This page contains documents and photos detailing my dad’s involvement in Project Alberta, the goal of which was to make sure that the bomb would be ready to use as an actual weapon. Much of the preparation for this occurred well before the detonation of the Trinity device in July 1945, and involved testing of bomb casing designs, developing electronics to arm the bomb in flight and refitting of the 509th’s B-29s at Wendover, Utah. According to dad, it was necessary for lowly sergeants such as himself to supervise Army Air Corp officers who outranked him, so Los Alamos had Project A. members change into civilian clothes on the flight to Wendover. This was to avoid any potential “rank resentment” that might occur.

(Note: Links to higher-quality PDF versions of some articles are available, and are denoted by a red number at the end of the file’s caption. The actual download links are at the bottom of the page, matched to the file by number.)