Nuclear Museum Logo
Nuclear Museum Logo

National Museum of Nuclear Science & History

Thomas O. Jones volunteered to join the Army before the start of WWII. As the war began to unfold in Europe, Jones was placed in a sub-organization of the Army called the Counterintelligence Corps. Eventually, his work in the Counterintelligence Corps led him to the Manhattan Project, where he was recruited to help with security. Jones oversaw many of the operations taking place in places like Chicago, Decatur and Ames, IA.

In 1945, Jones was transferred to Los Alamos to work as an intelligence officer, where his role was “to see that whatever happened, nobody noticed.” He provided security for the Trinity Test and “had people circled around the test site as far down as El Paso and Amarillo, Texas” to ensure that things went “smoothly” and that ordinary citizens did not report anything unusual.

Thomas O. Jones’s Timeline
19431945 Joined the Manhattan Project as an intelligence officer and oversaw sites at Chicago, Ames, and Decatur.

1945 Jun Transferred to Los Alamos and provided security for the Trinity Test.

Atomic money

Atomic money

Operation Crossroads, Bikini Atoll 1946

Bretheren of Guinea Pigs

Security Badges

Related Profiles

Edward Melkonian

Columbia University

Edward Melkonian was an American physicist. He was born in Alexandria, Egypt on June 29, 1920, to parents of Armenian heritage who had fled persecution in Turkey.

Benjamin J. Johnson

Los Alamos, NM

R. W. Richards

Oak Ridge, TN

Mildred M. Davis

Hanford, WA