Harold Agnew, who would go on to become director of the Los Alamos National Laboratory, witnessed the bombing of Hiroshima from the B-29 plane The Great Artiste.
Narrator: Harold Agnew was a scientific observer aboard the B-29 The Great Artiste during the atomic bombing mission to Hiroshima.
Agnew: Luis [Alvarez] had this idea that we ought to measure the yield. We went to Oppie and got Oppie’s approval. Then he asked for volunteers to join him, because it was clear we were going to have to go overseas. He already had Larry Johnston.
It turned out, I was the only other volunteer. It was really rather dumb to do, because I had a wife and a one-year-old kid. Now, why am I volunteering to go overseas? It was just dumb!
Actually, we did not witness Hiroshima. We were busy with our instruments. The plane was lit up with the flash, because we had a window, about a six-inch window. That’s all we had back where we were. We were able to look out the window, and I took some pictures.
Came the time to go for the second mission, we said, “Fine, we’ll send Walter [Goodman] and we’ll send the two SEDs [Special Engineer Detachment servicemembers].” The powers that be said, “No, one of you guys has to go, too.”
Now, we all had uniforms. We weren’t really in the Army, but we had uniforms and insignia. I was a first lieutenant, it said.
Somebody had to go, so we decided we would draw straws. Poor Larry got the short straw. Larry went to Nagasaki, and we stayed there and wished him well.