Russell Gackenbach was born in 1923 in Allentown, Pennsylvania. His family was Pennsylvania Dutch. His father was employed by Pennsylvania Power and Light throughout the Depression. With three brothers and three sisters, Gackenbach was the oldest of the siblings. It was a crowded household. His mother stayed at home and managed the home and children. All the children graduated high school but Gackenbach was the only one to graduate college. He lived in a white, working typical Pennsylvania Dutch neighborhood. There were lots of children. Neighbors knew each other and took care of one another. Gackenbach lived close to the center of the city and participated in Boy Scouts growing up and afterward. His father had the luxury of driving a company car in to work from a nearby garage. The car was used by others during the day while his father worked in the office. After the workday, he would drive the vehicle back to the storage garage. The family lived close to the public school that Gackenbach attended. His scout troop was at the nearby church and he was active there. All the activities were within a few blocks of his home. During summer, Gackenbach attended Boy Scout camp. At first he paid for camp, but he would become part of the paid staff as the years proceeded. After the war, half of the staff leaders in the Scouts were former military personnel. The leader was a former colonel. Gackenbach has been in scouting most of his life. There was only an interruption during his military service. He has always enjoyed camping and hiking in the outdoors. He originally wanted to be a forester. That was followed by a desire to be a biologist. Then, while employed by Bethlehem Steel before the military, he became interested in metallurgy. While attending Lehigh [Annotator's Note: Lehigh University in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania], he was taking chemical engineering courses when one of his professors gave him a rough time. That instructor found out what Gackenbach did and had a bad feeling toward his student. [Annotator's Note: The reference here to what Gackenbach did is related to participating in the dropping of the two atomic bombs on Japan.] The professor had planned to have a demonstration against the atomic bomb. Since things were rough on him, Gackenbach swung over to metallurgy. He graduated from Lehigh in 1950. The breakout of war in Europe was not a topic of family conversation. Gackenbach found out about World War 2 when he was returning home on a Sunday night from a scouting trip. Someone asked him if he had heard what the Japanese did. It was then that he talked a little more about the war. Subsequently, he obtained work with Bethlehem Steel. While there, he enlisted in the Army Air Cadet Program. His parents knew he was interested in aviation. He was old enough not to need their approval for his entry into the service, but they did endorse his enlistment. Gackenbach would be the only brother to serve in the Second World War. His other brothers would serve after the war. He enlisted because he did not want to be in the infantry. He felt he would be safer up there than on the ground or on the sea. [Annotator's Note: Gackenbach indicates with a finger pointed toward the sky.] He would have been drafted had he not enlisted in the Air Corps. He enlisted because after being bombed by the Japanese, he along with many others had to do something about it. He enlisted with his best buddy, Donald Cooper. Called up at the same time, they both went to basic training at Miami Beach, Florida. After basic they were separated and never met again during military service. Cooper flew flying boats and Gackenbach flew in bombers. The men rode on a troop train to Florida to basic training. Gackenbach had never been out of his state before. He was not intimidated by the new experience. Volunteers were requested for service on the train. Gackenbach was thought to be naïve when he agreed to do so. It turned out to be a good thing because he worked in the food car and ended up eating better food than all the other new recruits on the train who did not volunteer. Boy Scout training had helped him for his oncoming new experiences.

