This item comes with a Certificate from John Reznikoff, a premier authenticator for both major 3rd party authentication services, PSA and JSA (James Spence Authentications), as well as numerous auction houses. Lewis during the final stages of World War II, it became the first aircraft to drop an atomic bomb in warfare. On 6 August 1945, piloted by Tibbets and Robert A. From 2010 to his death in 2014, Van Kirk was the last surviving member of the Enola Gay crew. The Enola Gay ( / nol /) is a Boeing B-29 Superfortress bomber, named after Enola Gay Tibbets, the mother of the pilot, Colonel Paul Tibbets. After the war, Van Kirk completed degrees in chemical engineering at Bucknell University and held various technical and managerial positions in research and marketing at DuPont for the next thirty-five years. In August 1945, he served as the navigator of the B-29 Superfortress Enola Gay, when it dropped the atomic bomb “Little Boy” on the Japanese city of Hiroshima. Late in 1944, he reunited with Tibbets and Ferebee at Wendover Air Force Base, Utah, as part of the 509th Composite Group. The aircraft was flown to the 509 th base at Wendover Army Air Field (AAF) in Utah. After the B-29 was accepted by the United States Army Air Forces (USAAF) on it was assigned to the 393 rd Bombardment Squadron (BS) of the 509 th. After flying 58 missions in Europe, Van Kirk returned to the United States in 1943 as an instructor navigator. Tibbets, the commander of the 509 th Composite Group, later named the bomber Enola Gay after his mother. There he met pilot Paul Tibbets and bombardier Tom Ferebee. In 1942, he transferred to the 97th Bomb Group, which flew B-17 Flying Fortresses out of England. Theodore “Dutch” Van Kirk (1921-2014) was born in Pennsylvania and joined the Army Air Force Aviation Program in October 1941.
#ENOLA GAY NAVIGATOR CODE#
These orders transferred Captain Van Kirk from the Instructional School to Wendover Field, Utah, where he would be part of the “Silver Plate Project,” the code name for the pilot and crew training program for the atomic bomb missions. JTheodore (Dutch) Van Kirk, the navigator and last surviving crew member of the Enola Gay, the B-29 Superfortress that dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima in the last days of World. 277, October 3, 1944, assigning Van Kirk to “Silver Plate Project” at Wendover Field, Utah, signed in margin by Van Kirk as “Dutch Van Kirk / Navigator – Enola Gay / 6 Aug. In a 2005 column for Time Magazine, Van Kirk stood behind the use of the atomic bomb in Hiroshima.Enola Gay Navigator Dutch Van Kirk Assigned to “Silver Plate Project” THEODORE “DUTCH” VAN KIRK. As an adult, however, he would serve as a major in the Army Air Corps, eventually becoming the navigator for the Enola Gay from which he witnessed the.
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Many atomic bomb survivors, known as "hibakusha", oppose both military and civilian use of nuclear power, pointing to the tens of thousands who were killed instantly in the Hiroshima blast and the many more who later died from radiation sickness and cancer. Historians have long been at odds over whether the twin attacks brought a speedier end to the war by forcing Japan's surrender and preventing many more casualties in a planned land invasion. Van Kirk recalled “a sense of relief,” because he said he sensed the devastating bombing would be a turning point to finally bring the war to a close. Theodore Dutch Van Kirk, the navigator of the Enola Gay and the last surviving member of the mission that dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan, is shown here at the American Museum of Science and Energy during a Jvisit to Oak Ridge.
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You could see some fires burning on the edge of the city,” he added at the time. I describe it looking like a pot of black, boiling tar.
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“The entire city was covered with smoke and dust and dirt. “Shortly after the second wave, we turned to where we could look out and see the cloud, where the city of Hiroshima had been. "The plane jumped and made a sound like sheet metal snapping" after the explosion, Van Kirk told The New York Times on the 50th anniversary of the raid.