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William Sterling Parsons - Wikipedia
William Sterling Parsons
William Sterling "Deak" Parsons (26 November 1901 – 5
December 1953) was an American naval officer who worked as an
ordnance expert on the Manhattan Project during World War II.
He is best known for being the weaponeer on the Enola Gay, the
aircraft which dropped a Little Boy atomic bomb on Hiroshima,
Japan, in 1945. To avoid the possibility of a nuclear explosion if
the aircraft crashed and burned on takeoff, he decided to arm the
bomb in flight. While the aircraft was en route to Hiroshima,
Parsons climbed into the cramped and dark bomb bay, and
inserted the powder charge and detonator. He was awarded the
Silver Star for his part in the mission.
A 1922 graduate of the United States Naval Academy, Parsons
served on a variety of warships beginning with the battleship
USS Idaho. He was trained in ordnance and studied ballistics
under L. T. E. Thompson at the Naval Proving Ground in
Dahlgren, Virginia. In July 1933, Parsons became liaison officer
between the Bureau of Ordnance and the Naval Research
Laboratory. He became interested in radar and was one of the
first to recognize its potential to locate ships and aircraft, and
perhaps even track shells in flight. In September 1940, Parsons
and Merle Tuve of the National Defense Research Committee
began work on the development of the proximity fuze, an
invention that was provided to the US by the UK Tizard Mission,
a radar-triggered fuze that would explode a shell in the proximity
of the target. The fuze, eventually known as the VT (variable time)
fuze, Mark 32, went into production in 1942. Parsons was on
hand to watch the cruiser USS Helena shoot down the first enemy
aircraft with a VT fuze in the Solomon Islands in January 1943.
In June 1943, Parsons joined the Manhattan Project as Associate
Director at the Project Y research laboratory at Los Alamos, New
Mexico, under J. Robert Oppenheimer. Parsons became
responsible for the ordnance aspects of the project, including the
design and testing of the non-nuclear components of nuclear
weapons. In a reorganization in 1944, he lost responsibility for
the implosion-type fission weapon, but retained that for the
design and development of the gun-type fission weapon, which
eventually became Little Boy. He was also responsible for the
delivery program, codenamed Project Alberta. He watched the
Trinity nuclear test from a B-29.
Rear Admiral
William Sterling "Deak"
Parsons
Rear Admiral William S. Parsons
Nickname(s)
"Deak"
Born
26 November 1901
Chicago, Illinois,
US
Died
5 December 1953
(aged 52)
Bethesda,
Maryland, US
Place of
burial
Arlington National
Cemetery
Allegiance
Service/
branch
United States
Navy
Years of
service
1922–1953
Rank
Battles/wars
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Sterling_Parsons
United States
Rear admiral
World War II:
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After the war, Parsons was promoted to the rank of rear admiral
without ever having commanded a ship. He participated in
Operation Crossroads, the nuclear weapon tests at Bikini Atoll in
1946, and later the Operation Sandstone tests at Enewetak Atoll
in 1948. In 1947, he became deputy commander of the Armed
Forces Special Weapons Project. He died of a heart attack on 5
December 1953.
Early life
Guadalcanal
Campaign
Bombing of
Hiroshima and
Nagasaki
Korean War
Awards
Navy Distinguished
Service Medal
Silver Star
Legion of Merit
William Sterling Parsons was born in Chicago, Illinois, on 26
November 1901, the oldest of three children of a lawyer, Harry
Robert Parsons, and his wife Clara, née Doolittle. Clara was the granddaughter of James Rood
Doolittle, who served as US Senator from Wisconsin between 1857 and 1869, and of Joel Aldrich
Matteson, Governor of Illinois from 1853 to 1857.