Russell Gackenbach had his Army Air Forces basic training in Florida. There were not enough uniforms for the recruits so they stayed in their civilian clothes while they had physical training and received injections. A particular senator complained that there were so many aviation cadets that the military could not get all of them into service despite the high demand for personnel. The pressure was so intense that the military rented unused hotels and housed the new trainees there. The senator was Harry Truman. From Miami, Gackenbach was sent to West Virginia University ostensibly for five months. With him being tested in the top 20 percentile of the class, he was sent to Nashville for classification. He had to decide between navigator, bombardier or pilot. The demand at the time was greatest for pilots because the upcoming invasion of Italy. He attempted flight school but could not solo in ten hours because of his depth perception. It did not bother him since he had a backup plan to become a navigator. He had been in the service for about four months at the time. It was not bad duty because of his preparation in the Boy Scouts. He went to University of Miami in Coral Gables, Florida for navigation training by Pan American Airways. He flew in flying boats for the training. This was in August or September 1943. He received his commission in February 1944. During this training period, there were no passes. He had no girlfriend. His first leave came after getting his commission. Upon returning home, he picked up a girlfriend who would eventually become his wife. She had graduated in 1942, a year after Gackenbach. They both graduated from the same Allentown High School. She worked as a secretary for a group of engineers at the Pennsylvania Power and Light Company. [Annotator's Note: Gackenbach's father was an employee of the same power company. His job was in the office, also.] The couple would break up after the war when Gackenbach opted to remain in the service. Upon discovering that there would be an abundance of navigators with resulting little opportunity for promotion, Gackenbach decided to be discharged, go to school and get a degree. He proceeded to do so and got married and the couple had a daughter. Gackenbach flew for the first time at Morgantown while attending West Virginia University during his military training. Scheduled for ten hours of training, he only received two or three hours because his instructor contracted scarlet fever. Gackenbach was restricted for a week to the law library under quarantine with three other students as a result. There was little chance to make close friends during his multiple transfers during training. After his commission, he had a ten day leave. He was not assigned to a new airbase, but he selected his assignment randomly out of a pot. This was due to most of the newly commissioned officers being from the northeast. Everyone wanted an assignment in the proximity of their homes such as Langley Airbase in Virginia. Gackenbach managed to get Langley. He was there for a month. He only flew once while there. It was in a B-24 [Annotator's Note: Consolidated B-24 Liberator heavy bomber]. His duty was to check out the crew on the radar set. Gackenbach had never used radar before. He filled out the checklist forms indicating what the crew he surveyed could do, but he never saw radar on the plane. He continued to have no assignment until he was sent to radar school in Boca Raton in Florida for training. He spent two months there. He worked on the APQ13 Radar. He attended class from six in the morning until noon. There was double barbed wire fencing with security for entrance and exit. Afternoons were mostly free but occasionally there would be other assigned activities. After completion of the course, he had a few days leave. Following leave, he went to Lincoln, Nebraska. After a wait there for a few days, he was assigned to the 504th Bomb Wing at Fairmont, Nebraska. He was the last member of his B-29 [Annotator's Note: Boeing B-29 Superfortress very heavy bomber] crew which was assigned to the 393rd Bomb Squadron. Most of the men were eager to get started and get past the training. They were ready to go overseas when shiny new B-29s showed up overnight. His crew was pulled into a special mission. They were selected by the squadron intelligence officer to take him to Wendover, Utah.

Russell Gackenbach heard rumors that his 393rd Bomb Squadron was going to move. The rumors were confirmed. [Annotator's Note: The 393rd Bombardment Squadron's intelligence officer confirmed the rumor while Gackenbach and his fellow Boeing B-29 Superfortress very heavy bomber crewmen transported the officer to Wendover, Utah from Fairmont, Nebraska. The squadron was transfered from the 504th Bomb Wing to the 509th Composite Group.] An airbase was to be established at Wendover even though it was virtually deserted at the time. Gackenbach, his pilot and copilot rode to Wendover in a new 1941 automobile. The bombardier was not part of their journey because he would not be used in the future mission. A new bombardier would join their crew. After being at Wendover for awhile, the number of air crews was reduced from 21 to 15. Gackenbach's crew remained intact. Tibbets [Annotator's Note: then USAAF Colonel Paul Tibbets] knew how many crews he needed and cut down numbers as a result. [Annotator's Note: Colonel Tibbets was the bombing mission commander for the dropping of the atomic bombs on Japan.] He even reduced internal crew size by eliminating the need for guns on the mission aircraft. This was due to