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In the 1950s, Lewis lived with his family in a home that he had built in Old Tappan, New Jersey. He was granted at least three patents during his time at Heide. He left in 1947 to rejoin his prewar employer, the Henry Heide Candy Company, where he became plant manager and personnel director of their factory in New Brunswick, New Jersey. His log, the only minute-by-minute recording on paper by any crew member that day, is part of his copyrighted historical manuscript owned by the Lewis children.Īfter the war, Lewis became a pilot for American Overseas Airlines, specializing in the New York to London routes. The entire story was written by Lewis just before his death in 1983. Lewis and his crew, minus their original co-pilot Dick McNamara, were Tibbets' crew for the mission, and it included two specialists for the arming of Little Boy, the uranium-235 fission bomb. Normally the aircraft commander assigned to the Enola Gay, for this important mission he acted as co-pilot and co-commander, assisting Enola Gay's new aircraft commander, Colonel Tibbets. On Aug– August 5 in the United States, due to the time difference – Lewis was the co-pilot of the Enola Gay when it dropped Little Boy on Hiroshima. In early June, Lewis and his co-pilot Dick McNamara flew the entire crew and support crew from Utah to Tinian, in the B-29 specially modified to carry Little Boy to Japan from the huge Tinian base that General LeMay controlled from Guam. Lewis led hundreds of bombing runs from Utah to Salton Sea in California leading up to his selection with his crew by Colonel Paul Tibbets. Articles from New York City area newspapers attested to his "cool head under stressful conditions", ultimately leading to his selection as captain of a B-29 crew. Lewis was always a "crew-first" pilot who survived two crashes due to electrical failure and engine failure. Lewis tried to correct the general as to his rank, but LeMay insisted on captain, with the field commission arriving several weeks later by USAAF mail to him based in the midwestern US at the time. LeMay addressed Lieutenant Lewis as "Captain Lewis" on the field at the conclusion of several days of training and testing.
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Lewis was field promoted to captain by General Curtis LeMay after demonstrating the B-29 and training the general on how to fly it. Lewis went on to be a multi-engine test pilot in B-24, B-26, B-17 and B-29 bombers, which later led to him as co-pilot and his crew being selected for the Hiroshima bombing mission. During World War II, he had to wait after enlisting to be processed into the USAAF Officer Candidate School (OCS). Lewis grew up in Ridgefield Park, New Jersey, and attended Ridgefield Park High School, graduating in 1937. ( July 2017) ( Learn how and when to remove this template message) Please help to improve this section by introducing more precise citations. This section includes a list of general references, but it lacks sufficient corresponding inline citations.