8-3  Sanford McDonnell

Responsibilities:

I worked initially in a Los Alamos lab developing a vacuum casting process for Uranium 238. I was the Army technician that pulled the plug that cast the U-238 castings that were part of the Alamogordo bomb. I then worked in the flight test equipment section. After that I went to Kirkland Field in Albuquerque and worked in the flight test division.

Specialty:

At the time I was working on the Manhattan Project I only had six months of basic engineering from North Carolina State College in Raleigh, North Carolina, as part of the Army Specialized Training Program. My work on the Manhattan Project convinced me that I wanted to become a graduate engineer. After I got out of the army in 1946, I got a BS in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Colorado and later a MS in Applied Mechanics from Washington University in St. Louis, while I worked at McDonnell Douglas Corporation. I was forty years at McDonnell Douglas and retired in 1988 as Chairman and CEO. The experience on the Manhattan Project changed my life in more ways than one.

Manhattan Project Contribution:

As a lowly G.I. Technician-Third Grade I can't say that anything I did was that "notable". Perhaps helping develop a successful vacuum casting process for Uranium 238 was my most significant contribution.

Most Rewarding Experience:

Working with and getting to know a fascinating mix of civilians, Army and Navy personnel of all military ranks and levels of education. Our SED had a large number of G.I.s with Doctor's degrees as well as Master and Bachelors. Almost no G.I. to my knowledge in our SED had less than a Bachelor's degree.

Most Memorable Story:

The military security was so well kept that most of us G.I's didn't know what we were working on until the first bomb was set off at Alamogordo. I remember that in the Metallurgy Lab where I worked initially on U-238 casting, there were other G.I.s as well as civilians and military officers working on U-235. At the end of the work day I remember washing my hands until I no longer got a reading on the Geiger Counter, but the men working on U-235 often failed to get the contamination off their hands by repeatedly washing them. They would often give up and leave the building with their hands still getting significant readings. The sand underneath the bomb at Alamogordo was turned to glass and of course was highly contaminated. Souvenir hunters got pieces of that glass and some pieces were made into jewelry and sold to people to wear before the authorities put a stop to it. When we left the Manhattan Project, every G.I. received a letter from Robert Oppenheimer expressing his appreciation for our part on the project.