the weight of the ordnance to be dropped. Tibbets took his crews to the airbase gate and pointed to the sign that was there. He told the men to remember what the sign implied. He told them that what they see there and what they hear there stays there. Security was paramount. The Colonel wanted only the best crewmen at their jobs to be involved on this mission. He talked about a new bomb being developed that could shorten the war. There were risks involved and some of the men might not survive. It was a worthwhile endeavor and Tibbets was going to head up the effort to train the men to drop that particular new bomb. The training subsequently started as a complete crew in July 1944. The initial training was in the old style B-29 which would handle only smaller bombs. That was all that was dropped at that time. Some overwater training was conducted over Cuba even though most other bombers trained over the continental United States. The culmination of the training was a trip from San Antonio de los Baños in Cuba to Norfolk, Virginia. Going up was relatively easy but when the heading to bomb Norfolk was turned, the plane flew directly into a jet stream. The plane turned around in the jet stream which resulted in a mere 90 seconds for the bombardier to set up his bomb run. It was the first time they had encountered the jet stream and afterward they headed home. The encounter was the result of the aircraft's altitude. With the security required, there was no talking about the missions, not even amongst themselves. While the men were afforded leave, they were still being observed. If anyone talked about their training, they would be routed to Alaska upon return from leave. While on the way to Cuba, Gackenbach's B-29 lost an engine. They landed at Enid airbase [Annotator's Note: Enid Army Flying School, now Vance Airbase, in Enid, Oklahoma] to replace the engine. They were told that it would take two weeks to replace the faulty engine. The airplane commander tried to get it expedited but without success. He finally placed a call using a code word. That call resulted in a quicker preferential treatment and close security of their aircraft during the repair. During the repair, Gackenbach stood in line in the base mess hall. A ranking officer approached the mysterious B-29 crewmen but was turned away by another officer. The security of the bomber program resulted in the intercession of the officer near Gackenbach. The repair was made quickly due to the use of the code word. The Colonel was not reluctant to use the code word when it was necessary. Another thing that was unique within the squadron was that each airplane had its own ground crew. There was no central maintenance for the squadron so the maintenance crew for each plane knew the idiosyncrasies of their particular airplane very well. Although the B-29 crews were curious about what they were being trained for, they did not guess or discuss their thoughts between themselves. They did not want to end up in Alaska. There were many rumors but security kept the men from discussing them.

Russell Gackenbach was summoned one day after dinner to answer the phone. He knew that something had to be wrong for him to get the call after dinner. There was a colonel on the telephone who identified himself. Gackenbach was told not to ask questions but to answer a series of questions that were posed to him. The responses resulted in Gackenbach being picked up by an MP after just 15 minutes. He was told to have on his flying clothes and carry his flying equipment with him. Thinking that he was headed to the flying operations office to meet up with his airplane commander, he instead went directly to the flight line. He entered a C-54 [Annotator's Note: Douglas C-54 Skymaster transport aircraft] and was told to take the navigator position. He was familiar with the aircraft and knew where he had to go. He was informed not to leave his seat, look around, or pay attention to anything going on around him. Gackenbach manned his position. He could tell there were objects and people being shifted onboard, but he did not inquire. In his navigator desk, he found a map with Wendover marked and another unidentified location marked with an X. He knew the unspecified location was someplace in California. The plane headed home. [Annotator's Note: Home for the crew was Wendover, Utah.] The weather was rough and the Colonel vomited on his navigator desk. The rule in the military was that whoever was sick had to clean it up. Instead, the Colonel relocated Gackenbach to another seat and told him that the flight would continue the next morning. He was also informed that he would get all new equipment from the quartermaster in the morning. The next morning, Gackenbach informed his operations officer that he flew the previous night and wanted to get credit for the hours. The officer asked to see his flight orders. Gackenbach responded that the orders were all verbal. No credit was given for the flight hours as a result. Years later, Gackenbach learned that the operations officer knew about the flight prior to it occurring. He was not the only squadron member who went on this type of mysterious mission. The men in the squadron found out about such things after the war. Most of the men did not know what the other men were doing. His fellow crewmen, however, largely knew what each other did. His plane commander sometimes would fly with different crews. On occasion, some crews would disappear for awhile without notice. There continued to be segregation of enlisted men from officers even within the bomber's crew.

