Tuesday, December 16, 2003

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The Enola Gay carried a weapon so devastating that it wiped out thousands of Japanese. It also saved thousands of American Marines. How is this plane, that's now on display treated?

Monday's opening of the National Air and Space Museum's new Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center was marred by a protester who damaged one of the museum's historic aircraft.
The B-29 Enola Gay's fragile aluminum-alloy skin was damaged when a glass bottle filled with red paint was thrown at the aircraft from a walkway above it. The bottle hit the plane's left side, denting an area just below the third row of windows and then shattered on the floor.
``There was a pop, then a splat, then I turned around and saw that there was some damage to the airframe,'' said an employee at the museum, located at Dulles International Airport.
Museum security detained Thomas K. Siemer, 73, of Columbus, Ohio, around 11:15 a.m. until police from the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority arrested him and charged him with felony damage to property and loitering.
Siemer was taken to the Fairfax County Adult Detention Center after his arrest. Bond information was not available Monday afternoon.
He was part of a contingent of 40 to 50 protesters who objected to the Smithsonian's refusal to include information in the plane's exhibit about the 103,000 deaths it caused when it dropped a nuclear bomb on Hiroshima, Japan, said museum spokesman Peter Golkin.


The Japanese attacked us you moron. We were finishing a battle they started and they weren't giving up on lightly.



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