The last surviving member of the US air crew that dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima has died in Georgia aged 93.
Theodore Van Kirk, also known as "Dutch", was 24 when he became the navigator of the Enola Gay, the aircraft which dropped the bomb.
The attack on Japan on 6 August 1945 killed an estimated 140,000 people.
Van Kirk said he had "no regrets" about the mission and defended its morality, saying it helped to end the Second World War.
His son, Tom Van Kirk, paid tribute to his father, who he said remained active until the end of his life.
"I know he was recognized as a war hero, but we just knew him as a great father", he told AP.
Mr Van Kirk died of natural causes at the retirement home where he lived, his son said. He had been the last surviving member of the Enola Gay crew since 2010 when Morris Jeppson, the assistant weaponeer, died.
His funeral is expected to take place next week in Pennsylvania.
#1
RIP, Dutch. The passing of each clear-headed WWII vet actually hits me pretty hard. The "practical intelligence" of the American people WRT world affairs arguably reached its zenith in that war and its immediate aftermatch. Now?
I wonder if any of the "Bock's Car" crew are still alive. The mission that ended up bombing Nagasaki is sort of an amazing tale.
And I've always loved how the procedure for arming Little Boy, after being worked out (like everything else connected to these amazing weapons) in finite detail over months, was completely switched at the last minute (arm in the air, not on the ground).
#3
Greatest Generation for a damn good reason. My generation is a pail imitation. I feel like I should apologize each time I read or hear about deeds of men like "Dutch".
Posted by: Charles ||
07/30/2014 8:49 Comments ||
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#4
Yes, we've sort of been trust fund babies to their efforts.
#6
Many years ago, I met Mr. Van Kirk (along with Paul Tibbets and Robert Ferebee) and had a chance to talk with them at length about the technical aspects of the mission. Mr. Van Kirk was a very pleasant man who had no qualms about the mission he was tasked to carry out. I hope we still have a few left like him.
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
07/30/2014 10:47 Comments ||
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Two women trespassing on railroad tracks in southern Indiana narrowly missed a fatal encounter with a freight train when they were caught in the middle of a bridge as the train approached, authorities said. Long high bridges, fast freight trains, trespassing. A toxic combination. Especially for those who aren't into consequences.
The action, which unfolded on the morning of July 10, was captured on a camera mounted on the train, and authorities released the video today. One of those moments of sheer panic that follow months or years of sheer boredom.
the train engineer spotted the women in the middle of a 500-foot-long bridge known as Shuffle Creek Trestle, the engineer immediately applied an emergency brake and repeatedly sounded the horn. At first, the two women try to outrun the 14,000-ton freight train but when they realize it is catching up too fast, one woman lies down in the middle of the tracks. Repeatedly sounding the horn? You'd think once would be enough. Then again, maybe they had focus issues given their decision.
The other woman runs off to the edge of the 80-foot-tall bridge as if to contemplate jumping off, then runs back into the middle of the tracks just as the train catches up with them. I wonder if she's ever heard the joke about why you don't need to outrun the bear, you just have to outrun your friend next to you.
By the time the train came to a stop it was past the bridge, running over the women in the process, authorities said.
Assuming the incident had been fatal for the two women, the engineer notified the Monroe County SheriffÂ’s Department, only to realize that the women had survived and escaped to a nearby vehicle, fleeing the scene, authorities said. I wonder if some guy in an F150 truck picked them up.
The women have been identified by law enforcement, and the incident is now considered a criminal matter. A waste of money. They've learned their lesson.
A representative from the Indiana Rail Road Company could not immediately be reached for comment by ABC News.
#2
Read this story in the local Knoxville News Sentinel yesterday. ORNL has a lot of Yankees and foreigners in their midst. As they say "Ya'll come back sometime."
Lexington, Ky. (CBS CLEVELAND) -- A 15-year-old in Kentucky suffered second-degree burns after rubbing alcohol on his chest and lighting himself on fire in imitation of popular Facebook and YouTube "Fire Challenge" videos. Because, like, it's on YouTube, Dude. It's gotta be real.
