What Happened to the Enola Gay After Hiroshima? | Time

Contents:

• THEODORE “DUTCH” VAN KIRK, NAVIGATOR ON THE ENOLA GAY
• THEODORE VAN KIRK, 93, ENOLA GAY NAVIGATOR, DI
• THEODORE ‘DUTCH’ VAN KIRK, NAVIGATOR ON ENOLA GAY, DI AT 93
• WHAT HAPPENED TO THE ENOLA GAY AFTER IT DROPPED THE ATOMIC BOMB
• ENOLA GAY

THEODORE “DUTCH” VAN KIRK, NAVIGATOR ON THE ENOLA GAY

Theodore “Dutch” Van Kirk, navigator on the Enola Gay, scrib arrivg at Wendover Field, Utah and figurg out that he would be takg part a missn to drop an atomic bomb. Air Force, via Agence France-Prs — Getty ImagJuly 29, 2014Theodore (Dutch) Van Kirk, the navigator and last survivg crew member of the Enola Gay, the B-29 Superfortrs that dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima the last days of World War II, died on Monday at his home Stone Mounta, Ga.

6, 1945, the Enola Gay, piloted by Col.

From that spot, at the end of a long tunnel atop the bomb bays, he took the plane’s beargs, g a hand-held sextant to gui wh the the Enola Gay reached Iwo Jima as the sun rose, began an ascent to 31, 000 feet.

THEODORE VAN KIRK, 93, ENOLA GAY NAVIGATOR, DI

Ferebee, said, “I got , ” announcg that the Enola Gay was over his aimg pot, the T-shaped Ai Bridge. His navigatg skills had brought the Enola Gay to s target only a few sends behd schle at the ncln of a six-and-a-half-hour Ferebee released the bomb, known as Ltle Boy, and 43 sends later, at 1, 890 feet above ground zero, explod a nuclear ferno, leavg tens of thoands ad or dyg and turng Hiroshima to srched Cabell/The Telegraph, via Associated PrsColonel Tibbets executed a divg turn to avoid the blast effects, but the Enola Gay was buffeted by a pair of shock wav.

”A versn of this article appears prt on, Sectn A, Page 18 of the New York edn wh the headle: Theodore Van Kirk, 93, Enola Gay Navigator, Di. 6, 1945, guid the Enola Gay over Hiroshima to drop the first nuclear bomb the history of warfare, died Monday at an assisted livg facily Stone Mounta, Ga.

He was last survivg member of the Enola Gay’s 12-member crew, Van Kirk died of age-related , said his son Tom. In 1995, anti-nuclear monstrators poured blood and ash over a piece of the Enola Gay on display at the Smhsonian Instutn’s Natnal Air and Space Mm. 15, 1945, the Japane Kirk was equently asked whether he and the Enola Gay’s other crew members experienced any physil or emotnal damage om the bombg.

THEODORE ‘DUTCH’ VAN KIRK, NAVIGATOR ON ENOLA GAY, DI AT 93

Tibbets, who remaed one of Van Kirk’s lifelong iends, beme the Enola Gay’s crew traed for months Wendover, Utah. After the Enola Gay dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan, on Aug.

WHAT HAPPENED TO THE ENOLA GAY AFTER IT DROPPED THE ATOMIC BOMB

The Enola Gay is a B-29 Superfortrs, which pilot Pl Tibbets named after his mother, and which had been stripped of everythg but the necsi, so as to be thoands of pounds lighter than an ordary plane of that make. While did not drop the bomb on Nagasaki, the Enola Gay did take flight to get data on the weather the lead-up to the send strike on Japan.

In the aftermath of World War II, the Army Air Forc flew the Enola Gay durg an atomic tt program the Pacific; was then livered to be stored an airfield Arizona before beg flown to Illois and transferred to the Smhsonian July 1949. But even unr the ctody of the mm, the Enola Gay remaed at an air force base Texas. The Commtee for the Rtoratn and Display of the Enola Gay now has 9, 000 signatur of prott.

ENOLA GAY

Adams, who is leavg his job after 10 relatively ntroversy-ee years, sent back a three-page answer stiffly turng down her requt for the Enola Gay. Demonstrators prott at the Enola Gay exhib at the the Smhsonian Natnal Air and Space Mm's Steven F.

And as long as is on display, the qutns rais are likely to ntue — after all, they have been wh the Enola Gay sce first beme a hoehold name.