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"I have never apologized for what we did to Hiroshima and I never will."Īfter the mission, Van Kirk enrolled in college and graduate school, becoming a chemical engineer at DuPont.
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"Do I regret what we did that day? No sir, I do not," he told the Sunday Mirror, a British newspaper, in 2010. The crew of the B-29 called the Enola Gay had no regrets about dropping the atomic bomb on Hiroshima, but prayed that the horrific weapon would never be used again. Van Kirk, who looked down at the city for a jarring moment and saw what he later likened to a pot of boiling tar, had just one thought at the time, he said in numerous interviews: "The war's over." But Van Kirk said he never had mixed feelings about his involvement. Air Force B29 bomber, the Enola Gay, took off with a 9,700. We were not sorry for what happened in Japan per se. The bomb instantaneously killed 80,000 people radiation poisoning eventually cost many more lives. Here’s why the pilot of Enola Gay had no regrets about dropping the first atom bomb Early in the morning of August 6, 1945, a U.S. Id say we were sorry for what had happened to the individuals involved, Van Kirk said. Van Kirk agreed, becoming navigator for the Enola Gay-the plane that dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima on August 6, 1945, marking the beginning of the atomic age-under Tibbets' command. Robert Lewis, a member of Enola Gay's crew, shouted as he watched the effects. As Van Kirk later recalled, in an interview with Time: "He told me, ‘We’re going to do something that I can’t tell you about right now, but if it works, it will end or significantly shorten the war.’ And I thought, ‘Oh, yeah, buddy, I’ve heard that before.’ ” 'What regrets I have about being party to killing and maiming thousands of. He had already retired from combat duty and was working as an instructor in New Orleans when Paul Tibbets, a good friend, approached him and asked if he'd be part of "a top-secret bombing mission," the LA Times continues. Van Kirk was involved in 58 World War II combat missions. Captain Theodore "Dutch" Van Kirk, the last surviving member of the Enola Gay crew, died Monday at an assisted living facility in Georgia, the Los Angeles Times reports.