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Autograph manuscript signed by Ralph Belanger, the message portion of a letter with the salutation clipped off. One page, in ink, on sheet of yellow lined paper.

Sergeant Ralph Belanger was an Assistant Flight Engineer assigned to the Bockscar's original crew.  Before the Nagasaki mission, a mechanical complication forced Major Sweeney and the crew of the Great Artiste, originally slated to drop the atomic bomb, to commandeer the Bockscar to carry "Fat Man," switching places with the original Bockscar crew. During the Nagasaki mission, Belanger flew on the Great Artiste, which acted as an observation ship, and here relates his experience in part: "...My function in the crew was Assistant Flight Engineer/Scanner. We each had a role in preflighting the airplane.... At the time of bombing I recorded the atomic blast and cloud on a 8mm movie camera for the Los Alamos Group, Lawrence Johnston in particular. On return to Tinian we were all debriefed on what we had seen and felt during the mission. As to my thoughts on the mission I felt it that it was necessary and have not changed my mind since."