ENOLA GAY CREW (THEODORE VAN KIRK) - ANNOTATED BASEBALL SIGNED - HFSID 294068

THEODORE "DUTCH" VAN KIRK
The navigator of the Enola Gay which dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima signs a Rawlings Official Major League baseball in black ink on the sweet spot.
Annotated Baseball signed: "Dutch Van Kirk/Navigator -Enola Gay/6 Aug 1945/Hiroshima", Rawlings Official Major League baseball, Allan H. Selig, Commissioner, signed in black ink on the sweet spot. Theodore "Dutch" Van Kirk (1921-2014) was the navigator of the Enola Gay during the world's first atomic bombing over Hiroshima, Japan. Before this, he flew 58 B-17 bomber missions over occupied France and Germany before returning to the United States as a navigational instructor. He left the Army Air Corps a major and went on hold various positions in DuPont for 35 years. On the morning of August 6, 1945, the Enola Gay, a Boeing B-29 Superfortress piloted by Colonel Paul Tibbets lifted off from Tinian Island on its mission to drop the world's first atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan. The bomb, weighing 8,922 pounds, was released at an altitude of 31,060 feet and detonated at 1,400 feet, with an explosive force equivalent to 20,000 tons of TNT.It killed 66,000 and injured 69,000 people, not including long-term victims of radiation exposure. However, the atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki (August 9) hastened the surrender of Japan, ending WWII. General Charles Willoughby, General MacArthur's chief of intelligence, estimated that an amphibious invasion of the Japanese home islands, scheduled to begin on November 1, 1945, would have entailed one million American casualties, not to mention the horrific losses to Japanese soldiers and civilians. Fine condition.