Kermit Beahan

Who was Kermit Beahan?

relatives= Michael J Beahan and the Beahan Family Kermit K. Beahan was a career officer in the United States Air Force and its predecessor United States Army Air Forces during World War II. He was the bombardier on the crew flying the Boeing B-29 Superfortress Bockscar on August 9, 1945, that dropped the second atomic bomb on Nagasaki, Japan.

He also participated in the first atomic mission that bombed Hiroshima on August 6, 1945. Flying as part of the crew of The Great Artiste 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 on a football scholarship during the 1930s. In 1942 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 Fortresses. He flew 12 missions over Europe and 19 missions over North Africa. He was shot down and crash-landed twice in Europe and twice in North Africa. He returned to the United States as a bombing instructor in Midland, Texas. In the summer of 1944, he was recruited by Colonel Paul W. Tibbets to be part of the 509th Composite Group, which was formed to deliver the atomic bomb.