Above and Beyond

I knew of Wendover Airbase long before seeing this movie. Although the movie infers that Tibbets picked the field for its isolation (true) it was also where they taught heavy bomber crews during WW2. So the field hardly had to be developed for the special mission of the 509th.

And today it has another famous reason - it is the site of many movie scenes, such as Independence Day and ConAir.

In fact, when I went to visit the site - right on the Utah-Navada border, they were filming ConAir.

Today all one sees as a reminder of its importance are the old concrete foundations of the many wooden buildings - with signs telling you what each building's purpose was.

But to the movie - I know that the main points were factually correct - right down to the flight time a B29 required flying from Saipan or Tinian to Japan - and back.

14 hours.

It seems that the secrecy at this base was as stringent as Los Alamos, where the Bomb was developed.

Besides being an entertaining movie it is educational.