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VanKirk was energetic, very bright and had a terrific sense of humor, Dietz recalled Tuesday.
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VanKirk’s military career was chronicled in a 2012 book, ‘My True Course,’ by Suzanne Dietz. ‘I know he was recognized as a war hero, but we just knew him as a great father,’ Tom VanKirk said.
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Instead, he and his three siblings treasured a wonderful father, who was a great mentor and remained active and ‘sharp as a tack’ until the end of his life. ‘I didn’t even find out that he was on that mission until I was 10 years old and read some old news clippings in my grandmother’s attic,’ Tom VanKirk told the AP in a phone interview Tuesday. Like many World War II veterans, VanKirk didn’t talk much about his service until much later in his life when he spoke to school groups, his son said. He later moved from California to the Atlanta area to be near his daughter. Then he went to school, earned degrees in chemical engineering and signed on with DuPont, where he stayed until he retired in 1985. VanKirk stayed on with the military for a year after the war ended. ‘But if anyone has one,’ he added, ‘I want to have one more than my enemy.’ ‘I personally think there shouldn’t be any atomic bombs in the world – I’d like to see them all abolished. And atomic weapons don’t settle anything,’ he said. ‘The whole World War II experience shows that wars don’t settle anything. Most of the lives saved were Japanese,’ VanKirk said. ‘I honestly believe the use of the atomic bomb saved lives in the long run. VanKirk told the AP he thought it was necessary because it shortened the war and eliminated the need for an Allied land invasion that could have cost more lives on both sides. Whether the United States should have used the atomic bomb has been debated endlessly. Six days after the Nagasaki bombing, Japan surrendered. The blast and its aftermath claimed 80,000 lives. Three days after Hiroshima, a second atomic bomb was dropped on Nagasaki.