Nuclear Museum Logo
Nuclear Museum Logo

National Museum of Nuclear Science & History

John Weil was a member of the Special Engineer Detachment serving at Los Alamos from early 1943 through the end of the war. Weil had studied mechanical engineering through the Army Specialized Training Program at Ohio State University. He was assigned to Maj. Gerald Ackerman at Los Alamos for whom he performed a wide variety of tasks: heat transfer problems, pouring high explosive castings at S Site, and even driving 6 x 6’s and jeeps. While at Los Alamos, Weil assisted in development of the explosive lenses in the Fat Man plutonium-fueled atomic weapon. 

Married to Lucille S. Weil, a nurse.

Related Profiles

J. J. De Groot

Oak Ridge, TN

J. J. De Groot worked for the J.A. Jones Construction Company.

Spencer Vedder

Tinian Island

Spencer Vedder served in the 393rd Bombardment Squadron.

Carl Helmholz

University of California, Berkeley

Carl Helmholz (1915-2003) was an American physicist involved with the Manhattan Project.  Helmholz was born on May 24, 1915 in Evanston, Illinois.

B. J. Loftus

Hanford, WA