Year Erected: 1956

Marker Text:  This B-29 aircraft, manufactured by Georgians in Marietta, saw service in the South Pacific in World War II. It is a sister ship to the Enola Gay and the Bock’s Car that brought Japan to their knees begging for peace and introduced atomic warfare to a startled world.

On August 6, 1945, the Enola Gay piloted by Col. PW Tibbets, dropped a single bomb on Hiroshima. Three days later another B-29, named Bock’s Car, hit Nagasaki with a second atomic bomb. In less than a week, Japan surrendered and World War II ended. On Nov. 20, 1945, Col. Clarence Irvine, of the 20th Air Force, and a B-29 called the Dreamboat, established a new world record by flying 8,198 miles non-stop from Guam to Washington D. C. So the miracle of the B-29, born of necessity, gave birth to an even greater miracle, known as The Atomic Age.

The U.S. Air Force presented this B-29 to American Legion Post No. 98, of Ashburn, and Veterans of Foreign Wars Post No. 4742, of Cordele, as a memorial to Georgia servicemen, and these Posts gave the ship to Georgia Veterans Memorial Park.