In 1909, the family moved to Fort Sumner, New Mexico,[1] where William learned to speak fluent
Spanish.[2] He attended the local schools in Fort Sumner and was home schooled by his mother for a
time. He commenced at Santa Rosa High School, where his mother taught English and Spanish,
rapidly advancing through three years in just one. In 1917 he attended Fort Sumner High School, from
which he graduated in 1918.[3]
In 1917 Parsons traveled to Roswell, New Mexico, to take the United States Naval Academy exam for
one of the appointments by Senator Andrieus A. Jones. He was only an alternate, but passed the exam
while more favored candidates did not, and received the appointment. As he was only 16, two years
younger than most candidates, he was shorter and lighter than the physical standards called for, but
managed to convince the examining board to admit him anyway. He entered the Naval Academy at
Annapolis, Maryland, in 1918, and eventually graduated 48th out of 539 in the class of 1922, in which
Hyman G. Rickover graduated 107th. At the time, it was customary for midshipmen to acquire
nicknames, and Parsons was called "Deacon", a play on his last name. This became shortened to
"Deak".[4]
Ordnance
On graduating in June 1922, Parsons was commissioned as an ensign and posted to the battleship
USS Idaho,[5] where he was placed in charge of one of the 14-inch gun turrets.[6] In May 1927,
Parsons, now a lieutenant (junior grade), returned to Annapolis, where he commenced a course in
ordnance at the Naval Postgraduate School.[7] He became friends with Lieutenant Jack Crenshaw, a
fellow officer attending the same training course. Jack asked Parsons to be best man at his wedding to
Betty Cluverius, the daughter of the Commandant of the Norfolk Navy Yard, Rear Admiral Wat Tyler
Cluverius Jr., at the Norfolk Navy Chapel. As best man, Parsons was paired with Betty's maid of
honor, her sister Martha. Parsons and Martha got along well, and in November 1929, they too were
married at the Norfolk Navy Chapel. This time, Jack and Betty were best man and maid of honor.[8]
The ordnance course was normally followed by a relevant field posting, so Parsons was sent to the
Naval Proving Ground in Dahlgren, Virginia, to further study ballistics under L. T. E. Thompson.[9]
Following the usual pattern of alternating duty afloat and ashore, Parsons was posted to the battleship
USS Texas in June 1930, with the rank of lieutenant. In November, the Commander in Chief United
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States Fleet, Admiral Jehu V. Chase, hoisted his flag on the Texas,
bringing Cluverius with him as his chief of staff. This was awkward
for Parsons, his son-in-law, but Cluverius understood, being
himself the son-in-law of an admiral,[10] in his case, Admiral
William T. Sampson.[11]
In July 1933, Parsons became liaison officer between the Bureau of
Ordnance and the Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) in
Washington, DC.[5] At the NRL he was briefed by the head of its
Radio Division, A. Hoyt Taylor, who told him about experiments
Naval Research Laboratory
that had been carried out into what the Navy would later name
complex on the Potomac River in
radar.[12][13] Parsons immediately recognized the potential of the
Washington, DC
new invention to locate ships and aircraft, and perhaps even track
shells in flight. For this, he realized that he was going to need high
frequency microwaves. He discovered that no one had attempted this. The scientists had not
considered all the applications of the technology, and the Navy bureaus had not grasped their
potential. He was able to persuade the scientists to establish a group to investigate microwave radar,
but without official sanction it had low priority. Parsons submitted a memorandum on the subject to
the Bureau of Ordnance (BuOrd) requesting $5,000 per annum for research. To his dismay, the
BuOrd and Bureau of Engineering, which was responsible for the NRL, turned down his proposal.[14]
Some thought that Parsons was ruining his career with his advocacy of radar,[15] but he acquired one
powerful backer. The Chief of the Bureau of Aeronautics (BuAer), Rear Admiral Ernest J. King,
supported the use of radar as a means of determining aircraft altitude. When the Bureau of
Engineering protested that such a device would necessarily be too large to carry on a plane, King told
them that it would still be worthwhile, even if the only aircraft in the Navy big enough to carry it was
the airship USS Macon.[16]
Parsons' marriage produced three daughters. The first, Hannah, was born in 1932; the second,
Margaret (Peggy), followed in 1934. Hannah died of polio in April 1935.[17][18] Parsons returned to sea
in June 1936 as the executive officer of the destroyer USS Aylwin. He was promoted to lieutenant
commander in May 1937. His third daughter, Clara (Clare), was born the same year. On that occasion,
Parsons left Martha with the newborn and three-year-old Peggy to care for and reported for duty the
next day, believing that his first responsibility was to his ship. His skipper, Commander Earl E. Stone,
did not agree, and sent him home. In March 1938, Rear Admiral William R. Sexton had Parsons
assigned to his flagship, the cruiser USS Detroit, as gunnery officer. Parsons' task was to improve the
gunnery scores of his command, and in this he succeeded.[19]
Proximity fuze
Parsons was posted back to Dahlgren in September 1939 as experimental officer. The atmosphere had
changed considerably. In June 1940, President Franklin D. Roosevelt approved the creation of the
National Defense Research Committee (NDRC), under the direction of Vannevar Bush. Richard C.
Tolman, dean of the graduate school at Caltech, was given responsibility for the NDRC's Armor and
Ordnance Division. Tolman met with Parsons and Thompson in July 1940, and discussed their needs.
Within the Navy, too, there was a change of attitude, with Captain William H. P. (Spike) Blandy as the
head of BuOrd's Research Desk. Blandy welcomed the assistance of NDRC scientists in improving and
developing weapons.[20]
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In September 1940, Parsons and Merle Tuve of NDRC began work
on a new concept. Shooting down an aircraft with an anti-aircraft
gun was a difficult proposition. As a shell had to hit a speeding
aircraft at an uncertain altitude, the only hope seemed to be to fill
the sky with ammunition. A direct hit was not actually required;
an aircraft might be destroyed or critically damaged by a shell
detonating nearby. With this in mind, anti-aircraft gunners used
time fuzes to increase the possibility of damage. The question then
arose as to whether radar could be used to create an explosion in
the proximity of an aircraft. Tuve's first suggestion was to have an
aircraft drop a radar-controlled bomb on a bomber formation.
