Tibbets returned to the States in February 1943 to help Boeing with the development of the B-29 Superfortress, perhaps the most complex aircraft built to date. In the early months of the War, he commanded a squadron of B-17 Flying Fortresses flying daylight bombing missions over Occupied Europe. Paul Tibbets Jr., of Columbus, Ohio, joined the Army Air Force in 1937 and qualified as a command pilot in 1938. A warplane, however, will be carrying its pilot and crew into (and hopefully out of) incredibly hazardous conditions, so if there might be some spirits on the craft, it is wise to make peace with them. In the industrial age, automobiles and aircraft are often seen as tools for accomplishing a specific task, and therefore are usually not imbued with the spiritual presence which requires a name like a ship does. It has been said that building and launching a ship is as close as a man can ever come to knowing the sense of accomplishment a woman feels at giving birth, so it is little wonder that naming a ship is an important tradition. Those who serve on ships can tell you that each vessel has its own moods and spirit, they consider ships to be living things.
Ever since men have been able to devise vessels to carry them onto the ocean and out of sight of land, he had given a good deal of thought to naming his ships.
