Last surviving Enola Gay crewman dies in Stone Mountain

Atlanta Journal-Constitution ^ | 7/29/2014 | Mike Morris and Steve Visser

[iowamark]

The last surviving crewman of the Enola Gay, the B-29 that dropped the atomic bomb over Hiroshima, died overnight at his Stone Mountain home.

Theodore “Dutch” Van Kirk, 93, was the navigator on the Aug. 6, 1945 flight that dropped the “Little Boy” atomic bomb.

With the 2010 death of Morris Jeppson, Van Kirk became the only one of the dozen crew members left.

For a number of years, he lived at a retirement community in Stone Mountain where by chance he found himself sharing the place with James Starnes, an Atlantan who had a front-row seat at history. Starnes was the navigator on the USS Missouri and the mighty battleship’s officer of the deck on Sept. 2, 1945 who greeted Japanese officials boarding to officially surrender.

“We were two individuals who happened to be at historic dates,” said Starnes, who said his friend died Monday after being hospitalized for a few weeks. “The passing always hurts so much. I told someone today that this was the first time I shed a tear for someone in a long time.”

[fieldmarshaldj]

The big worry, too, is that with a seriously weakened fighting force and the utter chaos in Japan that the invasion would’ve brought, the Soviets would’ve just sauntered in and taken over to establish another Communist state. In turn, there would’ve been no way for us to have challenged the situation in Korea shortly after, either. The entirety of Asia would’ve fallen like dominoes to the forces of darkness.

[Nowhere Man]

That’s a good point, the Soviets would have entered the war against Japan and even though they did, they only managed to get a few small islands. Had there not been the bombings, most likely, you’d have a “North/South Japan” situation where the Soviets would at least get Hokkaido if not half of Honsu at least and instead of the Korean War, it could have been the “Japanese War” or even both.