# Straight Flush > Mediated Wiki article. Canonical URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Straight_Flush > Markdown URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Straight_Flush.md > Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Straight_Flush > Source revision: 1304641613 > License: Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/) B-29 aircraft that supported the bombing of Hiroshima For other uses, see [Straight flush (disambiguation)](/source/Straight_flush_(disambiguation)). This article needs more citations. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "Straight Flush" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (November 2018) (Learn how and when to remove this message) Straight Flush nose art ***Straight Flush*** was the name of a [B-29 Superfortress](/source/B-29_Superfortress) (B-29-36-MO 44-27301, [Victor number](/source/Unit_identification_aircraft_markings#XXI_Bomber_Command) 85) that participated in the atomic bomb attack on [Hiroshima](/source/Hiroshima) on August 6, 1945. Assigned to the [393d Bomb Squadron](/source/393d_Bomb_Squadron), [509th Composite Group](/source/509th_Composite_Group), it was used as a weather reconnaissance plane and flew over the city before the attack to determine if conditions were favorable for a visual drop. Pilot [Claude Eatherly](/source/Claude_Eatherly) later expressed remorse, received psychiatric hospitalization, and engaged in anti-nuclear activism, which may be the origin of [urban legends](/source/Urban_legend) that Eatherly, *[Enola Gay](/source/Enola_Gay)* pilot [Paul Tibbets](/source/Paul_Tibbets), or other members of the two planes' crews went insane after the bombings. ## Airplane history Straight Flush. *Straight Flush* was one of the fifteen [Silverplate](/source/Silverplate) B-29's used by the 509th in its deployment to [North Field, Tinian](/source/North_Field_(Tinian)). It was one of ten B-29s built at the [Glenn L. Martin Company](/source/Glenn_L._Martin_Company) plant in [Omaha, Nebraska](/source/Omaha%2C_Nebraska), as a "[block](/source/Block_(aircraft)) 35" B-29 but then designated "block 36" to denote its special configuration. It was flown from Omaha to the 509th's base at [Wendover Army Air Field](/source/Wendover_Air_Force_Base), [Utah](/source/Utah), on April 2, 1945, and assigned to Capt. Claude Eatherly and crew C-11, and departed Wendover June 8, 1945, arriving at Tinian on June 13. It was originally assigned the Victor (unit-assigned identification) number 5 but on August 1 was given the [triangle N tail markings](/source/Unit_identification_aircraft_markings#XXI_Bomber_Command) of the [444th Bomb Group](/source/444th_Bombardment_Group) as a security measure and had its Victor changed to 85 to avoid misidentification with actual 444th BG aircraft. It was named *Straight Flush*, purportedly based on a [gambling](/source/Gambling) penchant of Eatherly. From June to August it flew 11 training missions, and six combat missions in which "[pumpkin bombs](/source/Pumpkin_bomb)" (five-ton conventional bombs with the same handling characteristics as the nuclear weapons) were dropped on Japanese industrial targets. Eatherly's crew bombed [Tokyo](/source/Tokyo) (20 July), [Otsu](/source/%C5%8Ctsu%2C_Shiga) (24 July), [Kanose](/source/Kanose%2C_Niigata) (26 July, 1945), and [Maizuru](/source/Maizuru) (29 July) in *Straight Flush*, while 1st Lt. Charles D. Albury and crew C-15 used it to bomb [Koromo (挙母市 Koromo-shi)](/source/Koromo_(%E6%8C%99%E6%AF%8D%E5%B8%82_Koromo-shi)). On August 6, *Straight Flush* flew a mission over Japan as a weather patrol aircraft for the [Hiroshima bombing](/source/Atomic_bombings_of_Hiroshima_and_Nagasaki); two days later, it made its final combat flight, a bombing raid on [Yokkaichi](/source/Yokkaichi). One source (Campbell) states that on the first Pumpkin mission, on July 20, Eatherly attempted to bomb the [Imperial Palace](/source/Kokyo) through overcast as a "target of opportunity" but missed, hitting a bridge called Gofukubashi. The attack was contrary to bombing restrictions (to protect the person of [Emperor Hirohito](/source/Hirohito)) but apparently was not punished. In November 1945 *Straight Flush* returned with the 509th to [Roswell Army Air Field](/source/Walker_Air_Force_Base), [New Mexico](/source/New_Mexico). From March to August 1946 it was assigned to the [Operation Crossroads](/source/Operation_Crossroads) task