The 509th Composite Group was the predecessor to the 509th Bomb Wing, which is stationed at Whiteman Air Force Base, Missouri.īefore the mission over Japan, Tibbets told Van Kirk the group had been chosen for a top-secret bombing mission that might end the war.

Theodore Van Kirk was a vital member of a historic unit, the unit from which the 509th Bomb Wing was born, and his contributions to American military history and to Allied victory in World War II will forever be remembered.'Ī veteran of 58 World War II combat missions, Van Kirk was selected to be a member of the 509th Composite Group by the 509th's commander, Col. 'Team Whiteman and the nation have lost a great patriot,' said Brig. Theodore Van Kirk, the last surviving crew member of the Enola Gay, and the navigator on the famous B-29 Superfortress that dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan, during World War II, died Monday in Stone Mountain, Georgia.