themightybee

My grandfather, Lucius Palmieri, was a World War II mechanic. He didn't engage in combat, but he's partly responsible for one of that war's most iconic symbols, the Enola Gay.



For those who don't know, the Enola Gay is the B-29 Superfortress bomber that dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan. My grandfather was a mechanic on it. For most, it symbolizes the controversy of the bombings. For my family, it's a symbol of the mystery surrounding my grandfather's death.

It was 45 years ago, in 1963, that my grandfather died of Leukemia, brought on by exposure to radiation. My mom was 12. My grandfather wasn't on the Enola Gay when the bomb was dropped. He did, however, work on it after its mission. Unfortunately, it's never been proven that he was exposed to radiation while working on it. There were no other cases reported.

To this day, my family has lived with the assumption that my grandfather was exposed to radiation while working on the Enola Gay. We'll never know the truth, though.

And that's the story of my family's war veteran.