This was without the aide of a PC, I might say, but a trusty K&E log-log slide rule or the old hand cranked Monroe Calculator. Men like Luis Alverez and Norman Ramsey were able to take we youngsters and steer us along pathways that were defining the new state of the art in electronic design. It was my classmates that worked with men who were in the forefront of our profession and at the outbreak of the war were doing their research in our Great Universities.
I wondered how much today’s sophisticated engineer, with his own PC and advanced mathematical techniques, really cared how we did things those many years ago but then I remembered that it was during the war years that the foundation was laid for all of the techniques that we use today.
When a dear friend and colleague from my years at the Westinghouse Company, asked me if I would take this assignment, it was with some hesitation that I agreed. This morning makes the second time in forty-seven years that this opportunity has been once again extended to me, and for this I am extremely grateful. History will note that for almost half a century I pursued my craft in various Engineering environments and it was not until after I had been retired for eight months in 1985 was I given the opportunity to speak to a distinguished assembly of my peers and then with the admonition to make it sound like “Engineering Talk”. The Atomic Bombings of World War II: The Views of the Radar Man In this era of renewed nuclear proliferation, accounts such as this constitute a critical reminder of the importance of effective conflict resolution, the promotion of peaceful relations between all peoples and – ultimately – the consequences of failure.
It is available to purchase in both hardcopy and eBook formats at the link below.Ī PDF of this post can also be found here.Īrtis International thanks the Beser family for their kind permission to present this testimony. This account is substantially expanded on in the book: ‘Atomic Warfare 1945’, written by Jack Spangler and Jacobs son, Jerome. On this 75th anniversary of the first nuclear attack, we submit this account detailing Mr Beser’s experiences in the Army Air Force, his path to joining the crews of both the ‘Enola Gay’ (Hiroshima) and Bockscar (Nagasaki) in 1945, and his thoughts thereafter. Here he worked alongside Leonard Atran, father of Artis co-founder Scott Atran. Subsequently, Mr Beser would become a founding member of the Sandia National Laboratories, after which he worked on various defense projects for Westinghouse. During the Second World War, Mr Beser served as a radar specialist in the US Army Air Force and was a member of the flight crew on both atomic bomb missions against Japan. The following testimony was written by Jacob Beser, and was intended to be delivered as the keynote for the 6th International SAMPE, Electronic Materials and Processes Conference in 1992.