In its ongoing insensitivity and sheer idiocy, the Trump administration has now reached into the grave where Baltimore’s Jacob Beser rests after flying two of the most consequential bombing runs of World War II.
Beser is the only man who flew both atomic missions over Japan that effectively ended the war. On the first run over Hiroshima, the plane was named the Enola Gay.
Eight decades later, in its zeal to scrub away all language it deems offensive, the Trump administration recently decreed the B-29’s name shall be banished from memory.
Because heaven forbid anyone should connect the word gay with America’s wartime triumph in 1945 and imagine it involves homosexuality.
And never mind that the plane was named to honor pilot Col. Paul Tibbets’ mother, Enola Gay Tibbets.
Maybe the Defense Department will rename the plane the Enola Straight.
Imagine the ghostly conversation today between the families of Tibbets and Beser. If they’re not merely appalled, they’re laughing at the sheer ignorance of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and his gang.
Under Hegseth’s orders to ban anything deemed DEI — diversity, equity and inclusion — his department has flagged all articles and photos featuring the Enola Gay (and thousands of other “offensive” items) for deletion from all websites and social media posts.
“We are pleased by the rapid compliance across the Department with the directive removing DEI content from all platforms,” Pentagon spokesman John Ullyot told the Associated Press.
Then, apparently realizing some of the embarrassing possibilities of the directive, Ullyot added, “In the rare cases that content is removed that is out of the clearly outlined scope of the directive, we instruct components accordingly.”
How’s that for military-speak? They “instruct components accordingly.”
Now before anyone defends this Enola Gay insult as the mindless homophobia of some Pentagon computer run amok, keep in mind this is the same Trump administration that has set the stage for other forms of bigotry.
Hegseth believes military fighting should be left to men — straight men, at that. He’s canceled all military observances of Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Pride Month, Holocaust Days of Remembrance. He has challenged military bases that dropped the names of Confederate leaders.
As part of the same purge deleting the Enola Gay, the Associated Press reported that thousands of photos, including those of women and minorities who served in the military, were also flagged.
Maybe the Pentagon can “instruct components accordingly.”
With Tibbets and radar specialist Lt. Jacob Beser on board, the Enola Gay dropped the world’s first atomic bomb on Hiroshima on Aug. 6, 1945. Days later, with Beser on board, a second U.S. plane, named Bock’s Car, bombed Nagasaki. Days later, Japan surrendered.
Beser, who passed away in 1992, was a lifelong Baltimorean who graduated City College and Johns Hopkins University and was a member of Baltimore Hebrew Congregation. He was awarded the Silver Star and the Distinguished Flying Cross.
Tibbets, who died in 2007, was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross, the Legion of Merit and the Distinguished Flying Cross.
Regarding their medals and legacies of honor, neither Hegseth nor anyone else can ever erase those from the record.
A former Baltimore Sun columnist and WJZ-TV commentator, Michael Olesker is the author of six books, including “Journeys to the Heart of Baltimore” (Johns Hopkins University Press) and “Michael Olesker’s Baltimore: If You Live Here, You’re Home” (Johns Hopkins University).
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