The Manhattan Project Heritage Preservation Association, Inc.
"Preserving, Exhibiting, Interpreting and Teaching the History of the Manhattan Project"
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The Manhattan Project Heritage Preservation Association, Inc. "Preserving, Exhibiting, Interpreting and Teaching the History of the Manhattan Project" |
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| In conjunction with our commitment to the Veteran History Project of the Library of Congress, we proudly present the Veterans of the Manhattan Project. Below are the personal histories of 12 of these veterans. Please "click" on a name below to go directly to that veteran's section or simply page down to view them all. Please "click" here to go to the Veteran Archives Directory. |
Manhattan Project Veteran Archives
Archive Section
7 of 50
| Bernard M. West * | Ethel Ann Caylor | James Osborn * |
| Aaron Novick | Paul Olum | David Hawkins |
| Harry K. Daghlian | Louis P. Slotin | Peter N. Bragg |
| Douglas Meigs | Thomas J. Davis | James L. Gordon * |
7-1
| Name: Bernard
Moody West
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Table | Location: DuPont - Chamberworks - NJ Assigned Unit: Civilian Job/Position: Unknown Dates of Service (if Known): Unknown Information Submitted By: S/Sgt Jim West, Grandson Archival Record #: CP-CO-WESB-0402 | Picture 1 | Document 1 | Story 1 | |
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7-2
| Name:
Ethel Ann Caylor |
Table | Location: Los Alamos, NM Assigned Unit: Civilian - Other Job/Position: Nurse Dates of Service (if Known): Unknown Information Submitted By: Elizabeth (Itzi) Hall, Daughter Archival Record #: LA-CO-CAYE-0402 | Picture 1 | Document 1 | Story 1 | |
Ethel Ann Caylor was a nurse at the Los Alamos Hospital when she met and married Dominick Itzi, a member of the Provisional Engineer Detachment. Not much is known about Ethel Ann; she may have been with the maternity wing at the hospital. If anyone remembers Ethel Ann Caylor or has more information about her time at Los Alamos, please contact us via "Feedback".
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7-3
| Name:
James Osborn |
Table | Location: Los Alamos, NM Assigned Unit: Military - SED Job/Position: Dates of Service (if Known): Information Submitted By:
Archival Record #: LA-SD-OSBJ-0402 Picture 1 | Document 1 | Story 1 | |
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7-4
| Name:
Aaron Novick |
Table | Location: Met Lab, Univ. of Chicago; Hanford, WA; Los Alamos, NM Assigned Unit: Civilian - Scientific Job/Position: Physical Chemist Dates of Service (if Known): 2/43 to 12/45 Information Submitted By: Anonymous Archival Record #: LA-CS-NOVA-0402 |
 The son of immigrant parents who had immigrated to Ohio,
Aaron Novick became
part of the historic race to create the atomic bomb in the early 1940s,
after he earned his doctorate in physical organic chemistry at the
University of Chicago.
After being sworn to secrecy, Aaron was introduced to the project at the university where Enrico Fermi and Leo Szilard directed the effort. From there, he worked on plutonium production at Hanford, Wash. Then he joined the brilliant crew of scientists assembled by Robert Oppenheimer at Los Alamos, N.M., where he witnessed the experimental detonation at Trinity Site. In years after the war, Aaron was a vocal opponent to the proliferation of nuclear weapons. Aaron Novick passed away Dec. 2000. |
7-5
| Name:
Paul Olum |
Table | Location: Los Alamos, NM Assigned Unit: Civilian - Scientific Job/Position: Theoretical Physicist Dates of Service (if Known): 1943 to 1945 Information Submitted By: Dorothy S. Dreer, Cousin Archival Record #: LA-CS-OLUP-0402 |
Dr. Olum was professor of mathematics at Cornell University from 1949 until 1974, when he became dean of natural sciences at the University of Texas at Austin. In 1976, he joined the University of Oregon as provost and later was appointed president. Throughout his career, he retained his position as professor of mathematics. He held a number of postdoctoral fellowships at Harvard and Stanford, including a National Science Foundation Senior Postdoctoral Fellowship at Stanford in 1966-67. Dr. Olum passed away on Jan. 19, 2001 |
7-6
| Name:
David Hawkins |
Table | Location: Berkeley & Los Alamos Assigned Unit: Civilian - Other Job/Position: Project Historian Dates of Service (if Known): 1943 to 1946 Information Submitted By: Anonymous Archival Record #: LA-CO-HAWD-0402 | Picture 1 | Document 1 | Story 1 | |
Hawkins was a 30-year-old philosophy instructor at the
University of California, Berkeley, when he became an administrative
aide at the Los Alamos Laboratory in 1943 and later the project's
historian in 1945-46. In that role he had free access to all the top
people involved, including project director J. Robert Oppenheimer and
physicist Edward Teller.
