Technical Sergeant Anna Kissel was born on February 15, 1916, in Meriden, Connecticut, and grew up in New York out on Long Island in the small town of Westhampton. Graduated from Westhampton Beach High School in 1934 before completing a Secretarial Course at South Shore Secretarial School in Patchogue in 1936. Anna worked as a secretary for an attorney in Riverhead before enlisting, at the age of 28, in the Women’s Army Corps. She completed her basic training in the Company 10, 20th Regiment at the Third WAC Training Center at Fort Oglethorpe in Georgia on November 30, 1944. Her orders said to report to Santa Fe, New Mexico to work with the United States Engineers. The only additional information she was told was “it was out in the middle of nowhere and that it would be 100 men and a girl.” Anna was assigned to the Manhattan Project WAC Detachment stationed at Los Alamos Laboratory, known as the “Secret City” to outsiders. She reported to work as a Secretary to the Plant Superintendent in the Explosives Division on the S Site, where the high explosives system was developed and manufactured for the implosion bomb. On her first day of work, she quickly discovered that she was the “girl.” Her work involved using shorthand to take dictation, handling personnel records, typing various reports, and performing general office work. Anna also had intermittent Army-related work details that included Charge of Quarters and Barracks Police, which involved making sure her barracks building was secure and reporting any issues that may arise, along with other responsibilities to be completed during the evening/overnight hours. On July 16, 1945, at 5:30 a.m., the Manhattan Project achieved its wartime mission with the successful detonation of a plutonium bomb at the Trinity test site at the Alamogordo Bombing and Gunnery Range in the Jornada Del Muerto Desert, located 230 miles south of Los Alamos.
The next day, the United States dropped two other atomic bombs on Japan. On August 6, 1945, a press release was sent out to the public with information on the mission of the Manhattan District. It was after this time that everyone, who participated in the Los Alamos Atomic Bomb Project, received congratulatory messages. Anna received a certificate and three such messages for her contribution to the Project. They were from the War Department, President Harry Truman, Director of the Women’s Army Corps, and the Director of Los Alamos Laboratory. At the end of November, 1945, Anna started a new position as Secretary to the Group Leader in the Group X-3 in the Explosives Division. She handled highly confidential matters, attended to administrative details, and took care of a good deal of correspondence on her own initiative. On December 25, 1945, Anna went with a group from Los Alamos to see the Trinity test site, located 5 hours away. At the Control Station, the Commanding Officer gave a welcoming speech, then handed out presents to the group. They each received a silver horse pin and a piece of the wire that set off the world’s first atomic bomb. Continuing their journey, they came to two shacks, almost entirely buried under ground, where all the wiring and recording equipment had been installed for the test. From there they rode over to another shack where all the photographing of the test was done. (Anna later received a picture from Los Alamos of the Trinity test showing the light from the first atomic bomb detonation.) It was from this point that they all looked, through high-powered binoculars, at the bomb crater, 18 miles from where they were standing. All they could see was a large dark circle and around it another circle of green that looked like a lake. Anna was one of the last 13 remaining WACs at Los Alamos.
On October 22, 1946, she and the others became civilians once again after the final ceremonies were completed at the WAC Detachment Separation Center Headquarters at Fort Sam Houston in San Antonio, Texas. Technical Sergeant Anna Kissel received an honorable discharge, after her 20 days leave time, on November 11, 1946. (She received the following during her time of service and discharge: American Theater of Operations Ribbon; WWII Victory Ribbon; Good Conduct Ribbon and Medal; Meritorious Service Unit Award Patch; Manhattan Project Atomic Bomb Pin; WWII Atomic Bomb Personnel of Manhattan Project Shoulder Patch; Honorable Discharge Emblem lozenge (patch); Honorable Discharged Veteran Lapel Pin.) Anna returned home to Westhampton, New York to continue her secretarial career in 1947 at the newly formed Brookhaven National Laboratory in Upton, New York, located on the site of the former U.S. Army’s Camp Upton. Anna worked as a secretary for the first three Directors in the Director’s Office before following the third one over to the Physics Department in 1973. In 1983, after 36 years at the Laboratory, Anna retired as an Executive Secretary. Through the years, she enjoyed spending time with family and friends along with gardening and traveling. Anna passed away on October 1, 2001.