Parsons saw that while this was technically feasible, it was
tactically problematic.[21]
The ideal solution was a proximity fuze inside an artillery shell as
was first conceived by W. A. S. Butement, Edward S. Shire, and
Amherst F. H. Thomson, researchers at the British
Cut away diagram of the proximity
Telecommunications Research Establishment[22] but there were
fuze Mark 53
numerous technical difficulties with this. The radar set had to be
made small enough to fit inside a shell, and its glass vacuum tubes
had to first withstand the 20,000 g force of being fired from a gun,
and then 500 rotations per second in flight. A special Section T of NDRC was created, chaired by
Tuve, with Parsons as special assistant to Bush and liaison between NDRC and BuOrd.[23]
On 29 January 1942, Parsons reported to Blandy that a batch of fifty proximity fuzes from the pilot
production plant had been test fired, and 26 of them had exploded correctly. Blandy therefore ordered
full-scale production to begin. In April 1942, Bush, now the Director of the Office of Scientific
Research and Development (OSRD), placed the project directly under OSRD. The research effort
remained under Tuve but moved to the Johns Hopkins University's Applied Physics Laboratory
(APL), where Parsons was BuOrd's representative.[24] In August 1942, a live firing test was conducted
with the newly commissioned cruiser USS Cleveland. Three pilotless drones were shot down in
succession.[25]
Parsons had the new proximity fuzes, now known as VT (variable time) fuze, Mark 32, flown to the
Mare Island Navy Yard, where they were mated with 5"/38 caliber gun rounds. Some 5,000 of them
were then shipped to the South Pacific. Parsons flew there himself, where he met with Admiral
William F. Halsey at his headquarters in Nouméa. He arranged for Parsons to take VT fuzes out with
him on the cruiser USS Helena.[26][27] On 6 January 1943, Helena was part of a cruiser force that
bombarded Munda in the Solomon Islands. On the return trip, the cruisers were attacked by four
Aichi D3A (Val) dive bombers. Helena fired at one with a VT fuze. It exploded close to the aircraft,
which crashed into the sea.[28]
To preserve the secrecy of the weapon, its use was initially permitted only over water, where a dud
round could not fall into enemy hands. In late 1943, the Army obtained permission for it to be used
over land. It proved particularly effective against the V-1 flying bomb over England, and later Antwerp
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in 1944. The use of a version fired from howitzers against ground targets was authorized in response
to the German Ardennes Offensive in December 1944, with deadly effect. By the end of 1944, VT fuzes
were coming off the production lines at the rate of 40,000 per day.[29]
Manhattan Project
Project Y
Parsons returned to Dahlgren in March 1943.[30] Around this
time, a research laboratory was established at Los Alamos, New
Mexico, under the direction of J. Robert Oppenheimer as Project
Y, which was part of the Manhattan Project, the top-secret effort to
develop an atomic bomb. The creation of a practical weapon would
necessarily require an expert in ordnance, and Oppenheimer
tentatively penciled in Tolman for the role, but getting him
released from OSRD was another matter.[31] Until then,
Oppenheimer had to do the job himself.[32] In May 1943, the
Captain Parsons on Tinian in 1945
Manhattan Project's director, Brigadier General Leslie R. Groves,
took up the matter with the Military Policy Committee, the highlevel committee that oversaw the Manhattan Project. It consisted
of Vannevar Bush as its chairman, Brigadier General Wilhelm D. Styer who represented the Army,
and Rear Admiral William R. Purnell as the Navy's representative.[33]
Groves told them that he was looking for someone with "a sound understanding of both practical and
theoretical ordnance – high explosives, guns and fusing – a wide acquaintance and an excellent
reputation among military ordnance people and an ability to gain their support; a reasonably broad
background in scientific development; and an ability to attract and hold the respect of scientists."[34]
He said that a military officer would be his ideal, as the job might involve planning and coordinating
the use of the bomb, but added that he knew of no Army officer who fit the bill. Bush then suggested
Parsons, a nomination supported by Purnell.[35] The next morning, Parsons received a phone call
from Purnell, ordering him to report to Admiral King, who was now the Commander in Chief, US
Fleet (Cominch). In a terse ten-minute meeting, King briefed Parsons on the Project, which he said
had his full backing.[36] That afternoon, Parsons met with Groves, who quickly sized him up as the
right man for the job.[35]
"Thin Man" plutonium gun test
casings at Wendover Army Air Field.
In the background, casing designs
for "Fat Man" bombs can be seen
as well.
