At about the 12th week of the 13 week training cycle, I was called in from
the rifle range for an interview. When I reported, there was a pudgy little
Major sitting behind a desk - "Your application to go to college has been
accepted" - I told him that I already had a Bachelor's degree and hadn't applied to go back to college, and he countered with "Well, how about a Masters?" I said"
what in?" - He said "what would you like?" - I said "Mechanical Engineering" -
He said "OK", and the next day I was on my way to Ohio State University in
Columbus Ohio, where Reggie's sister Sue just happened to be studying. I was
there for 3 months, November thru January, which had to be the coldest time and
place in the entire world! As soldier students, we lived in a warm dorm under
the seats in the stadium and had probably the best food in town - we actually
had a guard on the mess hall to keep out other military people. We had courses
in Physics, math, and the first graduate level class ever given in jet
propulsion (remember that this was 1944). The Jet Propulsion course started me on my post-Army career in the rocket, missile, and space systems business. Turned out
that the master's degree was a ploy, OSU was a holding location for science
graduates waiting for reassignment, but they did give us graduate level classes
to keep us out of the cold. I kept volunteering to go to Wright Field, the
Air Corps research and development center, which drew a lot of their people from
OSU, but to no avail. I heard later that the people I took basic training
with, were shipped over as replacements in the "Battle of the Bulge" the week
after I left Croft.

Reg came out to Columbus over Thanksgiving vacation, stayed in Sue's room,
used her student card for the library and health services, and, as a wife, was
allowed to eat in our mess hall. While there, we met Martha and Gene Zukas, and
Jean & Doug Crossland, who had just gotten married. (Many years later, Doug
ended up as Rockwell's Facilities Head at Rocky Flats, and Gene retired as one
of the country's top Plutonium Metallurgists, at Los Alamos.)

After a couple of months of not being interviewed by any of the many visiting
organizations, I was called in to meet my now familiar pudgy little Major
again. "I've got a great assignment for you, which you'd really like" - "What is
it?" - "Can't tell you" - What will I be doing?" - "Can't tell you" - "Where
is it?" - "Can't tell you, but we only take volunteers" - "You are out of your
mind - I don't volunteer" - "OK". The next day, I was on a train to Oak Ridge,
Tennessee and the Atomic Bomb project. Gene and Doug showed up a little later
on. When I bumped into the Major about a year later in Oak Ridge, I reminded
him about the "volunteer" conversation. He said "Are you happy with what you
are doing?" - "Yes" - "Then, if you knew what you do now, you would have
volunteered, wouldn't you?" - "Yes" - "See, those who volunteered, are happy because they did, and those who didn't are just as happy". Doug remembers a different kind of interview based on whether your wife had a skill needed at Oak
Ridge, and whether she intended to join you and work - Jean had been working as a
secretary and ended up working in the K-25 Process Area. Gene Zukas says he
doesn't remember any special interviews - He thinks that if you had a degree, and
an Army IQ (AGCT) of over some baseline, you were in!

Oak Ridge was in a fascinating location - about 100 fenced in, and heavily
guarded, square miles near the Smoky Mountains, Knoxville, and the TVA lakes.
Half of the 75,000 or so, workers lived on base, and the rest commuted. Base
housing was cheap, with the quality of the accommodations varying according to
the worker's importance, but with none available to the members of the Army
Special Engineering Detachment (SED), no matter what jobs we, or our wives, had,
because we couldn't leave.

The SED was made up of about 1250 "enlisted men", almost all with at least
one degree in Science or Engineering. We had a couple of officers, and an
administrative staff of WACs, our own Barracks Area, with a club/store, and had a
lot of unique privileges - because we worked shifts, there always were people
sleeping, and goofing off, in the barracks at any time of the day; we had
permanent passes which allowed us to be away from Oak Ridge for up to 3 days at a time without specific permission; while working, we got paid by check; and did
not have to stand formations, or do much of anything military, except to attend
an occasional meeting. There was a "ceremonial" SED military unit which
drilled at some regular interval, and was used for parades and ceremonies - I think
that it was voluntary, because I do not remember being part of it - We called
it "the Commandos". Because there were no military mess facilities - only
civilian cafeterias, we received $2.25 per day for "rations and quarters" in
addition to our $50 per month pay as Army Privates. We, also couldn't get any
promotions until we were on the project for a year - then, and only then did I get
my first stripe (Private First Class, at, I think $56 per month) - Once we
got that, if we didn't really screw up, we got another stripe about every 2
months.