ST. GEORGE – After graduating from Beaver High School, Vernon “Vern” Thompson was recruited to join the United States Air Force, where he received special training as a propeller mechanic and served during World War II.

Thompson was a valued member of the ground crew entrusted with the special needs of the B-29 Superfortresses – the Enola Gay and Bockscar, among others.

The B-29 bomber made history as it dropped the world’s first deployed atomic bomb over the Japanese city of Hiroshima. Three days later, a second B-29 dropped another atomic bomb on Nagasaki, Japan.

View Thompson’s story below:

Videocast courtesy of Ancestry Memories, St. George News

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