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National Museum of Nuclear Science & History

Walter Goodman joined the Special Engineer Detachment at Los Alamos in 1943. Goodman worked as an electrical engineer on the implosion bomb with Manhattan Project scientists Luis Alvarez and Harold Agnew. He witnessed both the Trinity test and the atomic bombing of Nagasaki.

In July 1945, Goodman travelled to Tinian to help prepare the Fat Man bomb to be dropped on Japan, as part of Project Alberta. On August 9, 1945, Goodman joined Lawrence H. Johnston and William L. Laurence, a correspondent for the New York Times, on board the instrumentation aircraft, The Great Artiste, as part of the Nagsaki mission. Goodman, who had a video camera with him, took motion pictures of the mushroom cloud above Nagasaki.

Walter Goodman's Timeline
1922 Born in Brooklyn, New York.
1943 Joined the Manhattan Project at Los Alamos as a member of the Special Engineer Detachment.
1945 Jul 16th Witnessed the Trinity test.
1945 Aug Traveled to Tinian Island to help prepare the "Fat Man" bomb.
1945 Aug 9th Witnessed the atomic bombing of Nagasaki from the instrumentation aircraft "The Great Artiste" and took motion pictures of the mushroom cloud.
2015 Aug 22nd Died in Washington, DC.

Walter Goodman at the Tinian Tavern

Goodman, Alvarez, Waldman, and Agnew on Tinian

Tinian Camp

Goodman at plane controls

509th Composite Group headquarters

Jesse Kupferberg in The Great Artiste on Tinian.

Japanese Shrine on Tinian

Goodman in plane cockpit

Enola Gay

Quonset Huts on Tinian

Goodman with Great Artiste

Jesse Kupferberg with Oppie's Horse at Los Alamos

Luis Alvarez

Tinian Beach

Tinian Airfield

Marshmallow roast at Los Alamos

Fred Bock

William Laurence and Jesse Kupferberg

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