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Parsons was relieved of his duties at Dahlgren and officially
assigned to Admiral King's Cominch staff on 1 June 1943, with a
promotion to the rank of captain. On 15 June 1943 he arrived at
Los Alamos as Associate Director.[37] Parsons would be
Oppenheimer's second in command.[38] Parsons and his family
moved into one of the houses on "Bathtub Row" that had formerly
belonged to the headmaster and staff of the Los Alamos Ranch
School. Bathtub Row, so-called because the houses were the only
ones at Los Alamos with bathtubs, was the most prestigious
address at Los Alamos.[39] Parsons became Oppenheimer's nextdoor neighbor,[40] and in fact his house was slightly larger,
because Parsons had two children and Oppenheimer, at this point,
had only one.[41] With two school-age children, Parsons took a
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keen interest in the construction of the Central School at Los Alamos, and became president of the
school board. Instead of the temporary two-story structure that Groves had envisioned in the interest
of economy and not misusing the project's high priorities for labor and materials, Parsons had a wellbuilt, modern, single-story school constructed. On seeing the result, Groves said: "I'll hold you
personally responsible for this, Parsons."[42]
Oppenheimer had already recruited key people for Parsons' Ordnance Division. Edwin McMillan was
a physicist who headed the Proving Ground Group. His first task was to establish the ordnance test
area. Later he became Parsons' deputy for the gun-type fission weapon. Charles Critchfield, a
mathematical physicist with ordnance experience at the Army's Aberdeen Proving Ground, was in
charge of the Target, Projectile and Source Group. Kenneth Bainbridge arrived in August to take
charge of the Instrumentation Group. Parsons recruited Robert Brode from the proximity fuze project
to become head of the Fuze Development Group. Joseph Hirschfelder was brought in as an expert on
internal ballistics, and headed the Interior Ballistics Group. From the beginning, Parsons wanted
Norman Ramsey as the head of the delivery group. Edward L. Bowles, the scientific adviser to the
Secretary of War, Henry L. Stimson, was reluctant to part with Ramsey, but gave way under pressure
from Groves, Tolman and Bush. Perhaps the most controversial group head would be Seth
Neddermeyer, the head of the Implosion Experimentation Group; for the time being, Parsons
accorded a relatively low priority to this work. He also recruited Hazel Greenbacker as his
secretary.[43][44]
Groves, among others, felt that Parsons had a tendency to fill
positions with Naval officers. There was some aspect of service
parochialism, and Parsons believed that involvement in the
Manhattan Project would be important for the future of the Navy,
but it was also due to the difficulty of getting highly skilled people
from any source in wartime. Parsons simply found it easiest to get
them through Navy channels.[45] Lieutenant Commander Norris
Bradbury said that he did not wish to join Project Y, but was soon
on his way to Los Alamos anyway.[46] Parsons recruited
Commander Francis Birch, who replaced McMillan at Anchor
Ranch.[47] Commander Frederick Ashworth was a Naval ordnance
officer and aviator who was senior aviator at Dahlgren when he
was brought in to work on the delivery side.[48] By the end of the
war, there were 41 Naval officers at Los Alamos.[49]
Parsons (right) supervises loading
of Little Boy into the bomb bay of
Enola Gay.
Over the next few months, Parsons' division designed the gun-type plutonium weapon, codenamed
Thin Man. It was assumed that a uranium-235 weapon would be similar in nature. Hirschfelder's
group considered various designs, and evaluated different propellants.[50] The ordnance test area,
which became known as "Anchor Ranch", was established on a nearby ranch, where Parsons
conducted test firings with a 3-inch anti-aircraft gun.[51] Work on implosion lagged by comparison,
but this was not initially a major concern, because it was expected that the gun-type would work with
both uranium and plutonium. However, Oppenheimer, Groves and Parsons lobbied Purnell and
Tolman to get John von Neumann to have a look at the problem. Von Neumann suggested the use of
shaped charges to initiate implosion.[52]
Oppenheimer considered that there was a "reciprocal lack of confidence" between Parsons and
Neddermeyer,[53] and in October 1943 he brought in George Kistiakowsky, who began a new attack on
the implosion design.[53] Kistiakowsky clashed with both Parsons and Neddermeyer, but felt that "my
disagreements with Deak Parsons were very minor compared to my disagreements with
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A gun-type nuclear bomb
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Neddermeyer."[54] The implosion design acquired a new urgency
in April 1944, when studies of reactor-produced plutonium
confirmed that it could not be used in a gun-type weapon. An
accelerated effort was called for to design and build the implosiontype weapon, codenamed Fat Man. Two new groups were created
at Los Alamos: X (for explosives) Division headed by
Kistiakowsky, and G (for gadget) Division under Robert Bacher.
Parsons was placed in charge of O (for ordnance) Division, with
responsibility for both the gun-type design and delivery.[55]
The uranium gun-type weapon known as Little Boy did prove to be
simpler than Thin Man. The gun velocity needed to be only 1,000 feet per second (300 m/s), a third
that of Thin Man. A corresponding reduction in the barrel length reduced the bomb's overall length to
6 feet (1.8 m). In turn, this made it much easier to handle, and permitted a conventional bomb shape,
resulting in a more predictable flight.[56] The main concerns with Little Boy were its safety and
reliability.[57]
Project Alberta
The delivery program, codenamed Project Alberta, got underway
under Ramsey's direction in October 1943. Starting in November,
the Army Air Forces Materiel Command at Wright Field, Ohio,
began Silverplate, the codename for the modification of B-29s to
Enola Gay after Hiroshima mission,
carry the bombs. Parsons arranged for a test program at Dahlgren
entering hardstand
using scale models of Thin Man and Fat Man. Test drops were
carried out at Muroc Army Air Field, California, and the Naval
Ordnance Test Station at Inyokern, California, using full-size
replicas of Fat Man known as pumpkin bombs. The ungainly and non-aerodynamic shape of Fat Man
proved to be the main difficulty, but many other problems were encountered and overcome.[58][59]
Parsons, wrote Oppenheimer, "has been almost alone in this project to appreciate the actual military
and engineering problems which we would encounter. He has been almost alone in insisting on facing
these problems at a date early enough so that we might arrive at their solution."[56]
The "Tinian Joint Chiefs": Captain
William S. Parsons (left), Rear
Admiral William R. Purnell (center),
and Brigadier General Thomas F.
