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Richard Jack Oliver (1917–2007) was a U.S. Navy veteran and technical specialist whose career spanned World War II naval aviation and America’s postwar nuclear weapons program. Born in Hiawatha, Kansas, on April 3, 1917, Oliver developed an early interest in aviation, photography, and mechanical engineering, skills that later shaped his military and scientific career. Oliver […]

Philip C. Leahy was a Second Lieutenant for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers who began his work for the Manhattan Project at the Metallurgical Laboratory at the University of Chicago, Illinois. Leahy oversaw a team that moved the world’s first nuclear reactor, Chicago Pile 1, to a location outside of the city, codenamed Site […]

Benjamin (Ben) Miller began his career path to electrical engineering in the 1920s. After dropping out of high school in the 11th grade and working at a number of odd jobs, he was hired and trained as a lineman by the Philadelphia Electric Co. In 1929, Ben found employment in the factory at the Brown […]

Harold Raymond Austin was an American engineer and business executive whose career spanned nearly six decades. Born in Norwalk, Connecticut, in 1883, Austin studied technical subjects at Pratt Institute in Brooklyn. He began his career in 1901 as a draftsman with the Buffalo Forge Company, where he worked alongside Willis H. Carrier on an early […]

August 6th, 2026 Lanterns For Peace This month, Hiroshima and Nagasaki commemorate the anniversaries of the atomic bombings on August 6 and 9. Hiroshima Mayor Matsui Kazumi placed an updated list of 353,639 atomic bomb victims in the Peace Memorial Park’s cenotaph and called on the leaders of nuclear-weapons states to act: “Civil society demands the immediate […]

December 12th, 2025 The tenth anniversary of the Manhattan Project National Historical Park was on November 15, 2025. The creation of the park benefited from a great collaboration of organizations and government officials. Above, Secretary of Energy Ernie Moniz shakes hands with Secretary of Interior Sally Jewell. This issue provides an update on the Manhattan Project […]

Frank Sada Menchaca was born April 3, 1919. He served as a U.S. Army Military Police soldier assigned to Military Police Detachment No. 2 at Richland, Washington, where he helped guard the Hanford Engineer Works during and after the Manhattan Project. He originally trained with Company A, 744th Military Police Battalion beginning in 1942 before […]

Emmett Ward Morey was born 17 September 1895 in Elvaston, Illinois. In 1918, he moved to Zion, Illinois with his wife Mary and had two sons, Paul and David. Emmett had worked as an accountant both before and after the war. When his youngest son, David, was in high school, Emmett moved his family to […]

Staff Sergeant Edward F. O’Mara enlisted in the U.S. Army in 1942. Because of a blood condition, Army officials determined that he was not fit for combat duty. After serving at several military installations, he was assigned to Camp Luna, a training facility near Las Vegas, New Mexico. One day, his commanding officer pulled him […]

Walter S. Marsh was born in Suffern, NY in July 1919 to Archibald & Amelia Marsh.  He married his wife Alice (Perry) Marsh in approx. 1939 at 20 years old.  Walter joined the U.S. Army in May 1944 & was a part of the Special Engineers Unit in Los Alamos. He is directly quoted in […]