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Retired Admiral Frederick Ashworth, right, listens to introductory remarks from Laboratory Director G. Peter Nanos, before delivering his Heritage Lecture Series talk Wednesday in the Administration Building at Technical Area 3. Seated next to Ashworth is Roger Meade of Information and Records Management (IM-5), coordinator of the series.

Ashworth talk recalls Lab’s legacy, tie-in to future

Heritage Lecture series presentation

From too much kerosene in a Los Alamos plywood box house to not enough gasoline in the aircraft from which he dropped the bomb on Nagasaki nine months later, Retired Vice Admiral Frederick Ashworth recounted his wartime experiences at Los Alamos and in the Pacific to a spellbound, standing-room-only audience on Wednesday in the Administration Building Auditorium.

Calling himself an "old-timer" of the Manhattan Project at 92 years of age, Ashworth said he wanted to set the record straight about the contributions of some of his military colleagues and give Laboratory staff a sense of what some have called the most significant event of the 20th century.

Ashworth also told employees that he hoped his two hours of reminiscences would help them understand their current mission.

"I say to the Laboratory: This is your heritage; guard it well," he said.

Ashworth delivered the second in the Laboratory’s Heritage Lecture Series, recalling his role in the second atomic bombing mission against Japan as the bomb commander, or weaponeer, with the responsibility for arming the Fat Man device. Along with aircraft commander Charles Sweeney, he made the decision to drop the bomb on Nagasaki.

Ashworth captivated a standing-room-only audience with his talk about his wartime experiences at Los Alamos and in the Pacific. Photos by LeRoy N. Sanchez, Public Affairs

A U.S. Navy commander at the time, Ashworth came to Los Alamos on Thanksgiving Day, 1944, with his wife and two young children. His role was a continuation of his work at the Wendover, Utah, air base, managing field testing of components for the first atomic bombs.

He recalled living in a two-bedroom box made of plywood that reeked of kerosene from a poorly working stove for heat and cooking.

In February 1945, Gen. Leslie Groves sent Ashworth to Guam. In a money belt, he carried the classified letter that informed Admiral Chester Nimitz that the bomb would be deployed to Nimitz’s area of the Pacific by August. After a 48-hour journey, he delivered the "rather disheveled" letter, and was shocked to learn that he was supposed to be able to answer any questions that Nimitz might have about the letter.

Ashworth recalled the rapid pace of events in the days leading up to the use of the first atomic bombs to end World War II. The federal government in June authorized use of the bomb no earlier than Aug. 2, 1945, based on the Gen. Groves’ best estimate that it would be ready by Aug. 1.

Assembly of Fat Man on Tinian was scheduled to take a week. Because summer typhoons reduced the predicted window of good weather over Japan from Aug. 6-9, scientists and military personnel worked around the clock on Tinian to complete the job in three days.

Research and testing continued up to the last minute. In fact, final tests of the explosive components for the Fat Man device dropped on Nagasaki took place on Aug. 4 at Wendover and again on Aug. 8 at Tinian Island, the day before the Bockscar aircraft carrying Ashworth and the bomb took off for Nagasaki.

"That was probably the shortest time in development for actual combat use of any weapon in history," Ashworth said.

Although history records that the Hiroshima bombing on Aug. 6, 1945 as "a textbook operation," with perfect weather, an experienced crew and well-defined target, the second atomic bomb mission was anything but smooth, Ashworth said.

Patchy clouds forced the crew of Bockscar to fly past its primary target, a long wait for an observation plane that never showed up for a rendezvous wasted precious fuel, and electronics malfunctions led the crew to think the bomb was armed too early, Ashworth recalled.

Because the crew couldn’t transfer fuel from one tank to another, Sweeney flew Bockscar back to Okinawa after the mission on fumes; in fact, the two inboard engines quit as the plane taxied down the runway, said Ashworth.

Calling bombardier Kermit Behan "the unsung hero of the operation," Ashworth said the fuel shortage meant Sweeney would have only one pass over Nagasaki, and Behan’s orders stipulated that he had to have a clear line of sight between the clouds before Ashworth could give the order to release the bomb.

"It was obvious from what we saw that the bomb had gone off technically OK," Ashworth said.

He also offered high praise to Capt. William "Deke" Parsons, who headed the Ordnance Division at Los Alamos and flew as weaponeer on the Hiroshima run. "Captain Parsons was more responsible for getting the bomb out of the Laboratory and into the war than any other individual," Ashworth said.

In introducing Ashworth before the talk, Laboratory Director G. Peter Nanos promised that Ashworth was "someone who will take us back to our roots." Nanos said that today, only Los Alamos and Lawrence Livermore have the unique character that led to success in the Manhattan Project — a blend of national security, practical technical capabilities and the strength of American scientific enterprise.

Ashworth concluded his talk by reading the words the Laboratory’s first director, J. Robert Oppenheimer, delivered when he accepted a certificate of appreciation from the Secretary of War on Oct. 16, 1945:

If atomic bombs are to be added as new weapons to the arsenals of a warring world, or to the arsenals of nations preparing for war, then the time will come when mankind will curse the names of Los Alamos and Hiroshima. The peoples of this world must unite or they will perish. This war, that has ravaged so much of the earth, has written these words. The atomic bomb has spelled them out for all men to understand. . . . By our works we are committed, committed to a world united, before this common peril, in law and in humanity.

After reading the quote, Ashworth looked at the audience and concluded, "This is your challenge — meet it boldly and meet it with courage."

--Jim Danneskiold

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