Russell Gackenbach was a member in one of the 15 crews officially assigned to the 509th, 393rd Bomb Squad [Annotator's Note: 393rd Bombardment Squadron, 509th Composite Group]. To his knowledge, all crews in his squadron received the same training. His crew flew individually most of the time. With all the guns removed, the bomber was faster than a standard B-29 [Annotator's Note: Boeing B-29 Superfortress very heavy bomber]. On one mission, an F4U [Annotator's Note: Vought F4U Corsair fighter aircraft] pulled up next to them. The pilot communicated to the bomber that he wanted to make a run on the larger aircraft. When the fighter pilot pulled away, the bomber pilot gave it full throttle. The bomber crew heard the fighter pilot cursing about where the B-29 had gone. In May 1945, the squadron received 15 new B-29s. They had been modified in the factory. The B-29 was the first bomber to have pressurized cabins. The bomber had fuel injectors in lieu of carburetors for the engines. There was a special center bomb rack to handle the single heavy bomb instead of the multiple size bombs typically carried by a B-29. There was a quick opening bomb door. There were reversible pitch propellers. The importance of the new propeller design was a mystery until they found that the new ordnance they were to carry was a 10,000 pound bomb. [Annotator's Note: A reversible pitch propeller allows the aircraft to be moved in reverse while on the ground.] The simulated bomb used during training was nicknamed Pumpkin. Pumpkin could not be rolled under the aircraft but instead had to be placed in a pit with a moveable hoist to raise it to the bomb bay. The plane had to be backed over the bomb in the pit and then the bomb raised and secured to the plane prior to takeoff. The men thought they knew what was going on at that point. The simulated bomb was filled with sand, cement or some kind of powder. The crews felt they would be flying over Japan because they knew what was happening in Europe at the time. There was no need for blockbusters in Europe. [Annotator's Note: The new aircraft were received in May 1945, the same month Germany surrendered.] The men were resigned to their destination being somewhere in the Pacific. The squadron had a standard rule that never more than three of their aircraft were aloft at one time. As the crews departed for overseas, they left in groups of three. That was when they found out about where they were headed. They never knew the sequence they were going to be deployed until it was discovered when the flight assignments were defined. The flight was from Wendover to Sacramento. That was the aerial port of debarkation. There were other crews already there when Gackenbach's crew arrived. Other crews were being processed for overseas. There was a bit of an interruption when one captain on the base came on stage to welcome the B-29s from the 509th. Soon he was called to the back of the hall and another officer took the stage and told those involved in the processing to forget what they had just heard. The day that Gackenbach was there, three other crews were there. On the deployment flights, the planes also took ground crew members as well as some unidentified personnel. Even during processing to go overseas, the crews went to the head of the line. The takeoff orders prioritized the slower aircraft as first departures with the faster aircraft following them. Although Gackenbach's airplane was one of the last to takeoff, it was one of the first to land at Hickam Field in Hawaii. At Hickam, the flight requested priority release for takeoff. The field could not comply. An enlisted man from the B-29 passengers stepped up and told the air field officer that he wanted to help. Normally, an officer does not pay very much attention to an enlisted man's comments, but, in this case, the soldier was a member of military intelligence. The enlisted man proceeded to inform the officer at Hickam that the B-29s should get high priority for anything they wanted. The B-29 took off when they wanted to and flew on to Kwajalein and finally to Tinian.

Russell Gackenbach had no idea where Tinian was located when he arrived there. He only knew it was close to Japan. At the new base, training was started over. There was a new environment. They had to get acclimated to different weather as well as base facilities. Some modifications and recalibrations for the plane had to be made. His parents found out where he was shortly after he arrived overseas. Gackenbach and other officers would censor mail, but most of the men knew not to tell too much in their correspondences. Upon arrival, the officers were billeted in tents but as soon as the CBs [Annotator's Note: members of US Navy construction battalions] moved out, the officers took their Quonset huts. Some of the best food was available in their dining hall. There were guards that watched over the squadron crews. Each man in the squadron had a identification badge with a color that signified permissible access rights to different areas. Two areas were forbidden. One was the bomb location and the tech areas. The bomb casings arrived before the crews but the parts for the atomic bombs arrived after the bomber crews. At the time of arrival, the crews only knew that they would drop a large bomb. They were not aware of the significance of the bomb. Two test bombs were dropped by Gackenbach's aircraft on Japan. On 20 July [Annotator's Note: 20 July 1945], the first bomb was dropped on Tahara. On 27 July, the second test bomb was dropped on Hamamatsu. Both target cities were industrial centers. Results from the live bombs were not observable because of the fickle weather over the target sites. Other crews performed similar missions. Each officer in the crew maintained a log of his responsibilities during the flight. Airplanes were serviced according to any issues identified in the logs. In late July, Gackenbach's crew plus a few members of other crews were called to a special meeting. Security checked the contents of the invitees' pockets before and after the meeting. While in the meeting, the attendees saw maps and heard target names for the first time. The men had a daily newspaper printed on the island to tell them how the war was transpiring. The other troops on the island resented the focus on the 509th [Annotator's Note: 509th Composite Group] and how it was winning the war. After all, the 509th was late comers while other fliers had been there longer and were carrying heavy bomb loads over targets in Japan. The 509th merely sent out three bombers at a time with their blockbusters. The night before the mission, Gackenbach went to see friends in another outfit across the island. He told them that electricity was in the air. He would check with them the next night and see how they felt. At that time, he still did know about the atomic bomb. His friends snickered at him. Following the mission, he told his friends that the mission he participated in accomplished with one plane what hundreds or even a thousand B-29s [Annotator's Note: Boeing B-29 Superfortress very heavy bomber] could typically do. There was no more teasing after that. [Annotator's Note: The mission being discussed is the atomic bomb drop on Hiroshima, Japan on 6 August 1945.] In late July, Gackenbach had observed the maps that provided an indication of the potential mission targets for his squadron [Annotator's Note: 393rd Bombardment Squadron, 509th Composite Group]. With the news coming into Tinian, there was never any doubt that the Allies were winning the war. The mobilization of ships in the area and the buildup of supplies on Tinian indicated the possibility for an invasion of Japan. The battle for Okinawa only portended the future invasion of the home islands to the north. Gackenbach did not know what his role would be in the final battle with Japan, but he knew he wanted to help end the war. Up to the point prior to Hiroshima, his crew had only dropped two bombs on Japan. They could not have done much damage with those two bombs.

