Tale of Atom Bomb Doubts

Doubts Raised on Book’s Tale of Atom Bomb

By: William J. Broad

Published: February 20, 2010

          Charles Pellegrino is the author of a book about the devastating atomic destruction of Hiroshima. Although it has won critical acclaim, there is a problem.  Part of the book and details of the mission are said to be false.  There are recollections of Mr. Joseph Fuoco as a last minute stand in on one of the two planes to deliver the bomb. However, Mr. Corliss’s family denies that what the book says is true. Mr. Corliss died in 1999. His family kept all the documents of his historic flight and offered them as evidence that Mr. Fuoco never flew on the bombing run, nor did he stand in for Mr. Corliss when he was said to become ill.

                Mr. Corliss’s family was distraught about the fraud. They claimed that Mr. Corliss was very proud about being the flight engineer for that historic flight. The two surviving members of the flight crew agreed with the family. The flight’s navigator declared that he was close enough to shake Mr. Corliss’s hand.  He also insisted that there was no way Corliss was going to miss the mission.

                There seems to be a contradiction between the two families. One insists that Mr. Corliss was the one and the wife of the other family demands that her husband wouldn’t have lied about something as critical as that, even though she has no proof that he stood in for Mr. Corliss.