Nuclear Museum Logo
Nuclear Museum Logo

National Museum of Nuclear Science & History

Robert Krauss

Official Historian of the 509th Composite Group

Expert
Bob Krauss Listen to Robert Krauss’s Oral History on Voices of the Manhattan Project

Robert “Bob” Krauss is the Official Historian of the 509th Composite Group. He and his wife, Amelia Krauss, published The 509th Remembered, which profiles the service members of the 509th Composite Group and the events that surrounded the group and its role in dropping the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

Krauss became interested in collecting and preserving the history of the 509th in his twenties after reading the book Enola Gay by Max Morgan-Witts. During his research, he met and befriended many of the airmen of the 509th, including Donald Albury, Ray Gallagher, Fred Olivi, Paul Tibbets, George Caron, and others.

Krauss began planning the 509th’s reunions in 2000, and has hosted the gathering for nearly two decades. Over the years, he has collected photographs, correspondence, flight suits, and other artifacts from the members of the 509th.

 

Related Profiles

Roger Cloutier

Oak Ridge, TN

Roger Cloutier was born in North Attleborough, Massachusetts in 1930. After serving in the U.S. Navy during the Korean War, he pursued a career in health physics at the University of Massachusetts and University of Rochester.

Martin Moeller

Washington, DC

Martin Moeller is the Senior Curator at the National Building Museum in Washington, D.C., where the exhibition “Secret Cities: The Architecture and Planning of the Manhattan Project” opened in 2018.

Dr. Ruth Patrick

Dr. Ruth Patrick was an American botanist and limnologist who studied the effects of pollution in water ways.

Masao Tomonaga

Japan

Dr. Masao Tomonaga is the honorary director of the Japanese Red Cross Nagasaki Atomic Bomb Hospital and a hibakusha, an atomic bomb survivor.