James Porterie was a security guard at Los Alamos tasked with guarding bomb components. Porterie went to Aberdeen Proving Ground for Ordnance School before volunteering for an assignment at Los Alamos. He was at Los Alamos in the immediate aftermath of the war, from 1946 to 1948. After civilian guards took charge of the site in 1948, Porterie went to Kirtland Field, New Mexico and was discharged soon thereafter.