My feelings exactly. Each project member got one of these neat little lapel pins after the war. There's probably quite a few down your way.
Posted on 07/15/2005 9:48:59 PM PDT by Tennessee_Bob
With this quote from the Bagavad-Gita, Oppenheimer summoned in the nuclear age at 5:30 in the morning at the Trinity Site in New Mexico.
The yield of code name Gadget was estimated to be equivalent to 20,000 tons of TNT - 2,000 B-29s worth of explosives.
A quote from Brigadier General T.F. Farrell regarding the blast - "The effects could well be called unprecedented, magnificent, beautiful, stupendous, and terrifying. No man-made phenomenon of such tremendous power had ever occurred before. The lighting effects beggared description. The whole country was lighted by a searing light with the intensity many times that of the midday sun. It was golden, purple, violet, gray, and blue. It lighted every peak, crevasse and ridge of the nearby mountain range with a clarity and beauty that cannot be described but must be seen to be imagined..."
The light from the blast was seen all over New Mexico, and in parts of Arizona, Texas, and Mexico. Windows shattered 120 miles away in Silver City, New Mexico, and the shock wave was felt in Los Alamos, 230 miles away.
Why this post? I live in Oak Ridge, Tennessee - part of the Manhattan Project. I own a home built in 1944, for the workers at the Y-12, K-25, and X-10 facilities. I go to church with folks that as young men and women, came to this City Behind the Fence, to do their jobs - without an understanding as to what the end result would be - just the knowledge that it was part of the war effort. I make a point of thanking them for what they did - because even though they didn't carry weapons, or face the enemy - they helped to end the war.
LOL....
I got a 'net buddy who was there with the AF-he heartily agrees with you.
And FWIW, I agree with both of ya's!
Who needs the multi-demon-gods of Hinduism when there are better verses in the New Testament?
"I am the Alpha, and the Omega, the beginning and the end.."
My feelings exactly. Each project member got one of these neat little lapel pins after the war. There's probably quite a few down your way.
"...part of the Manhattan Project."
My Grandfather was a machinist in Milwaukee, WI during those years. He & his company (P&H) worked on the project, too. He knew what he was doing and why. Had no reservations about building anything needed for the project.
I believe that the U.S. had a production capacity of about 12 bombs a month in August 1945. And we did indeed produce at full capacity because Truman did not trust the Russians who out numbered us in Europe by about 4-1.
I have always heard two and that more were many months away.
And I believe that was repeated in Ken Burns recent documentary.
I just read this about a third today though..........
Studs Terkel: Why did they drop the second one, the Bockscar [bomb] on Nagasaki?
Paul Tibbets: Unknown to anybody else - I knew it, but nobody else knew - there was a third one. See, the first bomb went off and they didn’t hear anything out of the Japanese for two or three days. The second bomb was dropped and again they were silent for another couple of days. Then I got aphone call from General Curtis LeMay [chief of staff of the strategic air forces in the Pacific]. He said, “You got another one of those damn things?” I said, “Yes sir.” He said, “Where is it?” I said, “Over in Utah.” He said, “Get it out here. You and your crew are going to fly it.” I said, “Yes sir.” I sent word back and the crew loaded it on an airplane and we headed back to bring it right on out to Tinian and when they got it to California debarkation point, the war was over.
He said, “Where is it?” I said, “Over in Utah.”
On your marks. Get set.....
The actual quote is “Now I am become death, the destroyer of worlds.”
Oppenheimer was a bit overdramatic. More people died in a single night of conventional firebombing of Tokyo than in Hiroshima.
There actually was a third, though it was in pieces. As I recall the details, the core was in Utah, and the rest of the parts in California and Alamagordo...but it could have been slapped together (so to speak) and deployed during August.
bump for later read
Not only did the United States win the war, we won the peace too.
Ultimately, the Marshall Plan, and the remodernization and rebuilding of Japan have paid incredible dividends.
I have often thought, that no where was the Christian Ideal more on display as a nation, than the US’s actions in WWII.
We dropped the bomb on Japan, literally releasing the wrath of God. After the surrender, we nursed the entire world back to health, showing a compassion that no conquerer in the history of the world has ever shown.
Had a roommate in college named Green who live on Alabama Street on Oak Ridge. When I was young, from here in East Tennessee we saw aurora caused by the testing of hydrogen weapons. Radioactive dust spread around the world from US and Soviet tests in the atmosphere (above ground). Every person alive today has one or more atoms from New Mexico in their body. Give thanks, world, that it was America that perfected and used the first atomic weapons ... we didn’t set out to rule the world but our enemies had done just that so they had to be defeated for our good, then the freedom of the world at large. Great post, BTW.
Me as well. Have you read The Making of the Atomic Bomb by Richard Rhodes? If not I highly recommend it.
I grew up a bit ashamed that my father was not a soldier in WWII like my uncles were. He never talked about what he did during the war years, but I learned that he worked as an engineer for an Aluminum company and spent time traveling back and forth between Oak Ridge and Chicago. He married my mom on one of those trips to Tennessee.
A Great Big THANKS, to your father!
I am sure you must be very proud of him since you found out this bit of info?
Aloha kakou
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