His survivors include four children, seven grandchildren and two great-grandchildren. "Given the circumstances the country found itself in, with an enemy showing no desire to not continue to engage in war, with invasion imminent, he felt it was exactly the kind of thing this country should have done." "He thought he did his duty," his son said. Van Kirk didn't talk much about Hiroshima until anniversaries started becoming major media events, his son said. "We did not suffer any effects from radiation, and none of us, I will add, had any psychological effects," he told NPR on the bombing's 60th anniversary in 2005. Van Kirk was frequently asked whether the Enola Gay's crew members experienced any physical or emotional damage from the bombing.
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Three days later, another atomic bomb was dropped on Nagasaki.
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"Do I regret what we did that day? No sir, I do not," he told the Sunday Mirror, a British newspaper, in 2010.Īt least 80,000 of Hiroshima's residents were killed instantly and more were contaminated by nuclear fallout. Van Kirk, who looked down at the city for a jarring moment and saw what he later likened to a pot of boiling tar, had just one thought at the time, he said in numerous interviews: "The war's over." A poisonous mushroom cloud rose more than 50,000 feet. local time, Little Boy ushered in the dawn of the atomic age, destroying most of Hiroshima in a blinding flash. They dropped a bomb code-named Little Boy, which took 43 seconds to detonate, generating a burst of heat estimated at 50 million degrees. The payload was never specified.īoarding the stripped-down B-29 on the island of Tinian in the northern Marianas, Van Kirk and his crewmates flew some 1,700 miles to Japan. The last surviving member of the Enola Gay's 12-member crew, Van Kirk died of age-related causes, said his son Tom.Ī veteran of 58 World War II combat missions over Europe and Africa, Van Kirk was told he had been chosen for a top-secret bombing mission that could help end World War II. 6, 1945, guided the Enola Gay over Hiroshima to drop the first nuclear bomb in the history of warfare, died Monday at an assisted living facility in Stone Mountain, Ga. ENOLA GAY Plane image signed by FIVE 5 Flight Crew Members This 5 x 7 signed glossy photo of the ENOLA GAY has been signed by the following: Pilot. Famous Home Born/Died on This Date Yearly Necrologies Posthumous Reunions Interesting Monuments Interesting Epitaphs. Northumberland, Northumberland County, Pennsylvania, USA. War is hell indeed, and the pain inflicted on Hiroshima and Nagasaki was no greater than that suffered by countless millions during the six years from 1939 to 1945.Theodore "Dutch" Van Kirk, a navigator who on Aug. World War II United States Military Figure. However, these persons would do well to remember Sherman’s words. To this day, some critics condemn President Truman’s decision to use nuclear weapons. Today the Enola Gay is on display in a hangar at Washington Dulles international Airport. Officials did put the aircraft’s fuselage on display in 1995 several protesters were later arrested for throwing red paint, ash, and blood on the display.ĭespite the controversy, the planes restoration continued. Controversy led to the event’s cancellation.
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However, both the American Legion and the Air Force Association objected to elements of the planned exhibit, saying that they focused too much attention on the death and damage caused by the bombing. In 1995, the Smithsonian planned to display the aircraft in observance of the 50th anniversary of World War II’s end. Restoration of the Enola Gay began on December 5, 1984. His aircraft was transferred to an airbase in Roswell, New Mexico.Īfter the war, it was sent to Davis-Moncton Air Force Base in Arizona, and from there to various locations until 1961, when the Smithsonian took possession of its dismantled components. Colonel Tibbets landed his plane on a base at Tinian after a total of 12 hours and 13 minutes in flight, receiving the Distinguished Service Cross soon thereafter. The Enola Gay and its two companion aircraft returned safely from their mission.