Last survivor of Enola Gay aircrew that dropped the bomb on Hiroshima dies aged 93

[Geee]

UK Independent:

The last surviving member of the American crew who dropped the Hiroshima nuclear bomb that killed 140,000 people and triggered the end of the Second World War has died.

 

Theodore “Dutch” Van Kirk, 93, was navigator on board the US B-29 Superfortress Enola Gay that dropped the atomic bomb on the Japanese city of Hiroshima on 6 August 1945.

 

He died of natural causes at a retirement home in Georgia where he lived with his son Tom Van Kirk.

[Valin]

Visiting the Enola Gay
The Enola Gay and her brave crew saved many more lives than they destroyed.
Josh Gelernter
August 9, 2014

 

The Enola Gay (National Air and Space Museum)

 

Last week I visited D.C.’s Air and Space Museum and the Enola Gay, the plane that dropped the first atomic bomb. The Enola Gay is housed at the museum’s annex at Dulles airport; it has been beautifully cleaned up, and I couldn’t help feeling a shiver of American pride at seeing it. Few things this side of the polio vaccine are responsible for saving as many lives as the Enola Gay and her sister ship, Bockscar. The Smithsonian describes Truman’s decision to use atomic bombs as “controversial”; what I assume the Smithsonian means, and what it ought to say, is that the necessity of killing to save lives is unfortunate. The Enola Gay’s navigator gracefully summed up this logic in a New York Times interview.

 

Theodore Van Kirk guided the bomber to Hiroshima; the Times asked him if, given the chance, he would do it again. “Under the same circumstances — and the key words are ‘the same circumstances’ — yes, I would do it again,” said Van Kirk. “ . . . We were fighting an enemy that had a reputation for never surrendering, never accepting defeat. . . . I believe that when you’re in a war, a nation must have the courage to do what it must to win the war with the minimum loss of lives.” An invasion of Japan would have been enormously bloody; Van Kirk and his colleagues made an invasion unnecessary.

 

Van Kirk was a remarkable man. During the Second World War, a bomber crewman’s tour of duty was 25 missions, after which he would be moved to a less deadly assignment; bomber missions were exceptionally dangerous. Van Kirk flew his 25, then another 25, and was eight missions into a third tour when he was brought back to the United States to serve as an instructor. In Europe, Van Kirk — along with his pilot, Paul Tibbets, and his bombardier, Tom Ferebee — crewed their bomb group’s lead aircraft, with the responsibility for finding and hitting the target. Back in the U.S., Van Kirk was reunited with Tibbets and Ferebee as handpicked members of the crew that would drop the first atomic bomb.

 

(Snip)

 

 

58 missions!!! Good Lord!