Lexington police said that officers were called to the 3600 block of Appian Way to assist a teenager who had burned himself after watching the "Fire Challenge" videos online, WYKT-TV reports. The teen, whose name was not given, mimicked the online videos by pouring rubbing alcohol on his body and then setting himself on fire. Tried to make an ash of himself.
"Unbearable, yeah, basically," said the teen who suffered second-degree burns. "Literally after it got put out it was already blistering, it's just hard." Life is hard. It's harder if you are stupid. If you are gonna be stupid, ya gotta be tough.
Videos of the "Fire Challenge" also show teens spraying themselves with aerosol cans before lighting portions of their body on fire in order to singe off their own hair. But the videos never show the physical aftermath of lighting one's self on fire.
"Just watching it and never seeing what ended and just being childish," the teen said of his actions.
One of the firefighters who took the teenager to the hospital said that the burns suffered by the boy will likely affect him for the rest of his life.
"After getting a second or third degree burn later on in life if you get a sunburn it's going to be compounded by these particular burns," the emergency worker told WYKT.
"You can get caught on fire and die, your house can get caught on fire, wherever you're at can get caught on fire," said the teen, cautioning others not to light themselves on fire for any reason. First lesson about fire. It's HOT!! It will BURN!!
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
07/30/2014 00:00 ||
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#1
Sounds like criminal child endangerment to me.
Civil suits all around for Facebook and UaTube.
#2
One question. Was there banjo music in the background? (I'll stop now.)
Posted by: ed in texas ||
07/30/2014 7:25 Comments ||
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#3
I'm a banjo picker.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
07/30/2014 7:51 Comments ||
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#4
According to some, you can achieve "perfect pitch" with a banjo. That is to say, a perfect pitch of tossing it into the trash dumpster where it strikes an accordion.........
#5
The border guard was concerned that being Boy Scouts, there was the possibility that they might discriminate against gays. Thoughtcrime, and all that.
Posted by: ed in texas ||
07/30/2014 20:01 Comments ||
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[Aypee] International observers turned back Wednesday after making another attempt to reach the site where Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 went down in eastern Ukraine, and a government official said the area near the zone had been mined by pro-Russian separatists who control it. Classic Soviet area denial doctrine. Strongly worded UN condemnation soon to follow.
According to the Rand war scenario developed for the Pentagon, the most expensive military weapon in the history of mankind is a complete and utter failure. The futuristic warplane is supposed to replace all other jet fighters in the US arsenal at a cost of $1 trillion and climbing. As one critic published a few weeks ago, thatÂ’s enough money to buy a $100,000 home for every homeless family in America for the next six generations.
The F-35 didnÂ’t fail because of its recurring engine fires or the problems itÂ’s still having with vertical landings and take-offs. It failed because it was designed to do too many things. And sometimes, especially in war, quantity beats quality. We used to joke as teens that you could line up the Chinese and machinegun them down all day and night and they would still reproduce faster than we could eliminate them. Ironically enough, thatÂ’s basically the tactic that leads to AmericaÂ’s defeat to the Chinese military in Pentagon simulations.
#3
Darth: my 6th grade teacher first related the Chinese anecdote to me. If told in today's PC USA he would be fired. Great teacher - he was pointing out how huge the pop. was and he didn't say it with malice.
[ARABNEWS] DONETSK: Intense fighting between Ukrainian troops and pro-Russian rebels in eastern Ukraine killed dozens of civilians, soldiers and rebels, as Kiev pressed on with an offensive on Tuesday including near the wreckage of Malaysian flight MH17.
Shells hit the center of Donetsk, a city with a pre-war population of nearly a million people where residents fear they will be trapped on a battlefield between advancing Ukrainian troops and Russian-backed rebels who have vowed to make a stand.
Russia repeated accusations that Kiev's forces had fired across the border from eastern Ukraine into Russian territory with assault rifles and grenade launchers.
"We officially demand Kiev stop firing at the sovereign territory of the Russian Federation," the foreign ministry said in a statement.
In Brussels, European Union ...the successor to the Holy Roman Empire, only without the Hapsburgs and the nifty uniforms and the dancing... finally agreed Tuesday to impose broad economic sanctions against Russia, hoping to force Moscow to reverse course in Ukraine, EU officials said.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/30/2014 00:00 ||
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Eleven people have been arrested as part of Turkey's 'parallel state' probe into alleged espionage and illegal wiretapping, Anadolu Agency reported.
