In a 2005 column for Time Magazine, Van Kirk stood behind the use of the atomic bomb in Hiroshima. Many atomic bomb survivors, known as "hibakusha", oppose both military and civilian use of nuclear power, pointing to the tens of thousands who were killed instantly in the Hiroshima blast and the many more who later died from radiation sickness and cancer. Historians have long been at odds over whether the twin attacks brought a speedier end to the war by forcing Japan's surrender and preventing many more casualties in a planned land invasion. Van Kirk recalled “a sense of relief,” because he said he sensed the devastating bombing would be a turning point to finally bring the war to a close. You could see some fires burning on the edge of the city,” he added at the time. I describe it looking like a pot of black, boiling tar. Ferebee, then 26 and a veteran of 64 combat.
![enola gay crew massachusetts enola gay crew massachusetts](https://i.etsystatic.com/20862972/r/il/e763b6/2353496675/il_340x270.2353496675_dtu9.jpg)
![enola gay crew massachusetts enola gay crew massachusetts](https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0260/2745/8669/products/one_pixel_s4lii3_964e4aea-07b3-448b-bac9-80eda9ca1af5_500x500.jpg)
George Zabelka, the Catholic chaplain to the flight crew of the Enola Gay. from Tinian Island in the western Pacific. Before take off, Little Boy is blessed by Fr. The 12-man crew aboard the B-29 bomber, the Enola Gay, took off for Hiroshima at 2 a.m. (23 February 1915 1 November 2007) was a brigadier general in the United States Air Force. Army Air Corps bombardier and Mocksville native, dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan.
![enola gay crew massachusetts enola gay crew massachusetts](https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/41vphbh6zKL.__AC_SX342_QL70_ML2_.jpg)
“The entire city was covered with smoke and dust and dirt. On August 6, 1945, Major Thomas Wilson Ferebee, a U.S. “Shortly after the second wave, we turned to where we could look out and see the cloud, where the city of Hiroshima had been. As we will see, in the case of the Hiroshima mission. "The plane jumped and made a sound like sheet metal snapping" after the explosion, Van Kirk told The New York Times on the 50th anniversary of the raid. He could have flown the mission, as could have several other 509th pilots, but without a weaponeer.