12-02  Henry Robert Barwick

mp-stories:

I guess that the prior comments were what was to go here. Dad had other stories about glass pipes, huge pipe wrenches getting stuck on the magnets, bets about people trying to get things in and out of gates of plants, static electricity popping as lightning would. If you want those stories, we can communicate later on his comments, the extent of sworn to keep the secret.

biography:

My father, Henry Robert Barwick was born in Wilder, TN, to parents that had come from England. He was born into a coal mining family, and later after marrying Elizabeth Evans Hoffmeister, and having a daughter (me, Patricia May Barwick Wilmoth) (1942), he tried to enlist, but was told that his chest measurements were too small so he got a job in Oak Ridge. He had served in the local Cavalry Unit that later became the local TN National Guard Unit. My mother, Dad and I moved to one of the cracker box houses in Oak Ridge off of East Outer Drive (there is a radio station located there today). Dad worked at Y-12 and built the ends of the building where the bombs were build. He was not allowed to tie the buildings together for secrecy reasons. Dad worked in Oak Ridge and received a certificate and pin for his work. He received radiation poisoning after being left in an area too long. He was never dismissed from the doctor in Oak Ridge, but came back to Cookeville, TN and lived until his death.