“By dinnertime on the fifth,” Tibbets narrates, “all [preparations were] completed.2566 The atom bomb was ready, the planes were gassed and checked. Takeoff was set for [2:45] a.m. I tried to nap, but visitors kept me up. [Captain Theodore J.] Dutch [Van Kirk, the Enola Gay’s navigator,] swallowed two sleeping tablets, then sat up wide awake all night playing poker.” The weapon waiting in the bomb bay took its toll on nerves. “Final briefing was at 0000 of August 6,” Ramsey notes—midnight.
