[Congressional Record Volume 160, Number 123 (Friday, August 1, 2014)]
[Senate]
[Pages S5324-S5325]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                     REMEMBERING THEODORE VAN KIRK

 Mr. CASEY. Madam President, Theodore `Dutch' Van Kirk died on 
July 28, 2014, at the age of 93. A native of Northumberland, PA, he 
served his country with distinction during a difficult time for our 
Nation and the world. I ask that the following story from the 
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette be printed in the Record.
  There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in 
the Record, as follows:

           [From the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, July 30, 2014]

  Obituary: Theodore ``Dutch'' VanKirk/WWII Airman Whose Crew Dropped 
           Atomic Bomb on Japan, Feb. 27, 1921-July 28, 2014

                             (By Joe Smydo)

       At first, Theodore ``Dutch'' VanKirk and the other airmen 
     aboard the Enola Gay feared the atomic bomb they had dropped 
     on Japan was a dud.
       But after what seemed like an interminable wait, ``there 
     was a bright flash in the air,'' Mr. VanKirk recounted in a 
     2012 book. The B-29 rocked from the shock waves, a white 
     mushroom cloud shot into the sky, and the devastation became 
     clear even from the crew's vantage point thousands of feet in 
     the air.
       ``The ground was covered with thick black smoke and dust 
     and dirt,'' he said. ``It looked like a pot of boiling black 
     oil covering practically the entire city of Hiroshima.''
       Mr. VanKirk, 93, a Northumberland, Pa., native and the last 
     surviving member of the crew that dropped the atomic bomb on 
     Hiroshima on Aug. 6, 1945, a secret mission credited with 
     bringing World War II to an end, died Monday in suburban 
     Atlanta. He had experienced vascular difficulties.
       Thomas VanKirk of Mt. Lebanon said his father was 
     handpicked by the Enola Gay's pilot, Paul Tibbets, to serve 
     as navigator on the bombing run. The two had met and served 
     together in England years earlier.
       After the war, Mr. VanKirk received bachelor's and master's 
     degrees in chemical engineering from Bucknell University and 
     was

[[Page S5325]]

     posted all over the country during a 35-year career with 
     DuPont.
       ``Most importantly, he was an outstanding father,'' Thomas 
     VanKirk, Highmark's chief legal officer, said.
       The decision to use the atomic bomb on Japan--another B-29, 
     the Bockscar, bombed Nagasaki three days after Hiroshima--
     remains controversial because of the lives lost.
       However, Donald Goldstein, a military historian, former Air 
     Force officer and retired University of Pittsburgh professor, 
     said the bombings hastened the war's end and spared many 
     other lives that would have been lost during an invasion of 
     Japan.
       He said the prevailing sentiment among U.S. military 
     personnel at the time was, ``Thank God for the bomb.'' Mr. 
     Goldstein said bringing the war to a rapid close also helped 
     to forestall Soviet geopolitical ambitions in Japan.
       Thomas VanKirk said he initially learned about his father's 
     exploits through newspaper clippings he found during a 
     childhood exploration of his grandmother's attic. In 1995, 
     father and son stood together during the unveiling of an 
     Enola Gay exhibit at the Smithsonian's National Air and Space 
     Museum.
       ``He had no regrets about dropping the bomb. He believed it 
     was necessary,'' said Youngstown, N.Y., historian Suzanne 
     Simon Dietz, whose book about Mr. VanKirk, ``My True 
     Course,'' relies on his letters and memoirs.
       In 2005, Mr. VanKirk told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, ``I 
     just had a job to do.'' But others considered him a hero and 
     his death a reminder of the passing of the WWII generation.
       ``A son of Pennsylvania, Theodore `Dutch' VanKirk helped to 
     save the world from tyranny and then returned home to live 
     the quiet life of a citizen,'' Gov. Tom Corbett said in a 
     statement. Mr. Corbett said he and his wife, Susan, ``send 
     our heartfelt sympathies to his family and the thanks of a 
     grateful state for his service to the cause of freedom.''
       Mr. VanKirk was born Feb. 27, 1921. He graduated from 
     Northumberland High School, briefly attended Susquehanna 
     University and joined the Army Air Forces cadet program in 
     fall 1941--before the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, his 
     son said, because he knew the war was coming and wanted to 
     choose his method of service.
       Posted to Europe, he served aboard a B-17 bomber, the Red 
     Gremlin, with Mr. Tibbets and bombardier Thomas Ferebee, who 
     also would be part of the Enola Gay crew for the Hiroshima 
     bombing. After nearly 60 bombing runs over Europe and a 
     special mission ferrying Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower, Mr. 
     VanKirk returned to the United States and married his high 
     school sweetheart, Mary Jane Young, who died in 1975.
       In 1944, at Mr. Tibbets' request, he joined a special 
     group, stationed in Utah, that was preparing for use of the 
     atomic bomb. Mr. VanKirk told his story many times over the 
     years and, Thomas VanKirk said, was still fit enough early 
     this summer to go on a family beach vacation.
       Also surviving are another son, Larry VanKirk of Charlotte, 
     N.C.; two daughters, Vicki Triplett of Atlanta and Joanne 
     Gotelli of Sacramento, Calif; seven grandchildren; and two 
     great-grandchildren.

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