Kermit King Beahan (August 9, 1918 – March 9, 1989) was a career officer in the

United States Air Force The United States Air Force (USAF) is the air service branch of the United States Armed Forces, and is one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. Originally created on 1 August 1907, as a part of the United States Army Signal ...

and its predecessor

United States Army Air Forces The United States Army Air Forces (USAAF or AAF) was the major land-based aerial warfare service component of the United States Army and ''de facto'' aerial warfare service branch of the United States during and immediately after World War II ...

during World War II. He was the bombardier on the crew flying the

Boeing B-29 Superfortress The Boeing B-29 Superfortress is an American four-engined propeller-driven heavy bomber, designed by Boeing and flown primarily by the United States during World War II and the Korean War. Named in allusion to its predecessor, the B-17 Fl ...

Bockscar ''Bockscar'', sometimes called Bock's Car, is the name of the United States Army Air Forces B-29 bomber that dropped a Fat Man nuclear weapon over the Japanese city of Nagasaki during World War II in the secondand most recent nuclear attack in ...

'' on August 9, 1945 (his 27th birthday), that dropped the second

atomic bomb A nuclear weapon is an explosive device that derives its destructive force from nuclear reactions, either fission (fission bomb) or a combination of fission and fusion reactions (thermonuclear bomb), producing a nuclear explosion. Both bomb ...

Nagasaki, Japan is a Prefectures of Japan, prefecture of Japan located on the island of Kyūshū. Nagasaki Prefecture has a population of 1,314,078 (1 June 2020) and has a geographic area of 4,130 Square kilometre, km2 (1,594 sq mi). Nagasaki Prefecture borders ...

. He also participated in the first atomic mission that bombed

Hiroshima is the capital of Hiroshima Prefecture in Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 1,199,391. The gross domestic product (GDP) in Greater Hiroshima, Hiroshima Urban Employment Area, was US$61.3 billion as of 2010. Kazumi Matsui h ...

on August 6, 1945. Flying as part of the crew of ''

The Great Artiste ''The Great Artiste'' was a U.S. Army Air Forces Silverplate B-29 bomber (B-29-40-MO 44-27353, Victor number 89), assigned to the 393d Bomb Squadron, 509th Composite Group. The aircraft was named for its bombardier, Captain Kermit Beahan ...

'' which was a reference to him, purportedly because he could "hit a pickle barrel with a bomb from 30,000 feet" or he was "good with the fairer sex," his aircraft acted as the blast instrumentation support aircraft for the mission. Beahan attended

Rice University William Marsh Rice University (Rice University) is a Private university, private research university in Houston, Houston, Texas. It is on a 300-acre campus near the Houston Museum District and adjacent to the Texas Medical Center. Rice is ranke ...

on a football scholarship during the 1930s. In 1939 he joined the Army Air Forces as an aviation cadet but washed out of pilot training, becoming a bombardier instead. He was assigned to the 97th Bombardment Group and took part in the first B-17 raids in Europe by

Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress The Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress is a four-engined heavy bomber developed in the 1930s for the United States Army Air Corps (USAAC). Relatively fast and high-flying for a bomber of its era, the B-17 was used primarily in the European Theater ...

es. He flew 13 missions over Europe, 17 missions over North Africa, and five credited combat missions in the Pacific with the 509th Composite Group (including the Nagasaki sortie). He was shot down and crash-landed four times (twice in Europe and North Africa). * September 7th, 1942 - Airplane was damaged beyond repair by fighters and flak, barely managing to return to its home base with wounded and killed personnel aboard. * October 2, 1942 - Airplane was severely damaged by flak and fighters, barely returning to friendly territory with severely wounded personnel aboard. * Dec 18th, 1942 - Airplane was damaged by flak and continuous attack by fighters causing a crash landing near the front lines. * Jan 29, 1942 - Airplane was damaged by flak and continuous attack by fighters wounding the pilot and co-pilot causing a crash landing in very rough terrain near the front lines. He returned to the United States as a bombing instructor in Barksdale, Louisiana. In the summer of 1944, he was recruited by his former commander in England, Colonel

Paul W. Tibbets Paul Warfield Tibbets Jr. (23 February 1915 – 1 November 2007) was a brigadier general in the United States Air Force. He is best known as the aircraft captain who flew the B-29 Superfortress known as the '' Enola Gay'' (named after his mot ...

to be part of the

509th Composite Group The 509th Composite Group (509 CG) was a unit of the United States Army Air Forces created during World War II and tasked with the operational deployment of nuclear weapons. It conducted the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan, in ...

