George Caron Family Photographs

This collection consists of three photographs of his wife and infant daughter carried by Staff Sergeant George Robert "Bob" Caron aboard the Boeing B-29 Superfortress Enola Gay during the bomber's mission to Hiroshima, Japan, on August 6, 1945.

Boeing's B-29 Superfortress was the most sophisticated propeller-driven bomber of World War II, and the first bomber to house its crew in pressurized compartments. Although designed to fight in the European theater, the B-29 found its niche on the other side of the globe. In the Pacific, B-29s delivered a variety of aerial weapons: conventional bombs, incendiary bombs, mines, and two nuclear weapons. On August 6, 1945, the Boeing B-29 Superfortress Enola Gay dropped the first atomic weapon used in combat on Hiroshima, Japan. US Army Air Forces Staff Sergeant George Robert "Bob" Caron (1919-1995) was the tail gunner aboard the Enola Gay during its mission to Hiroshima on August 6, 1945. His rear-facing position in the aircraft enabled him to take what became the official USAAF photograph of a mushroom cloud rising from the city following the detonation of the atomic bomb nicknamed Little Boy.