Morris Jeppson, airman who flew on the Enola Gay, dies at 87

LOS ANGELES — Morris "Dick" Jeppson, a weapons specialist who was mid-flight when he completed arming the first atomic bomb, which the Enola Gay B-29 Superfortress dropped on Hiroshima in World War II, has died. He was 87.

Jeppson, a Logan, Utah, native and retired scientist and businessman, died March 30 of complications related to old age at Summerlin Hospital Medical Center in Las Vegas, said his wife, Molly.

The historic combat mission on Aug. 6, 1945, was the only one Jeppson ever flew.

Worried about his family's safety, he remained silent for decades about his role in the attack that killed at least 80,000 people, leveled two-thirds of the Japanese city and ignited controversy for having unleashed atomic power as a weapon.

When the Army Air Forces unit that flew the mission gathered in 1995, Jeppson attended and spoke in public about the bombing for the first time.

"You had a job to do, you just did it," Jeppson had often said since then.

The mission is credited with helping to bring an early end to the war. Three days after the bombing of Hiroshima, another B-29 dropped an atomic bomb on Nagasaki, prompting the Japanese surrender.

Navigator Theodore "Dutch" Van Kirk, 89, the only surviving member of the 12-man Enola Gay crew, told the Los Angeles Times that Jeppson was "quiet, efficient and businesslike" during the mission. "He wasn't the type of guy to blow his own horn."

Jeppson, one of several men trained to arm the bomb, was a 23-year-old second lieutenant when he was chosen to climb into the bomb bay on a coin toss.

With him was weaponeer Navy Capt. William "Deak" Parsons. Together they began arming the bomb with Jeppson acting as assistant, handing over tools.

"They did that very early in the mission, in the first half-hour," said Dick Daso, curator of Modern Military Aircraft at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum. "After that, they had to come inside the cabin because the bomb bay wasn't pressurized."

A few hours later, Jeppson made a final visit to the bay to change out three green safety plugs — each "the size of a saltshaker," he later said — for the red plugs that armed the bomb.

He made his way to the cockpit and told the plane's pilot, Col. Paul W. Tibbets Jr., that the bomb called "Little Boy" was set to go.

Once Jeppson felt the B-29 jerk up, he knew the bomb had been dropped.