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6, 1945 file photo made available by the U.S. (AP Photo/Max Desfor) Max Desfor/STF Show More Show Less 4 of5 FILE - In this Aug. Tom VanKirk says his 93-year-old father, the last surviving member of the Enola Gay crew, died in Stone Mountain, Ga. atomic bombing mission against the Japanese city of Hiroshima. 6, 1945 file photo, the "Enola Gay" Boeing B-29 Superfortress lands at Tinian, Northern Mariana Islands after the U.S. Max Desfor/STF Show More Show Less 3 of5 FILE - In this Aug. (AP Photo/The Macon Telegraph, Beau Cabell, File) Beau Cabell/MBO Show More Show Less 2 of5 Theodore VanKirk guided the "Enola Gay" Boeing B-29 Superfortress to Tinian, Northern Mariana Islands, after the U.S. He was the last surviving member of a crew that dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima. Tom Van Kirk says his 93-year-old father died in Stone Mountain, Ga. The navigator for the Enola Gay spoke about his experience guiding the aircraft that dropped the first atomic bomb. I was only doing my part.1 of5 FILE - In this file photo, Theodore "Dutch'' Van Kirk visits a veteran's group at the Golden Corral in Macon, Ga. I did nothing more than any of the others. “There were sixteen-and-a-half million people involved in the war effort. “We (the Enola Gay crew) were just happy that we helped bring the war to an end,” Van Kirk says, deflecting any notion he was a hero. They don’t understand that as bad as the bomb was, we had to stop World War II and end the killing. People today only know about the casualties. We should develop atomic energy to its fullest, but no more wars.
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“When people say to me we should never drop any more atomic bombs, I agree. “I’m sorry we had to drop the bomb,” he said. Naturally he is asked about the horrific results of the dropping of the bomb. Van Kirk, 89, the sole survivor of the mission, is still in good health and spends a good portion of his time speaking.
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“I told him that he was full of crap,” Van Kirk said. Jake Beser once said that a Japanese fighter flew up beside the Enola Gay and turned away. Even one of the crew members became loose with the truth. “If he did, he would have to be up there with the angels,” Van Kirk says. In the spring, a veteran passed away in Alabama, and his obituary claimed that he had flown “top cover” for the Enola Gay mission. Van Kirk has even met a couple of them in bars over the years. One of the amazing sidebars about the flight of the Enola Gay is the great number of people who falsely claimed that they flew on the mission. “We were 12 miles away when the bomb went off and we still got a 3½-G jolt, which is pretty significant.” “We were told we would be safe if we were 11 miles away,” Van Kirk says. The big challenge was dropping the bomb and maneuvering the plane away from the blast post haste. The Japanese had no defense for airplanes flying at that altitude. The Enola Gay, a B-29 bomber, could fly at an altitude of 30,000 feet. The Japanese Air Force had pretty much been destroyed. Sixty-five years later, Van Kirk, looking back, says that the mission was actually a “piece of cake,” once the Enola Gay was airborne. Tibbetts began to disclose more details of the mission, and with countless physicists forever moving about the base, the crew gradually became familiar with the objectives and enormity of the mission. Initially, he thought Tibbets was “full of baloney.” During subsequent training exercises, Van Kirk soon realized what was taking place. Van Kirk, like Truman, is a plainspoken man. Truman, who was to ultimately give his approval for the dropping of the bomb. His lack of knowledge of this historic project put him in company with the overwhelming majority of Americans, including members of Congress and the Vice President of the United States, Harry S. “I can’t tell you anything else,” Tibbets told Van Kirk.Īt the time, Van Kirk had no inkling of the Manhattan Project. He merely explained that he was forming a new group, which was affiliated with a top-secret assignment and that if the plan worked, it would shorten the war. Tibbets didn’t disclose sensitive and top-secret details to Van Kirk at the outset. Genuine modesty motivates Van Kirk to deflect praise and tribute, but it has been documented in books and historical treatises that Tibbets believed Van Kirk to be the best navigator in the Air Force. Van Kirk’s exalted reputation as a navigator had something to do with his being called back to active duty. The last survivor of the flight of the Enola Gay, which dropped the first atomic bomb, Van Kirk probably would not have had such a prominent place in history had it not been for his friendship with the late Paul Tibbets, who piloted the Enola Gay on its fateful mission over Hiroshima, Japan, August 6, 1945. In fact, his last mission helped end the prolonged war.