Van Kirk lent several of these objects to the Smithsonian Institution's National Air and Space Museum for its controversial 'Enola Gay' exhibition in 1995. I'm selling it so a buyer can preserve it as it deserves and put it on display someplace.' I have four children and none of them are interested in (doing it). 'All this stuff should be archivally preserved,' Van Kirk said Friday, standing next to the log he used to chart the Enola Gay's position, altitude, speed, wind drift and other conditions. For years, he kept many of these pieces - some of which also accompanied him on 58 bombing missions he made over Europe earlier in World War II - in a steel box in his attic. 45 semi-automatic pistol (estimated value, $25,000 to $30,000), sextant ($8,000 to $12,000), navigator's master clock and radio headset. I'm not going to be around much longer,' said Van Kirk, a retired Du Pont chemical engineer who lives in Novato, explaining why he's selling these objects. The estimated value of the log alone is $400,000 to $500,000.
That historic document, written in pencil on yellowing paper, is one of several dozen Enola Gay artifacts and ephemera owned by Van Kirk and Morris Jeppson, the weapon testing officer onboard, that will be auctioned off June 11 at Butterfields in San Francisco.