Farrell (right)
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In July 1944, Parsons joined Jack Crenshaw, who was
investigating the Port Chicago disaster. The two men surveyed the
disaster area, where 1,500 tons of munitions had exploded and
320 men had died.[60] A year later, Parsons watched the Trinity
nuclear test from a circling B-29.[61] Afterwards, Parsons flew to
Tinian, where the B-29s of Colonel Paul W. Tibbets' 509th
Composite Group were preparing to deliver the weapons. En
route, he stopped off in San Diego to visit his eighteen-year-old
half-brother Bob, a U.S. Marine who had been badly wounded in
the Battle of Iwo Jima.[62] Parsons also met with Captain Charles
B. McVay III, the skipper of the cruiser USS Indianapolis, in
Purnell's office at the Embarcadero in San Francisco and gave
McVay his orders:
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You will sail at high speed to Tinian where your cargo will be
not be told what the cargo is, but it is to be guarded even afte
goes down, save the cargo at all costs, in a lifeboat if necessar
your voyage will cut the length of the war by just that much.[6
Parsons was in charge of scientists and technicians from Project Alberta on Tinian, who were
nominally organized as the 1st Technical Service Detachment. Their role was the handling and
maintenance of the nuclear weapons. Parsons was joined by Purnell, who represented the Military
Liaison Committee, and Brigadier General Thomas F. Farrell, Groves' Deputy for Operations. They
became, informally, the "Tinian Joint Chiefs", with decision-making authority over the nuclear
mission. Before Farrell left for Tinian, Groves had told him: "Don't let Parsons get killed. We need
him!"[64]
In the space of a week on Tinian, four B-29s crashed and burned
on the runway. Parsons became very concerned. If a B-29 crashed
with a Little Boy, the fire could cook off the explosive and detonate
the weapon, with catastrophic consequences. He raised the
possibility of arming the bomb in flight with Farrell, who agreed
that it might be a good idea. Farrell asked Parsons if he knew how
to perform this task. "No sir, I don't", Parsons conceded, "but I've
got all afternoon to learn."[65] The night before the mission,
Parsons repeatedly practiced inserting the powder charge and
detonator in the bomb in the poor visibility and cramped
conditions of the bomb bay.[66]
Presentation of the Army–Navy "E"
Award at Los Alamos on 16 October
1945. Standing, left to right: J.
Robert Oppenheimer, unidentified,
unidentified, Kenneth Nichols,
Leslie Groves, Robert Gordon
Sproul, Deak Parsons.
Parsons participated in the bombing of Hiroshima on 6 August
1945, flying on the Enola Gay as weaponeer and Senior Military
Technical Observer.[67] Shortly after takeoff, he clambered into the
bomb bay and carefully carried out the procedure that he had
rehearsed the night before. It was Parsons and not Tibbets, the
pilot, who was in charge of the mission. He approved the choice of
Hiroshima as the target, and gave the final approval for the bomb to be released. For his part in the
mission, Parsons was awarded the Silver Star,[68] and was promoted to the wartime rank of
commodore on 10 August 1945.[5] For his work on the Manhattan Project, he was awarded the Navy
Distinguished Service Medal.[69]
Postwar career
In November 1945, King created a new position of Deputy Chief of Naval Operations for Special
Weapons, which was given to Vice Admiral Blandy. Parsons became Blandy's assistant. In turn,
Parsons had two assistants of his own, Ashworth and Horacio Rivero Jr. He also brought Greenbacker
from Los Alamos to help set up the new office.[70] Parsons was a strong supporter of research into the
use of nuclear power for warship propulsion, but disagreed with Rear Admiral Harold G. Bowen Sr.,
the head of the Office of Research and Inventions, who wanted the U.S. Navy to initiate its own
nuclear project. Parsons felt that the Navy should work with the Manhattan Project, and arranged for
Navy officers to be assigned to Oak Ridge. The most senior of them was his former classmate
Rickover, who became assistant director there. They immersed themselves in the study of nuclear
energy, laying the foundations for a nuclear-powered navy.[71]
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On 11 January 1946, Blandy was appointed to command Joint Task Force
One (JTF-1), a special force created to conduct a series of nuclear weapon
tests at Bikini Atoll, which he named Operation Crossroads, to determine
the effect of nuclear weapons on warships.[72] Parsons, who was
promoted to the rank of rear admiral on 8 January 1946, became Blandy's
Deputy Commander for Technical Direction and Commander Task Group
1.1.[5] Parsons worked hard to make a success of the operation, which he
described as "the largest laboratory experiment in history".[73] In addition
to the 95 target ships, there was a support fleet of more than 150 ships,
156 aircraft, and over 42,000 personnel.[74]
Parsons witnessed the first explosion, Able, from the deck of the task
force flagship, the command ship USS Mount McKinley. An airburst like
News conference on board
the Hiroshima blast, it was unimpressive, and even Parsons thought that
the amphibious command
it must have been smaller than the Hiroshima bomb. It failed to sink the
ship USS Appalachian
target ship, the battleship USS Nevada, mainly because it missed it by a
during Operation
considerable distance. This made it difficult to assess the amount of
Crossroads. In foreground
damage caused, which was the objective of the exercise. Blandy then
is Parsons, Major General
William E. Kepner and Vice
announced that the next test, Baker, would occur in just three weeks. This
Admiral William H. P.
