Oral Histories

In this tape, Ray Gallagher gives an account of the Hiroshima mission from the perspective of a flight engineer on the observation ship: The Great Artiste. He discusses the trip to Hiroshima, how he felt when the first bomb was dropped and the reactions of the top brass. Gallagher also gives a step-by-step account of the Nagasaki mission: taking off from the runway on Tinian, flying to Kokura and then to Nagasaki, and barely making it to Okinawa. He explains how a problem with refueling Bock’s Car affected the mission, and what the mushroom cloud over Nagasaki looked like from the plane. He also discusses his feelings on the necessity of the atomic bombs, and the tension the men experienced during the mission. At the end, Gallagher provides his thoughts on heroism.

Dolores Heaton’s father worked on the Manhattan Project at Los Alamos, and she arrived at Los Alamos with her family as a young girl. Heaton recalls what it was like growing up in Los Alamos as a child. With the housing shortage present there, Heaton and her family lived in Quonset huts and were subjected to rationing. Heaton also shares her memories of eating sandwiches with J. Robert Oppenheimer and growing up with the children of the famous scientists working on the Manhattan Project. She talks about the diversity of her school, the first-class education she received, and why Los Alamos was truly a unique town to be raised in.