Ray L. Tarte, Jr, P-47N Thunderbolt Pilot, USAAF, 8th Air Force, 301st Fighter Wing, 507th Fighter Group, 465th Sq., Ie Shima, Pacific Theater, WWII, On one mission, August 9, 1945, Ray flew as a fighter escort* for the Nagasaki atomic bomb mission. He personally saw the Nagasaki mushroom cloud come up through the clouds from about 25 or 30 miles away after the atomic bomb exploded.