He will be buried in Northumberland next to his wife, who died in 1975. who printed Enola GayTibbets’ mother’s namein neat block letters below the cockpit window on the left side of the nose. The next interviewee is Commander Frederick Ashworth, who was part of the crew that dropped the second atom bomb on Nagasaki. The Colonel then describes his experiences in a very calm way. Interviewing VanKirk for the book, she said, “was like sitting with your father at the kitchen table listening to him tell stories”.Ī funeral service was scheduled for VanKirk on 5 August in his hometown of Northumberland, Pennsylvania. The clip opens with an interview with Colonel Paul Tebbits, the officer in charge of the bomb group that dropped the Hiroshima Bomb. VanKirk was energetic, very bright and had a terrific sense of humor, Dietz recalled on Tuesday. VanKirk’s military career was chronicled in a 2012 book, My True Course, by Suzanne Dietz. “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 said. CARON This first day cover honoring the Veterans Administration is signed by four crewmembers of the Enola Gay, the Superfortress that dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan First Day Cover Signed: 'Paul W. Like many second world war veterans VanKirk didn’t talk much about his service until much later in his life when he spoke to school groups, his son said. TIBBETS, THOMAS FEREBEE, JACOB BESER, and GEORGE R. 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.” In a 2005 interview with the AP, VanKirk said his second world war experience showed that wars and atomic bombs don’t settle anything and he’d like to see the weapons abolished. “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 Associated Press on Tuesday. Tom Van Kirk said he and his siblings were very fortunate to have had such a wonderful father who remained active until the end of his life. War is hell indeed, and the pain inflicted on Hiroshima and Nagasaki was no greater than that suffered by countless millions during the six years from 1939 to 1945.Van Kirk was the navigator of the Enola Gay, a B-29 Superfortress aircraft that dropped “Little Boy” – the world’s first atomic bomb – over the Japanese city of Hiroshima on 6 August 1945. However, these persons would do well to remember Sherman’s words. To this day, some critics condemn President Truman’s decision to use nuclear weapons. Today the Enola Gay is on display in a hangar at Washington Dulles international Airport. Officials did put the aircraft’s fuselage on display in 1995 several protesters were later arrested for throwing red paint, ash, and blood on the display.ĭespite the controversy, the planes restoration continued.
Controversy led to the event’s cancellation. However, both the American Legion and the Air Force Association objected to elements of the planned exhibit, saying that they focused too much attention on the death and damage caused by the bombing. In 1995, the Smithsonian planned to display the aircraft in observance of the 50th anniversary of World War II’s end. Restoration of the Enola Gay began on December 5, 1984. His aircraft was transferred to an airbase in Roswell, New Mexico.Īfter the war, it was sent to Davis-Moncton Air Force Base in Arizona, and from there to various locations until 1961, when the Smithsonian took possession of its dismantled components. Colonel Tibbets landed his plane on a base at Tinian after a total of 12 hours and 13 minutes in flight, receiving the Distinguished Service Cross soon thereafter. The Enola Gay and its two companion aircraft returned safely from their mission.