Erdogan continues the march to a one-party state. Champ is taking notes...
Istanbul Judge Islam Cicek ordered the arrests of 11 police officers on Tuesday night. The arrested officers include Yurt Atayun, former chief of Istanbul's anti-terror police department. The court ordered conditional release for eight suspects and released 30 others.
The court action followed two high-profile, Istanbul-based anti-graft operations, which were launched in December 2013 and led to the arrest of high-profile figures including the sons of three government ministers as well as several entrepreneurs. All those detained in the December probes were later released pending trial.
The Turkish government has denounced the December probes as a "dirty plot" constructed by a "parallel structure" group of bureaucrats embedded within the country's key institutions, including the judiciary branch and the police.
Posted by: Steve White ||
07/30/2014 00:00 ||
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[TELEGRAPH.CO.UK] Women should not laugh out loud in public or speak of trivial matters on the phone, according to Turkish deputy prime minister, Bulent Arinc.
Are you sure you wish housewives to discuss politics and philosophy over the phone, sirrah? Psychology and medicine? Your listeners might learn many things they can't unhear....
Mr Arinc urged men and women to remember the importance of chastity during an Eid al-Fitr meeting on Monday in Bursa, west Turkey, and to have an acute awareness of shame.
He attacked television programmes aimed at young people which encouraged them to become "sex addicts" to an audience which included a majority of men.
There is a moral regression happening within the country, he said, and called on citizens to rediscover the Koran, the holy book of Islam.
"Chastity is so important. It is not only a name. It is an ornament for both women and men. [She] will have chasteness. Man will have it, too. He will not be a womanizer. He will be bound to his wife. He will love his children.
Still clinging to the idea of just one wife? How terribly modern of him -- that's not in the Koran, surely.
As the famous American philosopher Wednesday Addams would say: wait...
Posted by: Fred ||
07/30/2014 00:00 ||
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#1
Did someone laugh at Bulent's mighty sword, and then call a friend to gossip about it?
[The Nation (Pak)] GUJRANWALA - An angry mob torched the house of a family belonging to Ahhmadi community in Arafat Colony in Gujranwala, as a result of which a woman, 55, and her two granddaughters died from suffocation.
According to media reports, the clash started when an Ahmadi, Saqib s/o Ahmad Din, allegedly shared a blasphemous picture with one Ejaz on Facebook.
Ejaz along with Zakariya son of Siddiqia Masjid Khateeb Qari Muhammad Hakim and others gathered outside Saqib's house. At that time several Ahmadis had gathered at one Dr Sohail's house.
The angry mob attempted to raid the doctor's house in search of Saqib. According to Ejaz, the people inside the house opened fire on the mob, injuring Zakariya. This provoked the angry mob and they set the house on fire as a result of which Bashiran Bibi, 30, and her two granddaughters — eight-month-old Hira and five-year-old Kainat — died from suffocation while seven others, including two women, were maimed as they locked themselves up in their houses.
The injured were shifted to the district headquarters hospital where their condition is said to be critical. People's Colony SHO Malik Asghar confirmed three casualties. No arrest has so far been made.
Meanwhile, ...back at the revival hall, the pastor had finally been wrestled from the pulpit. Y'got the wrong guy! he yelled just before Sergeant Malone's billy club landed... religious and political organizations condemned the incident and demanded a probe. The Pakistain Ulema Council chairman, terming the incident regrettable, demanded a judicial enquiry. The MQM Coordination Committee said the culprits should be taken to justice after a high-level probe. Shia Council Chief Allama Jaffar Subhani said the Punjab government had failed to protect the citizens.
According to police and eyewitnesses, there are seven to eight houses of the Ahmadi community in the vicinity. However, ars longa, vita brevis... following the violence, all Ahmadi families in the area managed to flee.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/30/2014 00:00 ||
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[DAWN] TAXILA: A police razakar (volunteer) opened fire on a shopkeeper after he failed to receive mobile credit from a loading facility due to alleged technical difficulties.
