‘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. 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. He later moved from California to the Atlanta area to be near his daughter. Then he went to school, earned degrees in chemical engineering and signed on with DuPont, where he stayed until he retired in 1985. VanKirk 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.’
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‘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,’ VanKirk said. ‘I honestly believe the use of the atomic bomb saved lives in the long run. 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. Whether the United States should have used the atomic bomb has been debated endlessly. Six days after the Nagasaki bombing, Japan surrendered. The blast and its aftermath claimed 80,000 lives. While the last crew member from the Enola Gay has passed away, the mission and its consequences will live on in debate and memory for many more generations.Three days after Hiroshima, a second atomic bomb was dropped on Nagasaki. His son, Tom Van Kirk, explained, "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." Like many World War II veterans, Van Kirk didn't speak about his experiences until much later in his life. Theodore Van Kirk was teamed with pilot Paul Tibbets and bombardier Tom Ferebee for the mission aboard the B-29 Superfortress. I personally think there shouldn't be any atomic bombs in the world - I'd like to see them all abolished." Still, the Enola Gay navigator conceded that his experience in World War II showed him "that wars don't settle anything." He added, "And atomic weapons don't settle anything. Van Kirk stated in a 2005 interview that he still supported the use of the bomb, saying, "I honestly believe the use of the atomic bomb saved lives in the long run. MSN News notes that the use of the atomic bomb has been debated endlessly ever since. Three days after the Enola Gay crew unleashed the bomb called "Little Boy" on Hiroshima, a second atomic bomb was dropped on Nagasaki, killing 80,000 people. You saw the - underneath the could the entire city was just entirely covered with smoke and dust, it looked like a pot of boiling water." You saw a white cloud hanging over the city. "You didn't see anything except a bright flash and the airplane. He returned the United States with new orders and trained "primarily to make the rapid turn and running away from the bomb." Van Kirk recalled decades later to CNN: By then, the navigator flew 15 missions out of England and about 10 more out of North Africa. military in Europe and North Africa, but history remembers him and others aboard the Enola Gay for their actions the morning of August 6, 1945. Van Kirk flew dozens of missions for the U.S.
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CNN reports that Van Kirk's death means there are no surviving members left of the Enola Gay's crew who, by following orders, became an integral part in the ongoing debate over nuclear weapons.
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The single bomb blast killed about 140,000 people and helped end World War II, pushing the world into the nuclear era at the same time. Theodore "Dutch" Van Kirk was the navigator on that plane.
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B-29 Superfortress that dropped the first atomic bomb in World War II over Hiroshima, Japan. The final Enola Gay crewman died on Monday of natural causes at the age of 93.