Last living crew member of the Enola Gay passes away at age 93

Thanks for posting this Jama17......

From another article:


Captain Van Kirk, left, who was known as Dutch, with Col. Paul W. Tibbets Jr., center, and Maj. Thomas W. Ferebee in 1945 after they flew the Enola Gay to Hiroshima to drop an atomic bomb. Credit U.S. Air Force, via Agence France-Press — Getty Images


In the predawn hours of Aug. 6, 1945, the Enola Gay, piloted by Col. Paul W. Tibbets Jr. and carrying a crew of 12, took off from Tinian in the Mariana Islands with a uranium bomb built under extraordinary secrecy in the vast Manhattan Project.
Captain Van Kirk spread out his navigation charts on a small table behind Colonel Tibbets’s seat. From that spot, at the end of a long tunnel atop the bomb bays, he took the plane’s bearings, using a hand-held sextant to guide with the stars.
When the Enola Gay reached Iwo Jima as the sun rose, it began an ascent to 31,000 feet. At 8:15 a.m. Japan time, it reached Hiroshima, a city of 250,000 and the site of an important army headquarters.
The bombardier, Maj. Thomas W. Ferebee, said, “I got it,” announcing that the Enola Gay was over his aiming point, the T-shaped Aioi Bridge. Captain Van Kirk, who had also familiarized himself with Hiroshima’s landmarks, leaned over Major Ferebee’s shoulder and confirmed he was correct. His navigating skills had brought the Enola Gay to its target only a few seconds behind schedule at the conclusion of a six-and-a-half-hour flight.


Major Ferebee released the bomb, known as Little Boy, and 43 seconds later, at 1,890 feet above ground zero, it exploded in a nuclear inferno, leaving tens of thousands dead or dying and turning Hiroshima into scorched devastation.
Colonel Tibbets executed a diving turn to avoid the blast effects, but the Enola Gay was buffeted by a pair of shock waves. A flash of light that Mr. Van Kirk likened to a photographer’s flashbulb engulfed the cabin.
“The plane jumped and made a sound like sheet metal snapping,” Mr. Van Kirk told The New York Times on the 50th anniversary of the Hiroshima raid. “Shortly after the second wave, we turned to where we could look out and see the cloud, where the city of Hiroshima had been.”

More HERE

RIP Captain Van Kirk (salute)

Capt (Van) Kirk has been beamed up. Sounds like he was a great guy. His family obviously thought so. Sir, thank you for your service. I pray your reward is great. S/F.

I've got a friend who was a Navy SeAL Corpsman (Medic) and later in "law enforcement" (without offering specifics as to what "law enforcement" means). Even as a Corpsman, he found himself in situations that required personally decisive aggression. And as a Corpsman, he often got an up-close and personal view of the carnage that he and his teammates wrought, as he not only medically treated his injured brothers, but also the injured enemy. Whenever we compare military notes (he in the USN and me in the USAF), I can really sense the burden that he carries. He very much avoids talking about his past experiences other than to say that he spent so many years and so much energy "trigger-pulling" and as he puts it, "spreading pain and suffering" that he wanted to get as far way from it as possible.

So now he is a successful small business restaurant owner/operator selling California Cuisine out of a glorified food truck near the beach. He doesn't have a menu because he wants to use explaining the menu options as a chance to talk to and get to know everyone who visits, to just enjoy people. He is someone who truly seems to now celebrate life, embrace the positive, and try to spread that perspective. If his business is any indication, that perspective has been contagious: he normally has lines waiting and regularly sells out of stock.

Imagine what the crew of the Enola Gay may have had to deal with for the rest of their lives. Seems like I read an interview once with one of these men who, though appropriately somber over the loss of life, felt very proud for the part he played. He viewed it, as I do, as necessary and in the end, life-saving. But talk about pulling a trigger and the life-long weight that that trigger-pulling must have carried. My goodness.

Proud and thankful for the entire crew, the sacrifices that they made, and the strength of character that they must have had.

He did what he had to do and recognized the horrible destruction. But he lived the rest of his life never doubting he'd done the right thing.

RIP, Sir.

ValuJet said:

He did what he had to do and recognized the horrible destruction. But he lived the rest of his life never doubting he'd done the right thing.

RIP, Sir.

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I read an article once Harry Truman wrote a couple years before he died. He outlined the reasons for dropping the bomb and why he did it. I found the last two sentences very telling.

He wrote (paraphrasing the best I can remember).......

I felt at the time I was doing the right thing. I feel even stronger about it today.

Crimson1967 said:

I read an article once Harry Truman wrote a couple years before he died. He outlined the reasons for dropping the bomb and why he did it. I found the last two sentences very telling.

He wrote (paraphrasing the best I can remember).......

I felt at the time I was doing the right thing. I feel even stronger about it today.

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I agree with it being the right decision, but justification of a difficult decision is something that I would expect to become more entrenched. It is a well-documented human cognitive bias that increases with age.