Russell Gackenbach Signed Autographed 4x6 Photo B-29 Necessary Evil Hiroshima For Sale

At DiligentiaGraphsour focus is to source out the best, authentic items and give you expedient andjust service. Our goal is to deliver a five-star experience through promptshipping and communication. Thank you for viewing our sale and feel free toask any questions.

The items for saleare to honor the veterans who served our nation and to expose their storieswhich might otherwise be lesser known.

Hand signed 4x6 inch photo by World War II vet, Russell Gackenbach.

Russell E. Gackenbach served as a 2nd Lieutenant in the 393rd Bombardment Squadron and in the 509th Composite Group. Heflew in the Necessary Evil during the August 1945 Hiroshima bombing mission and in the Enola Gay during the Nagasaki bombing mission.

Gackenbach was born on March 23, 1923 in Allentown, Pennsylvania. He enlisted in the Aviation Cadet program of the Army Air Corps military service in January 1943. After first “flunking out of pilot training” Gackenbach was commissioned as a navigator in February 1944. He went through pilot training at the University of Miami in Coral Gables Florida. He was also sent to Cuba, Utah, and Texas as part of his training in the 393rd Squadron.

On August 6, 1945 Gackenbach was a navigator aboard Necessary Evil, one of two B-29’s that accompanied the Enola Gay. The mission of Gackenbach’s aircraft was strike observation and photography. In the aftermath of the detonation of the Little Boy bomb, Gackenbach took a photo from 31,000 feet and sixteen miles from Hiroshima. The crew of Necessary Evil did not know at the time that they had dropped the first atomic bomb. He recalls being ushered into a debriefing immediately upon their return to the base.

Gackenbach had a role in the Nagasaki mission on August 9, 1945. He was part of the crew of theEnola Gay,whose role this time was to report on the weather at the primary target, Kokura. Because of the cloud cover and smoke from a previous day’s raid, the bomb was unable to be dropped visually over Kokura.Bockscar,the name of the aircraft charged with weapon delivery, moved on to the secondary target, ultimately detonating the Fat Man bomb over Nagasaki.

Shipping is donewithin 24 hours of received payment. We ship our items in 6X9 envelopes, sentfirst class with tracking and well packed. We do our best to accommodatespecial shipping requests as needed.

We do accept returnswithin 14 days that has been communicated and approved. We have a 15% fee onitems that are restocked and do pay for return shipping. Refunds are given onceitems are returned in original condition.

On all of our solditems we donate a percentage of profits to the Wounded Warrior project and toWorld War II museum in New Orleans, LA.