“I think everybody in the plane concluded it was a dud. It seemed a lot longer than 43 seconds,” VanKirk recalled. VanKirk stayed on with the military for a year after the war ended. Then he went to school, earned degrees in chemical engineering and signed on with DuPont, where he stayed until he retired in 1985. He later moved from California to the Atlanta area to be near his daughter. Like many World War II veterans, VanKirk didn’t talk much about his service until much later in his life when he spoke to school groups, his son said. “I didn’t even find out that he was on that mission until I was 10 years old and read some old news clippings in my grandmother’s attic,” Tom VanKirk told the AP in a phone interview Tuesday. Instead, he and his three siblings treasured a wonderful father, who was a great mentor and remained active and “sharp as a tack” until the end of his life. “I know he was recognized as a war hero, but we just knew him as a great father,” Tom VanKirk said. VanKirk’s military career was chronicled in a 2012 book, “My True Course,” by Suzanne Dietz. VanKirk was energetic, very bright and had a terrific sense of humor, Dietz recalled Tuesday. Interviewing VanKirk for the book, she said, “was like sitting with your father at the kitchen table listening to him tell stories.”Ī funeral service was scheduled for VanKirk on Aug. Then he went to school, earned degrees in chemical engineering and signed on with DuPont, where he stayed until he retired in 1985.5 in his hometown of Northumberland, Pennsylvania. Van Kirk stayed on with the military for a year after the war ended. "But if anyone has one," he added, "I want to have one more than my enemy." Son remembers 'great father' "I personally think there shouldn't be any atomic bombs in the world - I'd like to see them all abolished. And atomic weapons don't settle anything," he said. "The whole World War II experience shows that wars don't settle anything. Most of the lives saved were Japanese," Van Kirk said. "I honestly believe the use of the atomic bomb saved lives in the long run. Van Kirk told the AP he thought it was necessary because it shortened the war and eliminated the need for an Allied land invasion that could have cost more lives on both sides. Whether the United States should have used the atomic bomb has been debated ever since. Six days after the Nagasaki bombing, Japan surrendered.
The blast and its aftermath claimed 80,000 lives. Three days after Hiroshima, a second atomic bomb was dropped on Nagasaki. The blast and its after effects killed 140,000 in Hiroshima. It seemed a lot longer than 43 seconds," Van Kirk recalled. (Bita Honarvar/Atlanta Journal Constitution/AP)"I think everybody in the plane concluded it was a dud. 6, 1945, the first time that an atomic bomb was deployed in wartime. Theodore (Dutch) Van Kirk was the navigator of the Enola Gay, the B-29 that dropped an atomic bomb on the Japanese city of Hiroshima on Aug. They counted - one thousand one, one thousand two - reaching the 43 seconds they'd been told it would take for detonation and heard nothing. They didn't know whether the bomb would actually work and, if it did, whether its shockwaves would rip their plane to shreds. As the 9,000-kilogram bomb nicknamed "Little Boy" fell toward the sleeping city, he and his crewmates hoped to escape with their lives. He guided the bomber through the night sky, just 15 seconds behind schedule, he said. The mission went perfectly, Van Kirk told The Associated Press in a 2005 interview. He was teamed with pilot Paul Tibbets and bombardier Tom Ferebee for Special Mission No. He was 24 years old when he served as navigator on the Enola Gay, the B-29 Superfortress that dropped the first atomic bomb deployed in wartime over the Japanese city of Hiroshima on Aug. Van Kirk flew nearly 60 bombing missions, but it was a single mission in the Pacific that secured him a place in history. I personally think there shouldn't be any atomic bombs in the world - I'd like to see them all abolished - Theodore Van Kirk, last surviving member of the Enola Gay crew And atomic weapons don't settle anything. The whole World War II experience shows that wars don't settle anything. Theodore Van Kirk died Monday of natural causes at the retirement home where he lived in Georgia, his son Tom Van Kirk said. crew that dropped an atomic bomb on the Japanese city of Hiroshima, hastening the end of Second World War and moving the world into the atomic age, has died.