Lieutenant Jacob Beser, Electronic CountermeasuresĪrmy Air Force radar specialist Jacob Beser was the only man who served on both the Enola Gay in the Hiroshima bombing mission and the Bock's Car three days later when its crew bombed Nagasaki. "Then I think we should realize that this can't happen again."Ĭolonel Ferebee died in Florida in 2000, at the age of 81. "Now we should look back and remember what just one bomb did, or two bombs," he told The Charlotte Observer in 1995, the 50th anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima. That doesn't mean he had no opinion on the further use of such weapons. "I'm convinced that the bombing saved many lives by ending the war," he told Newsweek magazine in 1970.
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He retired as a full Colonel.Ĭolonel Ferebee, who retired from the Air Force in 1970, always argued that the Hiroshima bomb was necessary. After the war, Ferebee stayed with the Air Force, serving in the Strategic Air Command and in Vietnam.
He slept in the plane both before and after he did his part. Thomas Ferebee pushed the button that dropped the bomb on Hiroshima. But I'm not sure that we have.Īfter the war, Van Kirk got a masters degree in chemical engineering and worked for DuPont until his retirement. I pray that we have learned a lesson for all time. We unleashed the first atomic bomb, and I hope there will never be another. Such a terrible waste, such a loss of life. I pray no man will have to witness that sight again. In 2005, Van Kirk came as close as he ever got to regret. I honestly believe the use of the atomic bomb saved lives in the long run. Van Kirk felt the bombing of Hiroshima was worth the price in that it ended the war before the invasion of Japan, which promised to be devastating to both sides. Paul Tibbets told him this mission would shorten or end the war, but Van Kirk had heard that line before. He was 24 years old at that time, a veteran of 58 missions in North Africa. Captain Theodore Van Kirk, NavigatorĪir Force captain Theodore "Dutch" Van Kirk did not know the destructive force of the nuclear bomb before Hiroshima. The mission to drop the atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan (special mission 13) involved seven planes, but the one we remember was the Enola Gay. The group deployed to Tinian in 1945 with 15 B-29 bombers, flight crews, ground crews, and other personnel, a total of about 1770 men. Even those in the group only knew as much as they needed to know in order to perform their duties. The group was segregated from the rest of the military and trained in secret. Army Air Force to deliver and deploy the first atomic bombs during World War II. The 509th Composite Group was formed by the U.S. Almost all had something to say after the war. Some chose to keep a low profile and others spoke out about their place in history. On August 6, 1945, the B-29 bomber Enola Gay dropped an atomic bomb on the city of Hiroshima.