16-4  Oliver G. Haywood

responsibilities:

Technical Research Officer April 46-Dec 46, Acting and then Asst. Director of Research, AEC Jan47-June 47, Design and Development Officer, (Nuclear Physics) Special Weapons Command, assigned LASL Feb 50-Oct 51

specialty:

OGH was Dr. of Civil Engineering from MIT in Dec. 1940, MS Harvard Civil Engineering, June 1940, and West Point 1936, with highest average ever achieved at the Academy. Mathematics and Administration were his strength.
 

mp-contribution:

Only person other than Secretary of War and President to have been cleared for all categories of Nuclear Secrets from technical to targeting. ("And the other two didn't understand the technology!") When near death a few years ago he commented that he thought he was one of the few people in the world who could design an entire thermonuclear weapon.

mp-experience:

Bikini Island Tests. Also supported Teller on development of the super. Teller once said that "Col. Haywood is the only military man I would work for", when it was uncertain if the AEC would develop the Super.

mp-stories:

While getting teeth cleaned at Los Alamos Dentist, the dentist complained about the quality of the dental film having deteriorated during the war. It was now very "foggy". Ollie noticed that the dentist door was being propped open by a brick of "yellow cake", (Uranium). The dentist had no idea what the scientists were working on, and so did not know that the door prop was slightly radioactive! That night Military Police broke into the dentists office and took the brick, messing up the office to make the break-in look like a common burglary. The next batch of dental film was much better, thus convincing the dentist that the war was the problem!