The original plan was eliminated and a more straightforward historical exhibit of the Enola Gay was put in its place. Bennett was a part of the community who helped change the NASM exhibit through letter writing campaigns and publishing articles on the subject in local papers and magazines. Veterans groups and others became involved in campaigns to display the Enola Gay proudly and have the Smithsonian redesign their exhibit to respectfully display the airplane. The initial exhibit was controversial, with veterans groups claiming that the revisionist historical attitude was omitting the truth behind the reason to drop the atomic bomb and sympathizing too much with the Japanese. In 1995, the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum (NASM) created an exhibit to feature the Enola Gay, the B-29 bomber that dropped the first atomic bomb in the history of warfare on Hiroshima, Japan. During this period, he was a leading member of the Committee for the Restoration and Proper Display of the Enola Gay (CRPDEG). After the war, Bennett had a long career in the concrete contractor business in the greater Chicago, Illinois area. The Enola Gay exhibit finally opens today for public viewing at the National Air and Space Museum.
![the enola gay exhibit the enola gay exhibit](https://airandspace.si.edu/sites/default/files/images/WEB10502-2005h.jpg)
He enlisted in the Army Air Corps before Pearl Harbor and was discharged in October, 1945.ĭuring his years of service, he was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross and the Air Medal. National Air & Space Museum, planning for the exhibition in 1995 of the Enola Gay, the B-29 that dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima, has two concept documents.
![the enola gay exhibit the enola gay exhibit](https://williambeem.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/Enola-Gay.jpg)
He was a member of the 40th Bombardment Group (Very Heavy) of the XX Bomber Command in the China/Burma/India (CBI) Theater of Operations as well as Tinian in the Mariana Islands of the Central Pacific Theater of Operations during World War II. The exhibit opened June 28, and by the end of July, 97,525 people had gone through it. He flew combat missions in B-29’s as a radar operator and combat aerial photographer. Every morning, a long line forms at the National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C., to see the Enola Gay, the B-29 that dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima fifty years ago. Burr Bennett had a life-long interest in the Enola Gay Controversy as a result of his military service.