Patriotism

Cindy Kelly: I’m Cindy Kelly, Atomic Heritage Foundation, and we are in Los Alamos, New Mexico. It’s February 2, 2017. I have with me W. Stanley Hall.  Hall: I was born in 1924 on Broadway in Manhattan. I was there until the third grade. In the fourth grade, I went to the Bronx and was […]

Alexandra Levy: We are here on December 27th, 2016, in Florida, with Russell Gackenbach. My first question for you is to please say your name and spell it. Russell Gackenbach: My name is Russell E. Gackenbach. G-A-C-K-E-N-B-A-C-H. Levy: Please tell us your place and date of birth. Gackenbach: I was born in Allentown, Pennsylvania, March 1923, on March 23. […]

Russell E. Gackenbach was a navigator in the 393rd Bombardment Squadron and 509th composite group. He flew on both the Hiroshima and Nagasaki missions. His crew flew aboard the Necessary Evil, which was the camera plane for the Hiroshima mission. Gackenbach photographed the mushroom cloud over Hiroshima. His crew flew again during the Nagasaki mission […]

Russell E. Gackenbach was a navigator in the 393rd Bombardment Squadron. He flew on both the Hiroshima and Nagasaki missions. His crew flew aboard the Necessary Evil, which was the camera plane for the Hiroshima mission. Gackenbach photographed the mushroom cloud over Hiroshima. His crew flew again during the Nagasaki mission as the weather reconnaissance […]

Cindy Kelly: Okay. I’m Cindy Kelly. I’m in Santa Fe, New Mexico. It’s Wednesday, October 12, 2016. I have with me Ruth Howes. I’m going to ask her to please say and spell her name. Ruth Howes: I am Ruth Howes, and that’s R-u-t-h H-o-w-e-s. Kelly: Ruth is a very distinguished historian of the Manhattan […]

[For Edwin McMillan’s lecture, which preceded Elsie’s, please click here.] Elsie McMillan: You know, I will tell you a secret. This is the very first time I have shared a platform, let alone shared it with my best beau and a Nobel Prize winner [Edwin McMillan]. I think my greatest difficulty this afternoon is going […]

Martin Sherwin: Was there a lot of effort to trying to figure out the psychology that the people who were sitting in judgement [at J. Robert Oppenheimer’s security hearing] would have? That “They will probably be thinking this, so therefore we should do that?” Do you recall any of that? Verna Hobson: No. I remember […]

Martin Sherwin: You mentioned a point that others have mentioned that intrigue me: [J. Robert] Oppenheimer’s summer in Corsica. You said that Oppenheimer had once told you that reading [Marcel] Proust’s Memory of Things Past was one of the great experiences of his life. Haakon Chevalier: Yes. Sherwin: I have two questions about that. One, could you elaborate on that? […]

Martin Sherwin: How much were the dues [to the Communist Party]? David Hawkins: God, I don’t remember. Not very much, or I wouldn’t have been able to afford them. Sherwin: Two bucks, five bucks? Hawkins: Yeah, something like that. Sherwin: A month? Hawkins: A month, yeah. I really honestly don’t remember. Maybe five bucks a […]

Cindy Kelly: It is Sunday, May 15, 2016, and we’re in Houston, Texas. I want to start by asking you to tell me your name and then spell it. Dorothy Ritter: My name is Dorothy Oley Ritter. D-O-R-O-T-H-Y O-L-E-Y R-I-T-T-E-R. Kelly: All right. Dorothy, why don’t we begin by having you tell us something about […]