Charles Donald Albury

Charles Donald Albury (October 12, 1920 – May 23, 2009) was an American military aviator who participated in both atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. He was the co-pilot of the United States Army Air Forces B-29 bomber known as the Bockscar during the mission that dropped the atomic bomb on Nagasaki on August 9, 1945. The bombing of Nagasaki killed an estimated 40,000 people instantly, and led to Japan's unconditional surrender on August 14, 1945, ending World War II.

Atomic bombing of Hiroshima On August 6, 1945, Albury witnessed the first atomic bombing of Hiroshima as pilot of the instrument observation plane, The Great Artiste, which accompanied the Enola Gay commanded by Tibbets. Albury measured the levels of radioactivity and magnitude of the atomic bomb from his plane. The attack was delayed by cloud cover until the crew located a hole in the clouds.

Albury stated repeatedly during his life that he did not have any remorse for the attack or his role in the attack on Nagasaki, noting that many more lives would have been lost if the United States had launched a full invasion of mainland Japan. He later became the co-manager of Eastern's Airbus A300 training program. He later moved to a house in Hunter's Creek (south Orlando) where he lived until his death.

Charles Donald Albury died on May 23, 2009, at a hospital in Orlando, Florida, at the age of 88. He had suffered from congestive heart failure for several years before his death. He appeared in the Smithsonian Networks program Smithsonian Channel's War Stories, "The Men Who Brought the Dawn", in 1995, giving his recollections and reflections on the two atomic bomb missions.