Later Life
Tibbets' marriage to the former Lucy Wingate ended in divorce in 1955; his second wife was a French woman named Andrea Quattrehomme. In 1959, he was promoted to Brigadier General. He retired from the U.S. Air Force on August 31, 1966.
During the 1960s, Tibbets was named military attaché in India, but this posting was rescinded after protests in India regarding Tibbets' role in dropping the atomic bomb on Japan. After his retirement from the Air Force, he worked for Executive Jet Aviation, a Columbus, Ohio-based air taxi company now called NetJets. He retired from the company in 1970 and returned to Miami, Florida. He later left Miami to return to Executive Jet Aviation, having sold his Miami home in 1974. He was president of Executive Jet Aviation from 1976 until his retirement in 1987.
Tibbets briefly commanded the 393rd Bomb Squadron during his tenure in the 509th Composite Group. His grandson Colonel Paul W. Tibbets IV, USAF, (a 1989 graduate of the US Air Force Academy) was also commander of the 393rd Bomb Squadron at Whiteman AFB, Missouri, from 2005–2007 and flew the B-2 Spirit. The 393rd is one of two operational squadrons under the same unit his grandfather commanded, the 509th Bomb Wing.
Read more about this topic: Paul Tibbets
Famous quotes containing the word life:
“When they [the American soldiers] came, they found fit comrades for their courage and their devotion.... Joining hands with them, the men of America gave the greatest of all gifts, the gift of life and the gift of spirit.”
—Woodrow Wilson (1856–1924)
“It had been a moving, tranquil apotheosis, immersed in the transfiguring sunset glow of decline and decay and extinction. An old family, already grown too weary and too noble for life and action, had reached the end of its history, and its last utterances were sounds of music: a few violin notes, full of the sad insight which is ripeness for death.”
—Thomas Mann (1875–1955)