However, Hawkins did not attend the testing when the first atomic bomb was exploded on a 10-story steel tower in New Mexico on July 16, 1945. In an interview in CU-Boulder's Summit magazine in 1990, Hawkins said he could have had a grandstand seat but did not want to see the explosion. "When people came back from the test they were manic, joyous, delirious. I was upset by that reaction," he recalled, even though he understood the emotions of physicists who had dedicated themselves to making the project work. David Hawkins passed away in February 2002 |
7-7
| Name:
Harry K. Daghlian |
Table | Location: Los Alamos, NM Assigned Unit: Civilian - Scientist Job/Position: Physicist Dates of Service (if Known): 1944 to 1945 Information Submitted By: Anonymous Archival Record #: LA-CS-DAGH-0901 Picture 1 | Document 1 | Document 2 | Story 1 | |
 Harry
K. Daghlian was a young graduate student from Purdue. He was
tragically killed while performing an experiment to determine the
"criticality" of a plutonium bomb core. The accident occurred on
August 21, 1945. He died at the Los Alamos Hospital on September 15,
1945. Please "click" on Story 1 to the left to read more about Harry
K. Daghlian. |
7-8
| Name:
Louis P. Slotin |
Table | Location: Oak Ridge, TN & Los Alamos, NM Assigned Unit: Civilian - Scientist Job/Position: Physicist Dates of Service (if Known): 1944 to 1946 Information Submitted By: Beth Shore, Niece Archival Record #: LA-CS-SLOL-1101 Picture 1 | Document 1 | Story 1 | |
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7-9
| Name:
Peter Newport Bragg |
Table | Location: NRL - Philadelphia Navy Yard Assigned Unit: Thermal Diffusion Unit Job/Position: Chemical Engineer Dates of Service (if Known): 1944 Information Submitted By: Shirley Bragg Archival Record #: NL-CS-BRAP-0701 Picture 1 | Document 1 | Story 1 | |
 Peter Newport
Bragg was a civilian engineer working for the U.S. Navy. He was
tragically killed while attempting to unclog a pipe in the thermal
diffusion facility at the Naval Research Lab. Douglas Meigs (see
below) was also killed in the accident. (Note: Arnold Kramish,
a member of our Board of Advisors, was an SED assigned to the same
facility. He was critically injured in the same explosion.)
Please "click" on Story 1 to the left to read more about Peter Newport
Bragg. |
7-10
| Name:
Douglas Meigs |
Table | Location: NRL - Philadelphia Navy Yard Assigned Unit: H. K. Ferguson Co. Job/Position: Chemical Engineer Dates of Service (if Known): 1944 Information Submitted By: Arnold Kramish, SED Archival Record #: NL-CO-MEID-1101 Picture 1 | Document 1 | Story 1 | |
 Douglas Meigs
was a civilian chemical engineer working for the H. K. Ferguson, the
company that built and operated the S-50 Thermal Diffusion facility at Oak
Ridge. He was tragically killed while attempting to unclog a pipe in
the thermal diffusion test facility at the Naval Research Lab. Peter
Bragg (see above) was also killed in the accident. (Note:
Arnold Kramish, a member of our Board of Advisors, was an SED assigned to
the same facility. He was critically injured in the same explosion.)
Please "click" on Story 1 to the left to read more about Douglas Meigs. |
7-11
| Name: Thomas
J. Davis |
Table | Location: Los Alamos, NM Assigned Unit: Civilian - Other Job/Position: Electrician Dates of Service (if Known): 1/45 to 6/46 Information Submitted By: Robert Davis; Son Archival Record #: LA-CO-DAVT-0602 Picture 1 | Document 1 | Story 1 | |
Thomas J. Davis was born in Vernon Co. near Nevada, MO on 6/8/10. He died on 11/23/82 in Waco, TX. He and my mother were married in Jan. 1937. Prior to working for the Corps of Engineers at Los Alamos from 1/45 to 6/46, Thomas worked at the Houston Shipyards. He got his GED and electrical apprenticeship by going to night school. His son states: "My mother remembers that on our first day enroute to Los Alamos that we were somewhere between Houston and Brownfield, TX on the day that Pres. Roosevelt died. I remember us spending the night somewhere in NM & the next morning Daddy milked some rancher's cow so that we might have some milk for breakfast." After the war, Thomas became a long time member of the IBEW finally leaving the electrical trade in 1960 or 1961. He would never talk about what he had done at Los Alamos, even when questioned by his son. He would just say that he was sworn to secrecy and his son didn't need to know. |
7-12
| Name: James
L. Gordon |
Table | Location: Du Pont Assigned Unit: Job/Position: Electrical Engineer Dates of Service (if Known): 1945 Information Submitted By: James P. Gordon, Son Archival Record #: CP-SD-GORJ-0502 Picture 1 | Document 1 | Story 1 | |
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James Osborn
