Nuclear Museum Logo
Nuclear Museum Logo

National Museum of Nuclear Science & History

Jacob Beser

Radar Specialist, Enola Gay and BockscarHiroshima Mission

Nagasaki MissionTinian IslandWendover, UT
509th Composite GroupHiroshima MissionManhattan Project VeteranMilitary VeteranNagasaki Mission
Lt. Jacob Beser and M/Sgt John Kuharek check over equipment Listen to Jacob Beser’s Oral History on Voices of the Manhattan Project

Jacob Beser served as a 1st lieutenant in the 393rd Bombardment Squadron’s Radar Section. He was the radar specialist aboard the Enola Gay bombing mission to Hiroshima and on Bockscar during the Nagasaki mission. He was the only person to be aboard both strike planes on both atomic bombing missions.

Related Profiles

LaForde E. Bundy

K-25 Plant

Attended Purdue University.

Alfred Pfanstiehl

Chicago, IL

Alfred Pfanstiehl was a junior physicist at the Chicago Met Lab during the Manhattan Project. Pfanstiehl was a signatory of the Szilard Petition, an attempt to avert military use of the atomic bomb against Japan.

Maurice D. Herbert

Tinian Island

Maurice D. Herbert served in the 1395th Military Police Company, Aviation.

T. C. Weldon

Hanford, WA