Ernest Graves
The man was the program director in the Atomic Energy Commission for weapons
development, testing, and production. Earlier on, he had had even broader
responsibilities, but that was the heart of the job. The development work was handled
by two nuclear laboratories: the Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory at Los Alamos, New
Mexico, and the Lawrence Radiation Laboratory at Livermore, California. These were
supported by laboratories of the Sandia Corporation, one in Albuquerque and one in
Livermore. I had been assigned to both nuclear laboratories as a junior officer.
The testing was done in Nevada, underground by the time I became Director of Military
Application. The production was done in a network of plants over the United States.
The final weapons assembly was done at Pantex, in Texas, near Amarillo.
The components came from several locations. Bendix in Kansas City was a supplier.
The plutonium work was done at Rocky Flats, near Denver, Colorado. All this work
was done by contract. The two nuclear laboratories were operated under contracts with
the University of California. The Nevada test site involved two contracts. Reynolds was
the contractor for operating the test site. Holmes and Narver was the contractor for the
architect/engineer work. Dow Chemical was running the plant in Rocky Flats, near
Denver, but Rockwell took over from them, and so forth.
The job of the Director of Military Application was to put the program together, to
defend it before Congress, and then to oversee the execution of these contracts. Nuclear
weapons are developed in response to requirements from the Department of Defense.
DOD would send over a formal requirement through the military liaison committee.
Then the development of the weapon would be assigned to one of the laboratories.
Then we had to worry about whether it was in accordance with everything.
I came to that job with a lot of background. Frank Camm was the first one of the chain
who had really come up through the system. [Major General Edward B.] Ed Giller, the
Air Force officer who preceded him, had had some experience. But Camm and I started
in the weapons program as junior officers. General Groves had brought me as a captain
and Camm as a junior major to put these things together.
We were the first ones to become Director of Military Application who started out
there at the bottom assembling these weapon--at the hands-on level. Our predecessors
had been involved, but in supervisory positions.
We knew the guts of this stuff. I knew a great many people at the laboratories. It was
a fascinating job. When less than two years later the issue came up of whether I should
go back to the Corps, it was a difficult decision for me. Gribble wanted me to come
back to be the Director of Civil Works in the Corps. I had to decide. I really did know
the nuclear business, and it was a fascinating program. I had to decide between staying
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