force, then rejoined the 509th BG at Roswell. In June 1949 *Straight Flush* was transferred to the [97th Bombardment Group](/source/97th_Operations_Group) at [Biggs Air Force Base](/source/Biggs_Air_Force_Base), [Texas](/source/Texas), then sent to [Tinker Air Force Base](/source/Tinker_Air_Force_Base) in April 1950 for modification to TB-29 trainer specifications at the Oklahoma City Air Materiel Area. Subsequent assignments were to: - 2nd Radar Calibration Squadron, [Elmendorf Air Force Base](/source/Elmendorf_Air_Force_Base), [Alaska](/source/Alaska) (April 1953), and the - 5025th Maintenance Group, Elmendorf AFB (August 1953). In December 1953 it was sent to the [3040th Aircraft Storage Group](/source/3040th_Aircraft_Storage_Group) at [Davis-Monthan Air Force Base](/source/Davis-Monthan_Air_Force_Base), [Arizona](/source/Arizona), where it was scrapped in July 1954. In 2015 another preserved B-29 known as "Hagarty's Hag" at the [Hill Aerospace Museum](/source/Hill_Aerospace_Museum) was repainted to resemble Straight Flush.[1][2] B-29 serial #44-86408 "Hagarty's Hag" on display as the 509th composite group's "Straight Flush." ### Hiroshima mission crew Crew C-11 (regularly assigned to *Straight Flush*) - Capt. [Claude R.Eatherly](/source/Claude_Eatherly), Aircraft Commander - 2nd Lt. Ira Cecil Weatherly Jr, Pilot - Captain Francis D. Thornhill, Navigator - 2nd Lt. Frank K. Wey, Jr, Bombardier - 2nd Lt. Eugene S. Grennan, Flight Engineer - S/Sgt. Pasquale Baldasaro, Radio Operator - Sgt. Albert G. Barsumian, Radar Operator - Sgt. Gillon T. Niceley, Tail Gunner - Sgt. Jack Bivans, Assistant Engineer/Scanner - Sgt. Robert Wasz, Navigator "trip done" ## Other aircraft named *Straight Flush* Three [FB-111A](/source/General_Dynamics_F-111#FB-111A_strategic_bomber) strategic bombers of the USAF [509th Bomb Wing](/source/509th_Bomb_Wing), serials 68-0256, 69-6503, and 69-6512, carried the name and original nose art of *Straight Flush* on their nose wheel doors while based at [Pease Air Force Base](/source/Pease_Air_Force_Base), [New Hampshire](/source/New_Hampshire), in the 1970s and 1980s. ## References 1. **[^](#cite_ref-1)** ["Hill Aerospace Museum planes get new paint"](https://www.hill.af.mil/News/Article-Display/Article/838118/hill-aerospace-museum-planes-get-new-paint/). 20 May 2015. 1. **[^](#cite_ref-2)** ["B-29 "Superfortress" | Hill Aerospace Museum"](https://www.aerospaceutah.org/b-29-superfortress/). 16 August 2017. - Campbell, Richard H., *The Silverplate Bombers: A History and Registry of the Enola Gay and Other B-29s Configured to Carry Atomic Bombs* (2005), [ISBN](/source/ISBN_(identifier)) [0-7864-2139-8](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/0-7864-2139-8) - [509th CG Aircraft Page, MPHPA](http://www.mphpa.org/classic/CG/CG_02A.htm) [Archived](https://web.archive.org/web/20080512091118/http://www.mphpa.org/classic/CG/CG_02A.htm) 2008-05-12 at the [Wayback Machine](/source/Wayback_Machine) v t e Boeing B-29 Superfortress family Bombers Boeing B-29 B-29D KB-29 XB-39 XB-44 B-50 YB-50C B-54 P2B Tupolev Tu-4 Tu-80 Tu-85 Tankers Transports Boeing C-97 KC-97 Tupolev Tu-75 Aero Spacelines Pregnant Guppy Super Guppy Mini Guppy Airliners Boeing 377 Stratocruiser Tupolev Tu-70 AEW KJ-1 AEWC Topics Battle of Kansas Operators Silverplate Survivors Tip Tow Variants Accidents and incidents 1948 Bleaklow crash 1948 Lake Mead crash 1948 Waycross crash 1950 Fairfield-Suisun crash Pan Am Flight 202 (1952) 1954 Prestwick air disaster Pan Am Flight 845/26 (1955) Northwest Orient Airlines Flight 2 (1956) Pan Am Flight 6 (1956) Pan Am Flight 7 (1956) Notable aircraft Big Stink Bockscar Dauntless Dotty Dave's Dream Doc Enola Gay FIFI Full House Jabit III Kee Bird Laggin' Dragon Lucky Lady II Luke the Spook Necessary Evil Next Objective Some Punkins Strange Cargo Straight Flush The Great Artiste Top Secret Up An' Atom Notable flights 1 November 1944 reconnaissance sortie over Japan Atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki In media Boeing B-29 Superfortress in fiction Birth of the B-29 (1945) The Wild Blue Yonder (1951) Enola Gay: The Men, the Mission, the Atomic Bomb (1980) See also: Boeing B-17 family --- Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Straight Flush](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Straight_Flush) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Straight_Flush?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.