Ivan Odom. After returning home December 1945, he got his engineering degree and stayed in the Air Force Reserves until his retirement as a Lieutenant Colonel. Odom died in 2008.
Sunday, Aug. 6, marked the 75th anniversary of the United States dropping an atomic bomb on the city of Hiroshima, Japan. Seeley Lake resident Cheri Thompson shared her father Ivan Odom's account of the aftermath.
Odom served in the Air Force as a cargo pilot and flew C-47s during the Pacific Theater in WWII. He joined the Air Force in February, 1943 and received orders to return home in December of 1945.
During his time in the Air Force Odom wrote many letters to his parents including one mentioning a flight over Hiroshima a couple months after the dropping of the bomb. His mother saved all the letters and Odom later assembled them into a book for his family making notes explaining many of the letters.
In a letter dated Oct. 19, 1945 Odom wrote, "Dear Folks - Guess where I am. Tokyo! I've been here since yesterday, and am leaving again tomorrow. This is a pretty short trip but I've enjoyed it, except for the devastation we saw at Hiroshima. That was pretty shocking!"
In his explanation of the letter Odom wrote, "On Oct. 16th, I flew a group to Tokyo to establish an AEB office there. I'm not sure why they needed to evaluate air operations in Japan now that the war is over. But, who was I to question our operations when it provided me with the opportunity to go there. Maybe that was the idea; maybe it was an excuse for other members of the Board to visit Japan.
We flew from Manila to Okinawa where we spent the night. The next day we flew to Tokyo, but made a small course change to fly over Hiroshima.
It was ten weeks since the bombing. We could not believe our eyes! There was almost nothing left for miles around the center of the city. Instantly, we knew the meaning of the atomic bomb and the devastation it could cause. Our liberal mental interpretation of the description we had read was so far off that we were totally unprepared for what we saw. In silent awe, we made a second pass and left. The impact was so great we were speechless; no one suggested another look.
When I wrote my next letter, I just could not force myself to make any attempt at describing Hiroshima. Like so many other terrible things I'd seen, I would wrap this memory up and store it away for a long time."
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