Dutch Van Kirk, the last surviving member of the Enola Gay crew that dropped the first atomic bomb on Hiroshima, spoke Wednesday at the Downtown Columbus Rotary Club meeting at the Columbus Convention and Trade Center.
Van Kirk, then a captain, was the navigator of the Boeing B-29 Superfortress that carried the approximately 9,400-pound nuclear weapon to Japan. Col. Paul W. Tibbits Jr. served as commander of the aircraft and Maj. Thomas Ferebee was its bombardier.
“Most everybody recalls that the atomic bomb was made by the Manhattan Project,” Van Kirk said. “They’re the people that made the atomic bomb. We had nothing to do with the making — we were merely the delivery boys, so to speak.”
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