Russell Gackenbach was briefed either at 11 or 12 o'clock prior to the mission. [Annotator's Note: The mission being discussed was the deployment of the first atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima, Japan on 6 August 1945.] There were two separate briefings because of the multiple airplane crews involved in the action. There were takeoffs scheduled at two and three o'clock that morning. Most people think one plane was involved in the bomb drop, but there were actually seven planes that flew during the mission. The first plane that took off flew to Iwo Jima as a contingency to take over the bomb if the Enola Gay developed mechanical problems. Simultaneously, three weather ships took off. One went to Hiroshima, one went to Kokura, and the third went to Nagasaki. Those were the primary, secondary and tertiary targets. The three aircraft took off at two o'clock. At approximately three o'clock, the Enola Gay, the Great Artiste, and the Necessary Evil took off from three different runways. The crews were told some of the details of their mission on the morning before take-off. They were slated to see a film of the Trinity test, but the film and the projector did not match. [Annotator's Note: The Trinity test was the first atomic explosion which occurred as part of the Manhattan Project in the desert near what was Alamogordo, New Mexico, today's White Sands proving grounds. That test occurred on 16 July 1945, about three weeks prior to the atomic bomb drop on Hiroshima.] The crewmen were told not to fly through the cloud that would result from the explosion, but they were not told about it being a nuclear explosion. It would not have meant much to Gackenbach anyway. The men knew the primary target was Hiroshima. Gackenbach did not go to the bomb area because he had no clearance for that area of the plane. After their briefing, there was a crew specific truck which took each individual crew to their plane. Upon reaching the plane, there were designated tasks each man had to do. There was no time to worry about the other planes on the other runways. The take-offs were routine. On the flight to Iwo Jima, the Great Artiste was observed forward of them. The rendezvous location for the three aircraft was over Mount Suribachi. [Annotator's Note: Mount Suribachi was the highest peak on Iwo Jima.] The three B-29s [Annotator's Note: Boeing B-29 Superfortress very heavy bomber] formed up into a V formation at 10,000 feet and then began to climb up to 30,000 feet. At the IP [Annotator's Note: the IP, or Initial Point, is the location at which a bomber lines up for its final bomb run over target], the Enola Gay and the Great Artiste turned in toward Hiroshima. The Necessary Evil stayed behind and flew in a 360 degree circle. When they came out of the circle, the radio went dead. That indicated that the bomb bay was open and the bomb was away. The scientist aboard the Necessary Evil started a stop watch. At 41 seconds on the watch, he was to push the button on a camera that had four to six seconds of fast film. The bomb exploded directly in front of Necessary Evil. After the bomb exploded, the Enola Gay and the Great Artiste turned away and lost some altitude. They accelerated to get as far away as they could. Flying at 30,000 feet, Necessary Evil was about 15 miles from the target when the bomb exploded. The plane made three circuits of the cloud formation. By that time, the cloud was higher than the altitude of their plane. There was no sound, but two small shocks were felt in Necessary Evil. The other two planes on the mission were flying away from the explosion and felt more reverberation from the sonic booms because the tails of those aircraft were exposed to the shock waves. The photographer who was in the bombardier's position was forward of Gackenbach's navigator's position. As navigator, Gackenbach could not observe the photographer during this period. When the bomb exploded, Gackenbach was standing on the flight deck. As soon as the glow and brightness went down, he took off his glasses. [Annotator's Note: The crew and scientists onboard these aircraft had been issued eye wear to protect their eyes from the extremely bright and searing light of the nuclear explosion.] After putting his glasses under his navigator's desk, he grabbed his camera and took two photographs. The people on the plane were awe struck. There was no normal post-mission chatter as on other flights. The airplane commander was probably the first to speak. He would most likely have requested directions for the flight home. In all likelihood, the commander knew in advance about the destructive nature of the bomb. The Necessary Evil carried both an official and an unofficial photographer onboard that day. Although he no longer has the negatives, Gackenbach still has one of the two photographs he took on that mission. The importance of the event he participated in took awhile to understand. It was only after seeing multiple articles about what went on. He first heard the atomic bomb terminology used the day after the event. After seeing the effects of the one bomb dropped by one plane, he knew that victory was inevitable. Other sure indicators were the lack of enemy antiaircraft fire or fighter defenses against their B-29s over Japan. The mission was perfect. Everything went according to plan.

