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 NYT20020731.0191 
 2002-07-31 18:45 

A4537 &Cx1f; tad-z
u a BC-ATOMIC-BOMB-0801-COX       07-31 1808


 BC-ATOMIC-BOMB-0801-COX 
  
 A mission to end a war  
 By DENISE GAMINO  
   Cox News Service  



   AUSTIN, Texas -- Tom Karnes was dialing for destiny, but not
everyone wanted to cooperate.


   Karnes sat in his wood-paneled office in a Quonset hut in the
middle of the Great Salt Lake Desert, a black telephone to his ear.
He was tracking down men to join a group so secret he couldn't
admit it existed.


   On his metal desk were names of military men being ordered into
the organization. He was calling bases all over the United States
to line up their transfer to the desert outside Salt Lake City.


   "Where is the authority?" asked one officer who didn't want to
lose a valuable man under his command.


   "Who says this?" another commanding officer asked Karnes.


   Each time, Karnes said what he had to: "Call Air Force
headquarters if you don't believe me."


   If they continued to resist, he pulled out a secret code for
their bosses.


   "This is a Silverplate request," he said.


   Silverplate: code word for the historic mission that would end
World War II.


   Almost 1,800 men were assembled n late 1944 to join the
top-secret unit called the 509th Composite Group. Col. Paul
Tibbets, the pilot who would drop the world's first atomic bomb
over Hiroshima, Japan, was commander of the unit and chose the men.
And the first person he chose to join him was Karnes, though he
couldn't reveal the mission to Karnes. Karnes, 87, is a retired
history professor who lives in suburban Austin with his wife,
Virginia, who also worked for the 509th as a civilian bookkeeper
for six months.


   Karnes was Tibbets' adjutant, the man in charge of writing the
orders and cajoling the transfer to the unit of servicemen
proficient in bombing, mechanics, ordnance, engineering and
communications. Tibbets picked the names, and Karnes made it
happen.