7105 - Robert Oppenheimer Typed Letter Signed to a Los Alamos Explosives Division Technician, Praising Work That Was "Distasteful and Dangerous"

Robert Oppenheimer Typed Letter Signed to a Los Alamos Explosives Division Technician, Praising Work That Was "Distasteful and Dangerous" TLS signed "J. R. Oppenheimer," one page, 8 x 10.5, P.O. Box 1663, Santa Fe, New Mexico letterhead, October 1, 1945. Letter to T/4 Elvert T. Nelson at Los Alamos, in full: "This letter is to acknowledge your contribution to the work of the Los Alamos Bomb Project. Your group leader has asked me to commend you for your work in the Explosives Division of this project. The superior manner in which you executed assignments in an entirely new field of employment even though some were distasteful and dangerous has been responsible in a large measure for the success of this project. We regret that a description of your precise job and details of your personal accomplishments must remain a secret of the U.S. Government. However, this in itself is an indication of the importance of your contribution to the project." In fine condition, with light staining to the lower border. Includes a typed roster, 8 x 13, headed “Operation Crossroads, Santa Fe Detachment,” listing the names and home addresses of the “Men on Historic Atom Bomb Tests—Bikini Atoll 46,” among them “Nelson, E.T., Box 21, Hordville, Nebraska,” and a TLS from noted American physician and radiologist Stafford L. Warren, signed “Stafford L. Warren,” one page, 8 x 10.5, Joint Task Force One, Navy Department letterhead, September 1, 1946, sent to Nelson, now a T/3, at his home in Hordville, Nebraska, in full: “I wish to express my appreciation for the valuable services you rendered as a member of the Radiological Safety Section of Joint Task Force ONE. Although we were facing an unknown situation, the initiative and flexibility of each individual member of the section permitted completion of Operation CROSSROADS without a single case of injury from radiation, and at the same time accumulated a wealth of scientific data. Your devotion to duty made an important contribution to the successful accomplishment of our mission.” Accompanied by a framed display, 35 x 45.5, assembled by the family and exhibited at the Plainsman Museum in Aurora, Nebraska, featuring enlarged reproductions of both letters, a copy of Nelson's Joint Task Force One "Atomic Bomb Test" staff identification badge for Project Crossroads, No. 3843, and both pages of Bill Hord's Omaha World-Herald feature on Nelson, 'Nebraskan Recruited for Atomic Project.' As recounted in the World-Herald, Nelson was an 18-year-old from Hordville when he was drafted and, after just six weeks of civilian work at the Grand Island ordnance plant, handpicked for a secret assignment. Ordered to an unmarked Santa Fe storefront in April 1945, he was bused to ‘the Hill’ at Los Alamos and assigned to S Site, where he helped assemble the high explosives for the implosion bomb, the plutonium design developed by the Explosives Division under chemist George Kistiakowsky. In mid-July, Oppenheimer himself addressed the soldiers of S Site and revealed the purpose of their work, and Nelson watched the Trinity test through goggles from about seven miles away, later recalling that the yellow mushroom cloud 'reminded me of a butterscotch sundae with whipped cream around the edges.' A bomb of the same design was dropped on Nagasaki on August 9. Nelson remained in the atomic program after the war, serving in the Radiological Safety Section of Operation Crossroads at Bikini Atoll in July 1946, under the radiological direction of Colonel Stafford L. Warren, the Manhattan Project's chief medical officer. He witnessed both atomic detonations there and worked on a crew measuring the radioactivity of the target ships, and he told the World-Herald he was exposed above safe levels numerous times. He left the Army in November 1946, later taught welding and diesel mechanics for 22 years at Southeast Community College in Milford, and rarely spoke of his service. 'It was something that had to be done, and we did it,' he said. 'And that was it.'