15-1  Melvin L. Dietrich

Most memorable experience:

At unexpected intervals during several projects, my father and the other welders would be hustled out of the buildings by security personnel, without explanation. When they returned they often found their work had been altered.

Most memorable story:

Some fellow workers and my dad were sitting in a beer hall near the Oak Ridge facility when a blare of sirens announced the entry of two FBI men. The two men wanted to know if anyone had seen any strangers loitering nearby. Nobody had noticed anything unusual so the FBI men left the premises. A few days later they learned that the FBI had been searching for foreigners they knew to be armed with explosives.

Biography:

After receiving "Q" Clearance for entrance into sensitive areas of any weapons industry, Melvin L. Dietrich worked as a welder/electrician in a number of facilities. He worked in Oak Ridge, Tennessee on three separate occasions. In 1944-45, he was employed by Comstock & Bryant Electrical Company as foreman over three crews of welders. At war's end he moved back to his home state of Ohio. In 1950-51, he returned to Oak Ridge for another year's work (at "K-29"), as an electrician employed by the Edenfield Electric Company. From there he went to Paducah to work for F. H. McGraw, however, because of continuous work stoppages, he stayed there only five weeks. He spent the next three years at the Savannah River Project under I. E. DuPont. In 1954, he returned to Oak Ridge for one final time as an electrician under Edenfield Electric once more. He left the weapons industry in 1955, because of a "strange" burn on his left hand. He was ill with chronic bleeding ulcers and worried about the hand, so he returned to his home state of Ohio for the duration of his career. He was very proud of his contribution to the war effort, but never spoke of many things he actually did.