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National Museum of Nuclear Science & History

Social Life

Oral History
Stanley Hall’s Interview
May 18, 2017
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 […]
Oral History
Nick Salazar’s Interview
May 3, 2017
[Thanks to David Schiferl and Willie Atencio for recording this interview and providing a copy to the Atomic Heritage Foundation.] Willie Atencio: All right. Mr. Nick Salazar, we want to interview you because we know you remember a lot of things about Los Alamos. Can you first tell us the first time you went to […]
Oral History
Lydia Martinez’s Interview (2009)
April 13, 2017
[Thanks to David Schiferl and Willie Atencio for recording this interview and providing a copy to the Atomic Heritage Foundation.] Willie Atencio: Lydia, where are you from? Where were you born? Lydia Martinez: I was born in El Rancho, close to San Ildefonso Pueblo. Atencio: When was the first time you went to Los Alamos? […]
Oral History
Esther Vigil’s Interview
March 28, 2017
[Thanks to David Schiferl and Willie Atencio for recording this interview and providing a copy to the Atomic Heritage Foundation.] Willie Atencio: Okay, we’ll try to do this informally. First of all, can you tell us about where you were born and who your parents were? Esther Vigil: I was born in San Pedro. My […]
Oral History
Russell E. Gackenbach’s Interview
March 22, 2017
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. […]
Oral History Interviewee
Russell E. Gackenbach
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 […]
Oral History Interviewee
Russell E. Gackenbach
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 […]
Oral History
Julie Melton’s Interview
February 9, 2017
Cindy Kelly: I’m Cindy Kelly. This is Santa Fe, New Mexico, Wednesday, October 12, 2016. I have with me Julie Melton. My first question for Julie is to say her name and spell it. Julie Melton: I’ve been widowed twice, so I’ve had a lot of last names, but my maiden name was Hawkins. My […]
Oral History
Louis Hempelmann’s Interview – Part 4
Louis Hempelmann:  I do not think the people who came later were ever as close as the people who were there at the beginning. Martin Sherwin: Did most of the people who came later, were they junior people? That is, younger? [Enrico] Fermi came later. Hempelmann: [George] Kistiakowsky came later. Sherwin: He did? When you […]
Oral History
Louis Hempelmann’s Interview – Part 3
January 31, 2017
Martin Sherwin: What was the set-up at Los Alamos, in terms of your relationship to the director [J. Robert Oppenheimer] and how you operated? Louis Hempelmann:  I was working directly under him. I started out with my wife as a half-time secretary, and the technician I brought with me from St. Louis, and Kitty worked […]