, which was formed to deliver the atomic bomb. The mission to bomb Nagasaki was conducted on Beahan's 27th birthday. Admiral

Frederick L. Ashworth Frederick Lincoln "Dick" Ashworth (24 January 1912 – 3 December 2005) was a United States Navy officer who served as the weaponeer on the B-29 ''Bockscar'' that dropped a Fat Man atomic bomb on Nagasaki, Japan on 9 August 1945 during World W ...

, who participated on the mission as weaponeer, credited Beahan with saving the mission from failure by finding an opening in the clouds by which to complete the required visual bombing of the city. An estimated 35,000–40,000 people were killed outright by the bombing of Nagasaki. Following the

Japanese surrender The surrender of the Empire of Japan in World War II was announced by Emperor Hirohito on 15 August and formally signed on 2 September 1945, bringing the war's hostilities to a close. By the end of July 1945, the Imperial Japanese Navy ...

, he returned to the United States as a crewman in the record-breaking

1945 Japan–Washington flight The 1945 Japan–Washington flight was a record-breaking air voyage made by three specially modified Boeing B-29 Superfortresses on September 18–19, 1945, from the northern Japanese island of Hokkaidō to Chicago in the Midwestern United Stat ...

under Lieutenant General

Barney M. Giles Barney McKinney Giles (September 13, 1892 – May 6, 1984) was an American military officer who helped develop strategic bombing theory and practice. Giles stepped outside established bomber doctrine during World War II to develop long-range cap ...

. He survived a crash of a B-25 at National Airport Aug 19, 1946. He remained in the Air Force until 1964, retiring as a lieutenant colonel. After his retirement, he worked as a technical writer for the engineering and construction firm Brown & Root through 1985. In 1985, on the 40th anniversary of the Nagasaki bombing, Beahan said he would never apologize for the bombing, and that he had been thanked for his role by a group of 25 Japanese. He said the bombing was the "best way out of a hell of a mess." Beahan hoped that he would forever remain the last man to have dropped an atomic bomb on people. Beahan died of a

heart attack A myocardial infarction (MI), commonly known as a heart attack, occurs when blood flow decreases or stops to the coronary artery of the heart, causing damage to the heart muscle. The most common symptom is chest pain or discomfort which may tr ...

in 1989. He was buried at the

Houston National Cemetery Houston National Cemetery is a United States National Cemetery in Harris County, Texas, near Houston. It encompasses only about half of which is developed. The cemetery had more than 111,000 interments as of 2021. It was listed on the National ...

. He was survived by his wife, the former Teresa Lavery of

Belfast Belfast ( , ; from ga, Béal Feirste , meaning 'mouth of the sand-bank ford') is the capital and largest city of Northern Ireland, standing on the banks of the River Lagan on the east coast. It is the 12th-largest city in the United Kingdo ...

, Northern Ireland. Lavery had a previous marriage, from 1944–46, to Civil War historian

Shelby Foote Shelby Dade Foote Jr. (November 17, 1916 – June 27, 2005) was an American writer, historian and journalist. Although he primarily viewed himself as a novelist, he is now best known for his authorship of '' The Civil War: A Narrative'', a three ...

after having met when Foote's artillery unit was deployed to Northern Ireland. Foote had spent six years in the US military and was tasked with making preparations for the invasion of Japan but in spite of his desires, never saw combat. "Foote was devastated that World War II was over", and it was Beahan, the future husband of his ex-wife, who ended it.Shelby Foote: A Writer's Life, by C. Stuart Chapman (2003, p. 93)
/ref>

References

"Kermit Beahan, 70, Bombardier On Plane That Dropped A-Bomb" ''New York Times''

"Near Failure at Nagasaki", ''AIR FORCE Magazine'', July 2011archived
{{DEFAULTSORT:Beahan, Kermit 1918 births 1989 deaths Recipients of the Silver Star United States Army Air Forces personnel of World War II United States Air Force colonels American aviators United States Army Air Forces officers People associated with the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki Rice Owls football players Rice University alumni Burials at Houston National Cemetery Recipients of the Air Medal Recipients of the Distinguished Flying Cross (United States) American aviation record holders

See also

References