Sources said Uzair, a razakar deployed at Lalarukh police check-post, started firing with his weapon on a shopkeeper when he did not receive any credit on his mobile phone despite paying for it. Fortunately, the shopkeeper remained unhurt.
On hearing the gunshot, the nearby shopkeepers overpowered the accused and handed him over to his in charge, Sub-Inspector (SI) Sajid Mehmood, who refused to take legal action against Uzair.
As the matter reached the higher authorities, they rushed to the police checkpost and tossed in the slammer Please don't kill me! the accused and started the paperwork but haven't done much else against him.
It may be mentioned here that there has been massive public outrage against the behaviour of these police razakars, who have reportedly been misusing their power.
Moreover, on public complaints, the police authorities finally decided to take action against the cops, who were involved in minting money under various pretexts.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/30/2014 00:00 ||
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Baghdad said the crude had bypassed the state-owned oil company, which claims the right to broker all oil produced inside Iraq, Meyers says. Judge Nancy Johnson of the Southern District of Texas ruled the Iraqi government has the right to contract with the U.S. Marshals Service to take custody of any barrels that come within her court's jurisdiction, which runs nine miles into the Gulf.
#7
If there were a spill it would just be another excuse to shut down more drilling in the gulf. No, it's not logical, but it wasn't logical last time.
#9
Of course Obama is going to fuck over the Kurds - it hurts the US, just like damned nearly every foreign policy blunder he has instituted. Clinton really cemented the relationship with the Lurds by strictly enforcing the no-fly and staying the hell out of the way of certain operation and support during his 2 terms. Bush continued this support, and it paid dividends during OIF - the Kurdish reasons were the best developed economically and culturally during OIF and the withdrawal, and now, with ISIS running rampant, they have been a firewall against the Takfiri Salafists.
So of course Obama is going to screw them over. If I were advising the Kurds, I'd tell the Kurds to offload in Panama so the Chinese can take it, or even offload in Cuba. Yes its counter to US Policy, but at this point in time, someone needs to figuratively put a thumb in Obama's eye for this stuff - and do so before he does even more harmful things. Imposing consequences is never pretty.
Geez. For personal reasons, I hope DARPA never deigns it important to develop a better idiot. When I was in the army we had these things called "maps" that were broken down into "grids." We would occasionally find our way with something called a "compass." I suspect that the word comes from the Latin "compos," as in "non compos mentis," but I'm probably wrong.
#2
We would occasionally find our way with something called a "compass."
And sometimes we'd find our way by reading terrain that was displayed on said "maps" with various standardized symbology. Our brethren in the Navy had something call a sextant, which along with something called the Naval Observatory Almanac, they could employ to determine their location any place at sea (which tended to lack terrain indicators).
#5
Whenever I am in unfamiliar country and driving, I can always count on my Nagivator to inform me of my missed turn, excessive speed, too hot/cold, excessive speed, wrong turn.....
#7
Yes the Nagivator does all that, including forced air con directly in the face.....
But you should watch all the gesticulating whilst trying to direct the backing of a trailer.....huge amounts of hilarity for all (especially bystanders)but Mr. Goodwrench......
Possibly making matters worse was the fact that Jock, who was supposed to lead out the Malaysian team, sat down and refused to move as soon as his coat was put on, meaning he had to be carried by the team representative. clever dog
Mohamad Sabu, the deputy president of the opposition Pan-Malaysian Islamic Party said: "Malaysia and all Islamic countries deserve and apology from the organiser." how about next time dont come
"This is just so disrespectful to Malaysia and Muslims -- especially as it happened during Ramadamadingdong Ramadan. Muslims are not allowed to touch dogs, so the organiser should have been more aware and sensitive on this issue." ever heard of "when in Rome"?
do us a favour and fly back on Malaysian airlines....
#2
You clowns are the ones who are shameful and offensive, Mohamad.
I'll worry about being "sensitive" to Moslems start being sensitive to US. Dogs are part of our culture, so I expect you to show US respect by having dogs at sport games in Malaysia. Not to mention female athletes in tank tops and short shorts.
You'll notice I'm not holding my breath . . . .
Posted by: Barbara ||
07/30/2014 22:04 Comments ||
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
The last surviving member of the US air crew that dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima has died in Georgia aged 93.
