{"id":43787,"date":"2014-07-31T04:00:21","date_gmt":"2014-07-30T18:00:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/?p=43787"},"modified":"2014-07-31T04:00:21","modified_gmt":"2014-07-30T18:00:21","slug":"last-crew-member-enola-gay-dies-georgia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/last-crew-member-enola-gay-dies-georgia\/","title":{"rendered":"Last crew member of Enola Gay dies in Georgia"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"In<\/a>
In this Aug. 25, 2010, photo, Theodore \u201cDutch\u201d VanKirk, navigator of the Enola Gay, talks about his experiences during World War II, at Park Springs, the retirement community where he was living in Stone Mountain, Ga. (AP)
<\/figcaption><\/figure>
\nATLANTA<\/strong> (AP)\u2014The last surviving member of the crew that dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima, hastening the end of World War II and forcing the world into the atomic age, has died in Georgia. <\/p>\n

Theodore VanKirk, also known as \u201cDutch,\u201d died Monday of natural causes at the retirement home where he lived in Stone Mountain, Georgia, his son Tom VanKirk said. He was 93. <\/p>\n

VanKirk flew nearly 60 bombing missions, but it was a single mission in the Pacific that secured him a place in history. 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. 6, 1945. <\/p>\n

He was teamed with pilot Paul Tibbets and bombardier Tom Ferebee in Tibbets\u2019 fledgling 509th Composite Bomb Group for Special Mission No. 13. <\/p>\n

The mission went perfectly, VanKirk told The Associated Press in a 2005 interview. He guided the bomber through the night sky, just 15 seconds behind schedule, he said. As the 9,000-pound bomb nicknamed \u201cLittle Boy\u201d fell toward the sleeping city, he and his crewmates hoped to escape with their lives. <\/p>\n

They didn\u2019t know whether the bomb would actually work and, if it did, whether its shockwaves would rip their plane to shreds. They counted\u2014one thousand one, one thousand two\u2014reaching the 43 seconds they\u2019d been told it would take for detonation and heard nothing. <\/p>\n

\u201cI think everybody in the plane concluded it was a dud. It seemed a lot longer than 43 seconds,\u201d VanKirk recalled. <\/p>\n

Then came a bright flash. Then a shockwave. Then another shockwave. <\/p>\n

The blast and its aftereffects killed 140,000 in Hiroshima. <\/p>\n

Three days after Hiroshima, a second atomic bomb was dropped on Nagasaki. The blast and its aftermath claimed 80,000 lives. Six days after the Nagasaki bombing, Japan surrendered. <\/p>\n

Whether the United States should have used the atomic bomb has been debated endlessly. VanKirk 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. <\/p>\n

\u201cI honestly believe the use of the atomic bomb saved lives in the long run. There were a lot of lives saved. Most of the lives saved were Japanese,\u201d VanKirk said. <\/p>\n

But it also made him wary of war. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe whole World War II experience shows that wars don\u2019t settle anything. And atomic weapons don\u2019t settle anything,\u201d he said. \u201cI personally think there shouldn\u2019t be any atomic bombs in the world\u2014I\u2019d like to see them all abolished. <\/p>\n

\u201cBut if anyone has one,\u201d he added, \u201cI want to have one more than my enemy.\u201d <\/p>\n

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. <\/p>\n

Like many World War II veterans, VanKirk didn\u2019t talk much about his service until much later in his life when he spoke to school groups, his son said. <\/p>\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t even find out that he was on that mission until I was 10 years old and read some old news clippings in my grandmother\u2019s attic,\u201d Tom VanKirk told the AP in a phone interview Tuesday. <\/p>\n

Instead, he and his three siblings treasured a wonderful father, who was a great mentor and remained active and \u201csharp as a tack\u201d until the end of his life. <\/p>\n

\u201cI know he was recognized as a war hero, but we just knew him as a great father,\u201d Tom VanKirk said. <\/p>\n

VanKirk\u2019s 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. <\/p>\n

Interviewing VanKirk for the book, she said, \u201cwas like sitting with your father at the kitchen table listening to him tell stories.\u201d <\/p>\n

A funeral service was scheduled for VanKirk on Aug. 5 in his hometown of Northumberland, Pennsylvania. He will be buried in Northumberland next to his wife, who died in 1975. The burial will be private. (Kate Brumback)<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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