Enola Gay navigator to discuss atomic bomb drop on Japan

World War II veteran to speak at Air Force museum in Dayton

7/2/2012

DAYTON  — The navigator for the U.S. plane that made the first atomic bomb attack will talk about his World War II mission this week near Dayton.

Capt. Theodore “Dutch” Van Kirk of the Enola Gay will give his perspective Friday afternoon at the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force. The lecture is free on a first-come basis, with an autograph session planned afterward. Kirk is 91 years old.

His B-29 bomber plane dropped the first atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan, in 1945. That and another devastating bomb drop were soon followed by Japan’s decision to surrender and end the war.