'I know he was recognized as a war hero, but we just knew him as a great father,' he said in a telephone interview with the AP on Tuesday. Tom Van Kirk said he and his siblings are fortunate to have had such a wonderful father who remained active until the end of his life. Van Kirk was the navigator aboard the Enola Gay, a B-29 Superfortress bomber that dropped an atomic bomb called 'Little Boy' on the Japanese city of Hiroshima. 'You have to understand the Japan we fought was significantly different from the Japan in later years,' he said. The Enola Gay was waiting nearby in a secluded hangar on the island.: CREWS The ground crew of the B-29 Enola Gay which atom-bombed Hiroshima, Japan. The crate and canister were quickly removed and taken to a remote place for assembly. In a 2010 interview with WXIA, Van Kirk said he had no second thoughts about his part in the historic event. After traveling 3300 miles, the Indy docked at Tinian Island on July 26th.
Van Kirk was the navigator aboard the Enola Gay, a B-29 Superfortress bomber that dropped an atomic bomb called 'Little Boy' on the Japanese city of Hiroshima on Aug. Theodore 'Dutch' Van Kirk died of natural causes Monday at a retirement home where he lived in Stone Mountain, The Associated Press reported, citing his son Tom Van Kirk.
Watch Video: Enola Gay navigator never thought he'd live so longĪTLANTA - The last surviving crew member of the plane that dropped the first atomic bomb on Japan during World War II has died.