Enola Gay Archive

Air Force Magazine Articles and Editorials

Revisionism Gone Wrong April 2004	Ten years ago this month, an Air Force Magazine article alerted the public to the Smithsonian's plans for the Enola Gay.
Enola Gay II December 2003
War Stories at Air and Space April 1994	At the Smithsonian, history grapples with cultural angst.
The Decision That Launched the Enola Gay April 1994	In April 1945, the new President learned the most closely held secret of the war.
“The Last Act” at Air and Space September 1994	The Enola Gay exhibit still lacks balance and still is emotionally charged, but the Smithsonian says the plans are final.
Museum Proposes to Change Enola Gay Exhibition October 1994	Memo for the Record
The Three Doctors and the Enola Gay November 1994	Under fire from Congress and public opinion, curators at the Air and Space Museum are making changes to their plan for exhibiting the famous B-29.
Editorial: Airplanes in the Mist December 1994	People come to the Air and Space Museum to see restored airplanes, not for counterculture pageants and spiels about the ozone layer.
Air and Space Museum Hit By Academic Backlash January 1995
Political Exhibit Crashes at the Smithsonian March 1995
Smithsonian Continues the Cleanup April 1995
Editorial: Japan’s Struggle With History May 1995	The truth is that imperial Japan started the war, waged it savagely, and refused to surrender until the bombs fell.
Air and Space Museum Director Resigns June 1995
Exhibit Blunders Force Smithsonian Probe July 1995
Presenting the Enola Gay August 1995
The Activists and the Enola Gay September 1995	The Smithsonian has cleaned up its act, but the cause lives on with those who claim we bamboozled the press, Congress, and the public.
The Revelations of Martin Harwit December 1996	The former director of the National Air and Space Museum has written a book about the Enola Gay controversy.

Verbatim

Preemptive Action
"Since the [Defense] Department's acceptance of the independent estimates last fall, we've been, in just about every respect, acting as if the program were in a Nunn-McCurdy breach. ... We've been taking all of the mitigating and corrective action that we would take as if there were a Nunn-McCurdy breach."
—Air Force Secretary Michael Donley, discussing with reporters the restructure of the F-35 strike fighter program announced in February 2010 and the probability that the program will soon exceed Nunn-McCurdy cost-monitoring thresholds that would necessitate, per US law, a program review and corrective steps, Washington, D.C., March 2, 2010.

Verbatim

Message for Grandma
"She has working for her as a citizen in the United States an Air Force Reserve that has some very talented, capable, patriotic, and willing individuals doing the business to keep this nation free. Just like her generation—the 'Greatest Generation'—was, I am very proud of the folks that we have got. If not the second greatest, then they are an extension of the greatest generation and they are ready, willing, and able to do the things that she would want them to do to make sure we keep our freedoms."
—Lt. Gen. Charles Stenner, Air Force Reserve chief, responding to a reporter's question on what the reporter should tell his 85-year-old grandmother to convey to her the importance of Air Force Reservists to the nation's security, Orlando, Fla., Feb. 19, 2010.