meant that Parsons had to carry out the evaluation of Able
Blandy. Colonel Stafford L.
simultaneously with the preparations for Baker. This time he assisted
Warren holds the
with the final preparations on USS LSM-60 before heading back to
microphone.
seaplane tender USS Cumberland Sound for the test. The underwater
Baker explosion was no larger than Able, but the dome and water column
made it look far more spectacular. The real problem was the radioactive
fallout, as Colonel Stafford L. Warren, the Manhattan Project's medical advisor, had predicted. The
target ships proved impossible to decontaminate and, lacking targets, the test series had to be called
off.[75] For his part in Operation Crossroads, Parsons was awarded the Legion of Merit.[76]
The Special Weapons Office was abolished in November 1946, and the Manhattan Project followed
suit at the end of the year. A civilian agency, the United States Atomic Energy Commission (AEC), was
created by the Atomic Energy Act of 1946 to take over the functions and assets of the Manhattan
Project, including development, production and control of nuclear weapons. The law provided for a
Military Liaison Committee (MLC) to advise the AEC on military matters, and Parsons became a
member. A joint Army-Navy organization, the Armed Forces Special Weapons Project (AFSWP), was
created to handle the military aspects of nuclear weapons.[77] Groves was appointed to command the
AFSWP, with Parsons and Air Force Major General Roscoe C. Wilson as his deputies. In this capacity,
Parsons pressed for the development of improved nuclear weapons. During the Operation Sandstone
series of nuclear weapon tests at Enewetak Atoll in 1948, Parsons once again served as deputy
commander.[78] Parsons hoped that his next posting would be to sea, but he was instead sent to the
Weapons Systems Evaluation Group in 1949. He finally returned to sea duty in 1951, this time as
Commander, Cruiser Division 6, despite having never commanded a ship. Parsons and his cruisers
conducted a tour of the Mediterranean showing the flag. He then became Deputy Chief of the Bureau
of Ordnance in March 1952.[79]
Death and legacy
Parsons remained in contact with Oppenheimer. The two men and their wives visited each other from
time to time, and the Parsons family especially enjoyed visiting its former neighbors at their new
home at Olden Manor,[80] a 17th-century estate with a cook and groundskeeper, surrounded by 265
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acres (107 ha) of woodlands at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, New Jersey.[81] Parsons
was disturbed by the rise of McCarthyism in the early 1950s. In 1953 he wrote a letter to Oppenheimer
expressing his hope that "the anti-intellectualism of recent months may have passed its peak". On 4
December that year, Parsons heard of President Dwight Eisenhower's "blank wall" directive, blocking
Oppenheimer from access to classified material. Parsons became visibly upset, and that night began
experiencing severe chest pains.[82] The next morning, he went to Bethesda Naval Hospital, where he
died while the doctors were still examining him.[83] He was buried at Arlington National Cemetery
alongside his daughter Hannah.[17] He was survived by his father, brother, half-brother and sister, as
well as his wife Martha and daughters Peggy and Clare.[84]
The Rear Admiral William S. Parsons Award for Scientific and Technical Progress was established by
the Navy in his memory. It is awarded "to a Navy or Marine Corps officer, enlisted person, or civilian
who has made an outstanding contribution in any field of science that has furthered the development
and progress of the Navy or Marine Corps."[85] The Forrest Sherman-class destroyer USS Parsons
was named in his honor. Her keel was laid down by Ingalls Shipbuilding of Pascagoula, Mississippi,
on 17 June 1957 and was launched by his widow Martha on 17 August 1958.[5] When it was
rechristened as a guided missile destroyer (DDG-33) in 1967, Clare, now a Naval officer herself,
represented her family.[86] Parsons was decommissioned on 19 November 1982, stricken from the
Navy list on 1 December 1984, and disposed of as a target on 25 April 1989.[87] The Deak Parsons
Center, headquarters of Afloat Training Group, Atlantic, in Norfolk, Virginia, was also named for
him.[84] Parsons' portrait is among a series of paintings related to Operation Crossroads.[88] His
papers are in the Naval Historical Center in Washington, DC.[89]
In popular culture
Parsons was depicted in the following films:
The Beginning or the End (1947) by Warner Anderson
Above and Beyond by Larry Gates
Enola Gay: The Men, the Mission, the Atomic Bomb (1980) by Robert Pine
Day One by Dee McCafferty
Fat Man and Little Boy (1989) by Michael Brockman
Hiroshima (1995) by Gary Reineke
Notes
1. Christman 1998, pp. 6–9.
2. Christman 1998, p. 17.
3. Christman 1998, pp. 12–13.
4. Christman 1998, pp. 13–18.
5. "Parsons" (https://web.archive.org/web/20121022182909/http://www.history.navy.mil/danfs/p2/par
sons.htm). US Naval Historical Center. Archived from the original (http://www.history.navy.mil/danf
s/p2/parsons.htm) on 22 October 2012. Retrieved 23 July 2011.
