Enola Gay is on its three-hour leg to the Iwo Jima rendezvous point.ģ a.m.: Weaponeer Capt. Hear more of Charles Lanzillo’s amazing story in a podcast below.2:55 a.m.: Navigator Capt. “I love these soldiers,” he said of the “boys” who gave it all so he could see the other side of 100. It was, Lanzillo said, the moment when they could all dream again of a life back home. He keeps a photo of that B-29 on his wall. “They never saw so many Marines gather at once to see that plane land. “The second one we knew would end the war,” he added.
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He wouldn’t be going out for a steak dinner. “What would have happened if it exploded while taking off?” he wondered. It ended the war, but that was never a guarantee. Do you remember the Hilltop?”īut his memory of the Enola Gay and then the Bockscar, the two modified Superfortress B-29s that carried the atomic bombs, remains vivid. “I was 24 and a lot of these kids were 18 … young kids who hadn’t even started to live yet. “We lost so many men - no boys - fighting for those islands in the South Pacific,” he said. A fuel pipe had malfunctioned, but that’s as close as he came to losing a crew.īut the Pacific Theater, he said, was hell. Once, the B-29 he was assigned to had to make an emergency landing on Iwo Jima - moments after the Marines had cleared the island’s lone runway. Bombing runs were at night and Lanzillo worked by day and watched his bomber take off and land and then got right back to work. The B-29s were part of the Twentieth Air Force group in the Pacific. Heroes of a Generation: Memories of JFK, a lost brother and beloved husband You had to give those men a chance to get back to the island,” he explained of his job keeping Dynamite roaring. “You worked every minute of daylight on that airplane. It’s clear - it was for his dedication as crew chief. “He never told me why,” he added, proudly showing it off. Lanzillo was given a Bronze Star by the captain of his B-29. The government said to me, ‘that’s your plane, take care of it.’ You’re responsible for it and for 11 men every time it goes up,” he said. His solemn duty was keeping his B-29 bomber - named “Dynamite” by the crew - humming. Good, clean living,” he said, explaining his gift of longevity.īut when you drill down, the pride of place and the task at hand rises to the top. He misses his wife, Dorothy, but he’s still quick to smile. Lanzillo, a father of two daughters and a son, is upbeat about his long life and the way the world has turned out. The smell of fresh-cooked brownies filled the air in the Chelsea veterans’ home on Admirals Hill where we spoke. They were all young boys who died in the war,” he said during a recent interview.
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He turns 100 in just a few months, but this retired printer for the Chelsea Record says he’ll never forget all those men who fought and died for their country.
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Lanzillo is one of the Heroes of a Generation the Herald is profiling. What would happen, what it would do? Until they dropped it.”īut it was the one-two nuclear punch that ended the war.
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“That was a very secretive group,” he added, saying the “brass” and scientists kept to themselves but the rumor mill was in full force on the island.
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“So everybody was buzzing all around the island. “Both planes left from Tinian Island. And it was only days apart.