[Skip Fix]

For many of you "Boomers" I am sure you had a lot of WWII history either in school of from parents that served or lived through it. My Dad was one of those that served after his freshman year at Texas A&M, eventually going to Los Alamos NM to work on the Manhattan Project. A couple of years before he passed away in 2011 he dictated this to my sister. A lot of it he never told me I think because it was still so close in time and the secrecy of the project. Most of the Army company you hear little about them so I thought some of you all might enjoy a little more history.

"In 1942, my father, James E. Fix, was a freshman at Texas A&M University. He was 16 years old. He was drafted into the war effort by the army. After basic training twenty men in his unit were chosen for the Army Specialized Training Program (ASTP). The rest of the unit went to Europe in 1944 and fought at the Battle of the Bulge which was considered by most historians as the biggest and bloodiest battle that Americans fought in WWII where 19,000 people died, 47,500 were injured and 23,000 were captured. In a safer fate, he and his friends were sent to Oregon State University for an intensive training program condensed into two semesters.
Manhattan Project
Unbeknownst to them, in 1939 Albert Einstein had sent a troubling letter to President Franklin D. Roosevelt alerting him to the possibility of the Germans using the new discovery of fission to create a bomb with unprecedented magnitude. In response to Einstein’s letter and the bombing of Pearl Harbor, the Manhattan Project was created and uranium ore was beginning to be procured. In July 1945, the atomic bomb had been successfully tested for the first time in New Mexico: the Trinity Test. Success was uncertain until the test. The team now knew that the bomb would work and they needed a lot more people to make it happen. That is where my father’s unit, the ASTP, and many similar units with their own specialties were then engaged. They had been trained for one or two years with the assumption that the technology would prove successful. Each group trained in their own specialty.
Building the bombs
Once their training was complete at Oregon State University. The ASTP unit reported to Oak Ridge Tennessee. From there they were sent on a series of train rides originating in Oak Ridge Tennessee on an untraceable route (East, North, and then West) to a secret compound in the mountains of New Mexico. A former boy’s camp had been converted into a top secret scientific compound at Los Alamos, New Mexico. Even their families did not know where their loved ones were stationed. All mail was sent to a simple address: SED 490 (this stood for Special Engineering Detail).
The project that they would be working on had a code name: the Manhattan Project. The purpose of the code name was to keep the project highly confidential. Even the people inside the compound did not know what they were working on. Each unit had one small piece of the scientific project that would eventually lead to the creation of two “atomic bombs”: Little Boy and Fat Man.
My father’s unit would design and build the detonation device for the atomic bomb. They were given parameters for a high explosive detonation device but no other components of the bombs. My father didn’t know what he was working on – only that it demanded a detonation device with unprecedented parameters. Of course, there were guesses as many of these men were scientists. However, up until that point, using fission technology for a destructive force was only a hypothesis. It was only at the upper echelon of physicists that this theory was believed more than possible - they felt it was inevitable. But who would develop it first.
Dangerous Materials
My father’s unit was stationed in S Site on the outside of the compound as they were dealing with large amounts of high explosives. They had them on the outside of the compound in case of an accidental explosions with all that dynamite.
The detonation device unit was not the only unit that had a dangerous charter. The group that was working with the radioactive material had the most dangerous jobs. At that time, scientists had not discovered how much radiation a human could be exposed to safely. Many of the brave soldiers in this unit died from radiation poison either during the war or some years later from cancer. It wasn’t until The 1946 Atomic Energy Act which allowed the U.S. Environment Protection Agency to set standards for nuclear energy exposure limits which were eventually adopted worldwide. The Soviet nuclear program would later add to the information on exposure limits.
In addition to the design of the detonation device, my father’s unit had the practical job of putting it together. My father and a few other men in his unit had the dangerous job of transporting large amounts of dynamite to be used in developing, testing and ultimately the final detonation device. They would transport 2300 pounds of dynamite at a time. The load was so heavy that the trucks were very hard to maneuver or stop. As they were all young men, occasionally they would drive too fast or make dumb mistakes. Once my father was driving too fast and missed a turn. It was ¾ of a mile before he was able to stop the truck to turn around. When asked if he was nervous transporting all that dynamite, he simply said, “we were just doing our job. “
Confidentiality and Isolation
Driving trucks had a hidden benefit. These individuals had the unique opportunity to drive “between” units. Each unit was kept isolated not allowed to communicate with each other. Strict protocols ensured that the project would stay confidential. They each knew their own small part but very few knew the big picture. The truck drivers were able to see the work of many units. Some of the smarter GI’s started to speculate what they were building.
Until this point the scientific community at large was still in the dark not knowing that this huge and important project was underway. They didn’t know what the bomb would do or how large the explosion would be. Before the Trinity test, some were worried that the explosion could trigger a chain reaction across the entire planet. It was a remote possibility, but they had no idea how large the explosion would be. The scientists that had urged Albert Einstein to prod President Roosevelt into starting this project knew the potential of this capability in the hands of the Germans. Edward Teller (who I later took classes from at the University of Colorado), Leo Szilard, and Eugene Wigner knew that the US had to have this capability first. And that the project had to remain highly confidential as it was a race for completion.
Ending the War
The explosion of not one, but two, atomic bombs over Japan finally ended World War II. Had it not been for these bombs, the war would not have ended and there would have been a lot more deaths of US and allied forces. The Japanese in particular were formidable opponents. They did not surrender after the first bomb. It took two bombs to actually end the war. We threatened to keep dropping bombs until they surrendered. It is a good thing that the Japanese did not know that we did not have any more bombs after those two. The truth of that matter did not come out until a few years later.
Historic Experience
When asked if my father felt bad being part of such a destructive force that killed so many people he said, “We knew that if we had to invade Japan that they would fight to the death. There would have been tremendous loss of life for Japanese and Americans. When they weighed the options the administration felt that the bomb would cause less loss of life.”
He said “He felt very proud that he was handpicked to be part of this scientific effort”. He felt as though it was an honor. The twenty friends that he worked side by side at Los Alamos stayed in touch through the years. As they are all in the eighties, many have already passed on. There are five left of the original unit, my father being one of those last five. It was an intense and unique experience to be part of such an important event in history. Even after the war ended and they were discharged, the men working on the Manhattan Project were under strict confidentiality agreements. They were not allowed to leave the US for two years after leaving the army due to secrecy issues. "

I think if you look at the losses on both sides at Iwo Jima and Okinawa an attack on mainland Japan would have been a terrible ordeal.

[Goatracer1]

If it wasn't for men (and women) like your dad this world could be very different. Thanks to them all.

[hurryinhoosier62]

My junior high physical science teacher was a chemist at Oak Ridge during the Manhattan Project. The stories that lady could tell.

[Scott Roberts]

Thanks for sharing that Skip.. if anyone is interested, this is a pretty good documentary on Oak Ridge

https://www.pbs.org/video/east-tenne...ory-war-years/

[sdbob]

Yes thank you.

[Skip Fix]

My dad's oldest brothers was in the Army Air Corp and helped develop incendiary bombing.

[vr1967]

Mr Harold Garner, who passed in 2013, here in Mississippi helped dig the hole on Tinian Island to get the bomb under the Enola Gay