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Officials at the Park Springs Retirement Community in Stone Mountain Tuesday afternoon confirmed Van Kirk’s death. “He was very responsible for the success of the bomb drop.”Ī native of Pennsylvania, Van Kirk joined the Army Air Corps before Pearl Harbor, and became a navigator after washing out as a pilot.Īfter World War II, Van Kirk returned home and had a long career as an executive with DuPont. The young teacher introduced him by saying the speaker was a veteran of World War Eleven (as in WWII. Dutch was asked to speak at a grammar school this past week. “I like to say Dutch ended the war, and I made it official - got them to sign on the dotted line,” Starnes told The AJC in 2010. Van Kirk was the navigator on the ' Enola Gay when it dropped the bomb at Hiroshima, Japan, and is the last surviving member of the crew. The author, Suzanne Simon Dietz is the historian for the Town of Porter, Niagara County. Theodore Jerome 'Dutch' Van Kirk (Febru July 28, 2014) was a navigator in the United States Army Air Forces, best known as the navigator of the Enola Gay when it dropped the first atomic bomb on Hiroshima. Van Kirk was the last living Enola Gay crew member. The book brings out many of the happenings of the war in the form of press releases, 'Movietone News', text of radio broadcasts by President Roosevelt, and Dutch Van Kirks own writings. Dutch Van Kirk, who died July 28, 2014, at the age of 93, recalled the moment in his memoir, My True Course. The two became close friends, Starnes told The Atlanta Journal Constitution Tuesday. This is the story of Dutch Van KIrk, the navigator of the Enola Gay. With the death of fellow crewman Morris Jeppson (who died on. A mutual friend who also lived in the retirement community introduced them.įor more than a decade, the two men put on "dog-and-pony" talks around metro Atlanta about the two events that ended World War II. He is famous as the navigator of the Enola Gay when it dropped the first atomic bomb on Hiroshima. Starnes learned that Van Kirk was living in Stone Mountain from a Time Magazine article.