The Last Bomb Page #3

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to roll on solid familiar blacktop.

It's good to feel the sudden humid heat.

To be among the living,

swapping details with the ground crew.

Flak, fighters, the close call,

the one that got away.

But some of those B-29 crews

won't be able to talk it over today.

11 men and a bomber

that didn't quite make it.

The rescue squads

tear away the hot metal.

Somehow in that burning wreckage

a man has lived to feel

those eager gallant hands.

One life saved and ten lost.

That's part of today's toll.

There were many other days and nights

that took their toll

of young American lives

in the service of

our relentless expanding air power.

By the end of July,

our B-29s had all but obliterated

the enemy's ability to make war.

1,000-plane missions

were going to hit Japan

with twice the monthly tonnage

that ever fell on Germany.

The question was how much longer

would a beaten Japan hold out.

In August we made a test

that never was applied to Germany.

While great land, sea and air forces

gathered for the last invasion,

our B-29s dropped two atomic bombs...

which hastened the surrender of Japan

and saved untold thousands

of American lives.

So the mission of our air forces,

which began nearly four years ago,

was accomplished.

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