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Dutch Van Kirk, navigator aboard the Enola Gay, speaks to the aviators and families of the Army Aviation Association during their monthly meeting at the 171th Aviations Drill hall at Dobbins Air Reserve Base, March 26. The Enola Gay dropped the first atomic bomb on Hiroshima August 6, 1945.
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A-bomb on HiroshimaBy Spc By By Spc Amanda Kenney
Georgia Army National Guard
DOBBINS AIR RESERVE BASE, Marietta, Ga. – Sixty-three years after the Enola Gay dropped the world’s first atomic bomb on Hiroshima, navigator Dutch Van Kirk remembers the “bright flash” and “shockwave” of the explosion.
Speaking to a group of military aviators and others, who were in attendance at the Army Air Aviator Association meeting hosted by the Guard’s 171st Aviation Battalion, Van Kirk declared “after we dropped the bomb, we made the turn and got away from there.”
Flying the four engine B-29 super fortress, he and the 11 other members concluded the bomb was a “dud because we had gotten 12 miles away in 43 seconds”, and there had been no explosion. “Then we saw a bright flash of light in the plane,” he said. “The first shock wave hit us at three and a half Gs of force.
“After we were sure the plane wasn’t falling apart we went back to look,” said Van Kirk. “We flew past the southeast quadrant of the city and everything was covered in dust and debris.”
Four days later another B-29, the Bockscar piloted by Maj. Charles Sweeney, dropped a second atomic bomb on the port city of Nagasaki. Van Kirk, who never returned to Hiroshima, later spent three days accompanying scientists around Nagasaki examining the results of the second bombing.
Van Kirk, a Nevada native, joined the Army Air Corps in 1941. In 1942 he joined the 97th Bomb Group as navigator flying B17 Flying Fortress commanded by Col. Paul Tibbits. By 1943, Van Kirk had completes more than 58 mission over Europe and North Africa.
In 1944 Van Kirk was assigned to the 509th Composite Group located at Wendover Field, Utah. There, he rejoined Tibbets and helped, he said, to prepare 15 bomb crews to drop a special “weapon” on the Japanese.
Working for a group of scientists and weapon designers called the Manhattan Group after the Manhattan Project, a program to develop the atomic bomb, Van Kirk remembered that “we would practice dropping what they thought the bomb would look like. And, they (the Manhattan Group) came up with some pretty crazy ideas. One looked like a telephone pole and we couldn’t even fit it in the bay of the aircraft.”
The composite group had special B29s designed for this mission that were completely “stripped down” so that they could compensate for the weight of the bomb and the fact the aircraft would have to make a 150 degree turn to get nine miles away before the bomb exploded, said Van Kirk.
After training at Wendover the crew moved to a small group of islands off Guam. From there, the crews flew small bombing and reconnaissance missions over Japan so that the Japanese would get used to seeing the one or two planes, he said.
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Explosion at Hiroshima in August 1945
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On the day of the mission, only three planes flew, said Van Kirk. One had the
bomb, one had the equipment to measure the blast and the third was for photographic evidence, but the camera didn’t work. “It was the longest bombing run (13 hours) I ever sat on in my life. The Japanese had nothing that could hit us at 10,000 feet,” he said.
The bomb was dropped at “9:15 and 15 seconds, and we were 15 seconds late.”
The bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, through controversial in later years because of the death toll, estimated at more than 100,000 by government official, probably saved more than a million servemembers lives, who would have had to land on the island of Japan and fight their way across the island. It also saved the lives of many Prisoners of War held by the Japanese
Bill Price, an Army Air Corps pilot, who was taken captive after a mid air collision with a Kamikaze over Japan told Van Kirk and the assembled audience that he was grateful for the blasts that ended the war. “Had your crews not dropped the bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki (in early August),” he said. “All prisoners of war were set to be executed August 29.”
Sergeant Maj. Henry Kimbler, of the 171st Aviation, had close ties to the bombings in Japan. His father, Randy, was a member of the occupation force that pulled into Nagasaki Bay after the bombing. “I am very honored by this once in a life time opportunity,” said Kimbler about meeting Van Kirk.
Colonel John Till, commander 171st Aviation Battalion said "we stand in a room of heroes. I cannot tell my grandfather and uncles how much they mean to me, but we have the chance today to tell the ones who are still here. They are living history and want to educate young aviators."
Van Kirk’s appearance was sponsored by the Army Aviation Association.
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