When the United States dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima on August 6, 1945, Air Force pilot Maj. Claude Eatherly was charged with flying the B-29 Straight Flush about an hour ahead of the Enola Gay (which carried the bomb) to report the weather conditions over the Japanese city and to give the "all clear." The rest, as they say, is history.
Or is it?
Not many people read about Claude Eatherly in school textbooks. And not many know of his subsequent emotional decline after having taken some part in the dropping of the first atomic bomb, changing the world forever.
After leaving the Air Force, Eatherly eventually became horrified by his participation in the event, and lost any hope of ever receiving absolution for what he believed were his sins in contributing to the deaths of so many people. He set out to turn the popular myth of the "War Hero" on its head, by writing bad checks and robbing banks and post offices, many times not actually taking anything. His further acts of minor mayhem, which we'd probably now attribute to post-tramatic stress or anxiety disorder caused his father to have him committed to a veteran's psychiatric hospital for a number of months.
According to the Hollywood Reporter, director Sandy Smolan sees this tale as a fantastic yarn. "It's one of the great untold stories," said Smolan, who first read about Eatherly 18 years ago. "He was one of the top pilots in the Air Corps, an all-American Texas hero. It's a dark comedic tale about the bomb and personal responsibility... There's a 'One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest' quality to Claude's life. The film questions the unchecked power of governmental authority, an issue as important today as it was when Claude was trying to get into trouble in 1950s Texas."
Playwright/Actor Sam Shepard has been attached to play Eatherly's father in Smolan's film, Descending From Heaven: The Strange and Extraordinary Tale of Claude Eatherly, A-Bomb Pilot.
