HAMPDEN/WILBRAHAM First aid treats a variety of ailments, from wounds to broken bones to more serious injuries, such as heart attacks. A veteran of 58 World War II combat missions over Europe and Africa, Van Kirk. Program trains people to practice mental health first aid with youth. Van Kirk was the navigator of the Enola Gay, a B-29 Superfortress aircraft that dropped Little. The last surviving member of the Enola Gay’s 12-member crew, Van Kirk died of age-related causes, said his son Tom. “When they let us write about it from here, I’ll be able to tell you all about it. The last surviving member of the US crew that dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima has died. “It seems our crew and airplanes made history or something,” he writes. There also is a handwritten missive that George Caron, the Enola Gay’s tail gunner, penned to his wife upon returning from the successful mission.
Among them are VanKirk’s headset, bible and navigator’s sextant, which he used to plot the course to Hiroshima. the restored fuselage of the Enola Gay, a plaque detailing the plane's mission, and taped interviews with surviving members of the plane's crew. Other items in the exhibit also were purchased from the family of crew members.įor example, there are some personal effects from Enola Gay’s navigator Theodore “Dutch” VanKirk, who was the last surviving member of the crew before he died last year at the age of 93. His death means there are now no surviving members of the Enola Gays crew who, by doing their jobs, became an early and integral part in the ongoing narrative over nuclear weapons. Rendell, who has amassed a considerable trove of World War II related artifacts for his museum, says he purchased the operations orders over two decades ago from the family of Jacob Beser, a radar and electronics specialist who was the only man to have flown both bombing missions.