It was in this hospital that he began to correspond with Günther Anders, a Austrian philosopher and pacifist, who became his friend in a battle to promote the abolition of nuclear weapons. Some think he committed such acts because of schizophrenia or anxiety disorder, for which he was held for many months at the Veterans Administration Hospital in Waco, Texas. He then became a salesman in a garage and might have attempted suicide again by drug. He was also convicted of breaking and entering in West Texas. He held up banks and broke into post offices without ever taking anything.” He was convicted of forgery in New Orleans, Louisiana and served one year between 19 for the crime. At one point “he set out to try to discredit the popular myth of the war hero committing petty crimes from which he derived no benefit: he was tried for various forgeries and forged a check for a small amount and contributed the money to a fund for the children of Hiroshima. He tried speaking out with pacifist groups, sending parts of his paycheck to Hiroshima, writing letters of apology, and once or twice may have attempted suicide. The plot was uncovered, and Eatherly was arrested and prosecuted, serving time in jail for this offense.Įatherly claimed to have become horrified by his participation in the Hiroshima bombing, and hopeless at the possibility of repenting for or earning forgiveness for willfully extinguishing so many lives and causing so much pain. Shortly after leaving the Air Force in 1947, Eatherly took part in arrangements for a raid on Cuba by American adventurers hoping to overthrow the government here the former weather pilot's responsibilities would involve a flight of bomb-laden P-38 Lightnings obtained as war surplus. Jerome Klinkowitz, in Pacific Skies: American Flyers in World War II, writes: His mental condition slowly deteriorated. Consumed by guilt he attempted suicide by drugs in a hotel in New Orleans, but he survived and was treated in Waco, Texas in a psychiatric hospital for soldiers. He left the Air Force in 1947 and worked at an oil company in Houston, Texas where he became a sales manager for a mobile station. It departed Tinian Island at approximately 0137 hours on the morning of August 6, 1945, a little more than an hour ahead of the Enola Gay (which carried the bomb) and flew over Hiroshima with the task of reporting the weather conditions. Main article: Atomic bombings of Hiroshima and NagasakiĮatherly was the pilot of Straight Flush, one of seven B-29s of the 393rd Bomb Squadron of the 509th Composite Group that took part in the Hiroshima mission, which was the culmination of ten months of training during World War II.