6. Christman 1998, p. 25.
7. Christman 1998, pp. 29–30.
8. Christman 1998, pp. 32–34.
9. Christman 1998, pp. 38–39.
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10. Christman 1998, pp. 38–40.
11. Ault, Jon. "William Sampson" (http://www.spanamwar.com/sampson.htm). Spanish American War
Centennial Website. Retrieved 24 July 2011.
12. Christman 1998, p. 45.
13. Terrett 1953, pp. 39–41.
14. Christman 1998, pp. 45–49.
15. Christman 1998, p. 49.
16. Christman 1998, p. 53.
17. "William Sterling Parsons Rear Admiral, United States Navy" (http://www.arlingtoncemetery.net/wp
arsons.htm). Arlington National Cemetery. Retrieved 24 July 2011.
18. Christman 1998, pp. 43, 54–55.
19. Christman 1998, pp. 57–61.
20. Christman 1998, pp. 72–73.
21. Christman 1998, pp. 74–77.
22. Brennan, James W. (December 1968). "The Proximity Fuze Whose Brainchild?" (https://www.usni.
org/magazines/proceedings/1968/september/proximity-fuze-whose-brainchild). United States
Naval Institute Proceedings: 72–78. Retrieved 6 April 2019.
23. Furer 1959, pp. 346–347.
24. Christman 1998, pp. 86–91.
25. Furer 1959, p. 348.
26. "Radio Proximty (VT) Fuzes" (https://web.archive.org/web/20140209105150/http://www.history.na
vy.mil/faqs/faq96-1.htm). Naval Historical Center. Archived from the original (http://www.history.na
vy.mil/faqs/faq96-1.htm) on 9 February 2014. Retrieved 24 July 2011.
27. Christman 1998, pp. 96–98.
28. Morison 1948, pp. 329–330.
29. Furer 1959, p. 349.
30. Christman 1998, p. 102.
31. Christman 1998, pp. 106–107.
32. Hoddeson et al. 1993, pp. 83–84.
33. Groves 1962, pp. 24–25.
34. Groves 1962, pp. 159–160.
35. Groves 1962, p. 160.
36. Christman 1998, p. 108.
37. Christman 1998, pp. 112–115.
38. Christman 1998, p. 148.
39. Hunner 2004, p. 32.
40. Hunner 2004, p. 193.
41. Christman 1998, p. 118.
42. Hunner 2004, pp. 50–51.
43. Christman 1998, pp. 120–127, 131.
44. Hoddeson et al. 1993, pp. 84–85.
45. Christman 1998, pp. 153–154.
46. Christman 1998, p. 139.
47. Christman 1998, p. 144.
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48. Christman 1998, p. 152.
49. Christman 1998, p. 133.
50. Hoddeson et al. 1993, pp. 112–114.
51. Hoddeson et al. 1993, pp. 116–118.
52. Hoddeson et al. 1993, pp. 130–132.
53. Hoddeson et al. 1993, p. 137
54. Christman 1998, p. 138.
55. Hoddeson et al. 1993, pp. 242–246.
56. Christman 1998, p. 149.
57. Hoddeson et al. 1993, pp. 261–263.
58. Hoddeson et al. 1993, pp. 378–381.
59. Christman 1998, p. 167.
60. Christman 1998, pp. 154–155.
61. Christman 1998, pp. 170–171.
62. Christman 1998, pp. 173–174.
63. Thomas & Morgan-Witts 1977, p. 279.
64. Christman 1998, p. 176.
65. Lewis & Tolzer 1957, p. 72.
66. Thomas & Morgan-Witts 1977, p. 383.
67. Thomas & Morgan-Witts 1977, pp. 372–373.
68. "Citations for Awards of the Silver Star to U.S. Navy Personnel in World War II" (https://web.archiv
e.org/web/20100727041518/http://www.homeofheroes.com/members/04_SS/2_WWII/citations/na
vy/a.html). Military Times. Archived from the original (http://www.homeofheroes.com/members/04_
SS/2_WWII/citations/navy/a.html) on 27 July 2010. Retrieved 26 July 2011.
69. Christman 1998, p. 204.
70. Christman 1998, pp. 210–211.
71. Hewlett & Duncan 1969, pp. 74–76.
72. Weisgall 1994, p. 31.
73. Christman 1998, pp. 220–221.
74. Shurcliff 1947, p. 2.
75. Christman 1998, pp. 224–231.
76. Christman 1998, p. 257.
77. Groves 1962, pp. 394–399.
78. Christman 1998, pp. 234–239.
79. Christman 1998, pp. 240–246.
80. Christman 1998, p. 242.
81. Bird & Sherwin 2005, p. 369.
82. Bird & Sherwin 2005, pp. 480–481.
83. Christman 1998, pp. 249–250.
84. Christman 1998, p. 258.
85. "Sea Service Awards Descriptions" (https://web.archive.org/web/20110927162745/http://www.nav
yleague.org/councils/awards_manual.pdf) (PDF). Navy League of the United States. Archived
from the original (http://www.navyleague.org/councils/awards_manual.pdf) (PDF) on 27
September 2011. Retrieved 23 July 2011.
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86. Christman 1998, p. 253.
87. Willshaw, Fred. "USS Parsons (DD-949 / DDG-33)" (http://www.navsource.org/archives/05/949.ht
m). NavSource Naval History. Retrieved 30 July 2011.
88. "Operation Crossroads: Bikini Atoll" (https://web.archive.org/web/20130120201330/http://www.hist
ory.navy.mil/ac/bikini/bikini7.htm). 1946. Archived from the original (http://www.history.navy.mil/ac/
bikini/bikini7.htm) on 20 January 2013. Retrieved 15 October 2007. Specifically, Charles Bittinger
(1946). "Rear Admiral William Sterling Parsons, USN" (https://web.archive.org/web/201211051222
01/http://www.history.navy.mil/ac/bikini/95129g.jpg). Archived from the original (http://www.history.
navy.mil/ac/bikini/95129g.jpg) on 20 January 2013. Retrieved 15 October 2007.
89. "Papers of William S. Parsons, Operational Archives Branch, Naval Historical Center, Washington,
D.C." (http://www.history.navy.mil/research/archives/research-guides-and-finding-aids/personal-pa
pers/p/papers-of-rear-admiral-william-s-parsons.html) Retrieved 17 October 2015.
References
Bird, Kai; Sherwin, Martin J. (2005). American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert
Oppenheimer. New York: Alfred A. Knopf. ISBN 0-375-41202-6. OCLC 56753298 (https://www.wo
rldcat.org/oclc/56753298).
Christman, Albert B. (1998). Target Hiroshima: Deak Parsons and the Creation of the Atomic
Bomb. Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press. ISBN 1-55750-120-3. OCLC 38257982 (https://
www.worldcat.org/oclc/38257982).
Furer, Julius Augustus (1959). Administration of the Navy Department in World War II.
Washington, DC: US Government Printing Office. OCLC 1915787 (https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/1
915787).
Groves, Leslie (1962). Now it Can be Told: The Story of the Manhattan Project (https://archive.or
g/details/nowitcanbetolds00grov). New York: Harper & Row. ISBN 0-306-70738-1. OCLC 537684
(https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/537684).
Hewlett, Richard G.; Duncan, Francis (1969). Atomic Shield, 1947–1952. A History of the United
States Atomic Energy Commission. University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press. ISBN 0520-07187-5. OCLC 3717478 (https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/3717478).
Hoddeson, Lillian; Henriksen, Paul W.; Meade, Roger A.; Westfall, Catherine L. (1993). Critical
Assembly: A Technical History of Los Alamos During the Oppenheimer Years, 1943–1945 (https://
archive.org/details/criticalassembly0000unse). New York: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0521-44132-3. OCLC 26764320 (https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/26764320).
Hunner, Jon (2004). Inventing Los Alamos: The Growth of an Atomic Community. Norman:
University of Oklahoma Press. ISBN 978-0-8061-3891-6. OCLC 154690200 (https://www.worldca
t.org/oclc/154690200).
Lewis, Robert A.; Tolzer, Eliot (August 1957). "How We Dropped the A-Bomb". Popular Science.
pp. 71–75, 209–210.
Morison, Samuel Eliot (1948). Volume V: The Struggle for Guadalcanal, August 1942 – February
1943. Boston: Little, Brown and Co. ISBN 978-1612513188. OCLC 4091661 (https://www.worldca
t.org/oclc/4091661).
Shurcliff, William A. (1947). Bombs at Bikini: The Official Report of Operation Crossroads (https://a
rchive.org/details/bombsatbikinioff00unit). New York: William H. Wise and Co. OCLC 1492066 (htt
ps://www.worldcat.org/oclc/1492066). Retrieved 30 July 2011.
Terrett, Dulaney (1953). The Signal Corps: The Emergency. Washington, DC: Office of the Chief
of Military History, Department of the Army. OCLC 8990522 (https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/899052
2).
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Thomas, Gordon; Morgan-Witts, Max (1977). Ruin from the Air. London: Hamilton. ISBN 0-24189726-2. OCLC 252041787 (https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/252041787).
Weisgall, Jonathan (1994). Operation Crossroads: The Atomic Tests at Bikini Atoll (https://archive.
org/details/operationcrossro0000weis). Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press. ISBN 978-155750-919-2. OCLC 29477984 (https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/29477984).
External links
Interview with Peggy Parsons Bowditch, daughter of Deak Parsons, about her father and growing
up in Los Alamos (http://manhattanprojectvoices.org/oral-histories/peggy-bowditchs-interview)
Voices of the Manhattan Project
Arlington National Cemetery (https://ancexplorer.army.mil/publicwmv/#/arlington-national/search/r
esults/1/CgdQYXJzb25zEgdXaWxsaWFt/)
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