Russell Gackenbach participated in the dropping of the second atomic bomb. On that mission, he was the navigator on the Enola Gay which was assigned to be a weather ship over Kokura, the primary target. While over the target, the Enola Gay reported weather over Kokura was clear. They proceeded to head homeward. By the time the Bockscar [Annotator's Note: Bockscar was the primary bomber on the second atomic bomb drop] flew over the primary target, the Japanese weather had move in and the ground could not be seen. The order was to drop the bomb visually, not with radar. Personnel on Tinian did not know when the next bomb was to be dropped but rumor was that Gackenbach and his crew would get number three. Later in life, Gackenbach talked privately with Tibbets at a Veteran's Day air show celebration in 2001. [Annotator's Note: Retired USAF Brigadier General Paul W. Tibbets had flown the Enola Gay over Hiroshima and dropped the first atomic bomb on 6 August 1945.] Tibbets was hard of hearing so Gackenbach leaned over and spoke to him in his right ear. As a pilot with engines on his left side, he had lost significant hearing in the left ear. Gackenbach asked Tibbets if he recognized him. Tibbets did not, but he remembered the commander of Gackenbach's B-29 [Annotator's Note: Boeing B-29 Superfortress very heavy bomber] crew. George Marquardt was the commander of that crew. Tibbets confirmed to Gackenbach that Marquardt would have piloted the primary ordnance plane on the third atomic bomb run had it been needed. The third bomb would have been ready about 15 August. In retrospect, Gackenbach had no doubts or regrets about the actions he took part in in August 1945. He hopes that no one has to use those devices again. There were 33 people aboard the Enola Gay, the Great Artiste, and the Necessary Evil who personally witnessed the first atomic bomb drop. At the time of this interview [Annotator's Note: 2 June 2012], there were only three of those participants left alive. Shortly after their return to Tinian from the second atomic bomb mission, the war ended in the Pacific.

Russell Gackenbach felt that Tibbets [Annotator's Note: retired USAF Brigadier General Paul W. Tibbets] and crew number one got all the glory for the dropping of the first atomic bomb. When he tells people that seven aircraft were involved in each atomic bomb drop, they do not believe him at first. More military decorations followed the mission for the Enola Gay and Great Artiste crews than were issued to Necessary Evil's crew. There was no fighting the military way of doing things so he had to let it go. Gackenbach is adamant that the country was not at war with the Japanese people, only their military. While on the Hiroshima mission, Gackenbach met a scientist dressed as a major who was to take photographs of the bomb's aftermath. The scientist asked Gackenbach if he was a Pennsylvania Dutchman. When Gackenbach responded affirmatively, the men began to talk. The more they discussed home, it was discovered that they lived very close to one another in the same community. The scientist was a nuclear physicist name Dr. Bernard Waldman from Notre Dame University. [Annotator's Note: Dr. Waldman was part of the Manhattan Project and was involved in ordnance deployment. He took instrumentation readings during the bombing test runs in the New Mexico desert and was also involved in the Trinity test of the first atomic device at Alamogordo, New Mexico in July 1945.] As a returning veteran, Gackenbach was changed just by going overseas and experiencing the discipline of the military. He was taught to respect other people, and that one does not get their way all the time. He learned to roll with the punches and not fight City Hall.