the crime. He was also convicted of breaking and entering in West Texas. He then became a salesman in a garage and might have attempted suicide again by drug. In 1959 he avoided prosecution for robbery by entering the Veterans Administration Hospital in Waco, Texas for many months. Some think he committed antisocial acts because of schizophrenia or anxiety disorder.[citation needed]
It was in this hospital that he began to correspond with Günther Anders, a German philosopher and pacifist, who became his friend in a battle to promote the abolition of nuclear weapons. Eatherly wrote:
Claude Eatherly
Claude Robert Eatherly (October 2, 1918 – July 1, 1978) was an officer in the U.S. Army Air Forces during World War II. He 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. His parents, James E. “Bud” Eatherly and Edna Bell George, were both farmers, and Eatherly himself dropped out of North Texas State Teachers' College in Denton in his senior year to join the Army Air Corps in December, 1940. He graduated from bomber school and was commissioned a second lieutenant in August, 1941.
Eatherly was the pilot of Straight Flush, one of seven B-29s of the 393d Bomb Squadron of the 509th Composite Group that took part in the Hiroshima mission, which was the culmination of ten months of training during World War II. It departed Tinian Island at approximately 0137 hours on the morning of August 6, 1945, a little more than an hour ahead of the Enola Gay (which carried the bomb) and flew over Hiroshima with the task of reporting the weather conditions.[citation needed] After reporting the weather was good over the target, Eatherly turned Straight Flush for home, and was over 300 miles (480 km) from ground zero when the bomb exploded.
Eatherly desperately wanted to remain in the air force, but — following reassignment to meteorology training — was caught cheating on coursework and ousted into honorable discharge. He 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.[clarification needed] Consumed by guilt, he attempted suicide by drugs in a hotel in New Orleans, but he survived and was treated in Waco, Texas in a psychiatric hospital for soldiers. His mental condition slowly deteriorated.[citation needed]
Jerome Klinkowitz, in Pacific Skies: American Flyers in World War II, writes:[citation needed]
Shortly after leaving the Air Force in 1947, 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 Eatherly was arrested and prosecuted, serving time in jail for this offense.
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. He tried speaking out with pacifist groups, sending parts of his paycheck to Hiroshima, writing letters of apology, and once or twice may have attempted suicide. At one point "he set out to try to discredit the popular myth of the war hero [by] committing petty crimes from which he derived no benefit: he was tried for various forgeries and forged a check for a small amount and contributed the money to a fund for the children of Hiroshima. He held up banks and broke into post offices without ever taking anything." He was convicted of forgery in New Orleans, Louisiana and served one year between 1954 and 1955 for the crime. He was also convicted of breaking and entering in West Texas. He then became a salesman in a garage and might have attempted suicide again by drug. In 1959 he avoided prosecution for robbery by entering the Veterans Administration Hospital in Waco, Texas for many months. Some think he committed antisocial acts because of schizophrenia or anxiety disorder.[citation needed]
It was in this hospital that he began to correspond with Günther Anders, a German philosopher and pacifist, who became his friend in a battle to promote the abolition of nuclear weapons. Eatherly wrote: