Stanley Jack Birnbaum was born in March 1923 in New York [Annotator's Note: New York, New York]. He attended Queens College at the age of 13. He was somewhat of a child prodigy studying pure mathematics at that age in college. He graduated in 1941 but was too young to enter the service. He enlisted in the Army at 18. He was captivated by the glamour of the Air Force. Being color blind, he was not allowed to fly. In retrospect, he considers that to be lucky because he was in the service for four years and may not have survived the European air missions required over that period. He enlisted anyway in order to become an officer. He scored high on the aptitude tests and was sent to the coast artillery which was actually the antiaircraft artillery. He went to Fort Eustis, Virginia and was accepted into Officer Candidate School, or OCS, at Camp Davis [Annotator's Note: then Camp Davis Army Air Field, now Marine Corps Outlying Field Camp Davis, in Onslow County, North Carolina] in the Carolinas. Completing OCS, he became a second lieutenant. He was chosen to be a radar officer in that new technology. He studied electronics at Harvard [Annotator's Note: Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts] and MIT [Annotator's Note: Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, Massachusetts]. He was secretly taken to Silver Springs, Maryland where he was assigned to the Johns Hopkins Laboratory of Applied Physics. Work was underway there on the proximity fuse. That advancement in technology detonated ordnance in close proximity to the object being targeted. A normal fuse worked with calculated azimuth, elevation and estimated range or distance of the objective being fired upon. Range was the problematic variable that the proximity fuse overcame. The proximity fuse detonated the shell at a fixed distance from the target. It was basically done through a miniature radar set in the shell determining the proper distance from the target to trigger the explosion. The proximity fuse was also known as the variable timed fuse. It was an important weapon and very secret. It allowed a 90 percent success rate on downing the German V-1 flying bombs [Annotator's Note: V-1 pulse jet flying bomb, German name: Vengeance Weapon 1; Allied names: buzz bomb, doodlebug]. The Russians ultimately cracked the secret of the fuse through espionage and used it to shoot down a high flying American spy plane as depicted in the movie "Bridge of Spies" [Annotator's Note: a 2015 Steven Spielberg movie about Central Intelligence Agancy pilot Francis Gary Powers being exchanged for a Soviet spy named Rudolf Abel].

After Stanley Jack Birnbaum arrived in England, he sailed across the English Channel and arrived in France a few days after D-Day [Annotator's Note: Allied invasion of Normandy, France on 6 June 1944]. The voyage took two weeks because of delays associated with submarines. He was attached to Supreme Headquarters [Annotator's Note: Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force or SHAEF] in Paris [Annotator's Note: Paris, France]. He participated in the liberation parade through Paris and had a French girlfriend old enough to be his mother. Birnbaum was attached to the British Second Army in order to introduce the new weapon [Annotator's Note: the proximity fuse he had helped develop at Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory]. Distribution of the new fuse was somewhat delayed due to the Battle of the Bulge [Annotator's Note: Battle of the Bulge or German Ardennes Counter Offensive, 16 December 1944 to 25 January 1945]. He had to teach the troops how to use the fuse. Because of his expertise, he was looked upon as being somewhat of a prestigious individual. He received a promotion from Eisenhower [Annotator's Note: General of the Army Dwight David "Ike" Eisenhower, Supreme Commander, Allied Expeditionary Force; 34th President of the United States]. Entering into Germany, Birnbaum was near Wiesbaden when V-E Day [Annotator's Note: Victory in Europe Day, 8 May 1945] came. He returned home on leave [Annotator's Note: an authorized absence for a short period of time] to New York [Annotator's Note: New York, New York] by plane, ship and train. His next assignment was to be as an instructor at Fort Sill, Oklahoma. While in New York, the atomic bomb [Annotator's Note: nuclear weapons dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan, 6 and 9 August 1945] was dropped and Birnbaum did not have to worry about fighting against the Japanese. He went to the field artillery school and was offered a permanent commission. Despite all the recognition and educational opportunities he received in the Army, he elected not to stay because of an Army interviewer's anti-Semitic statement.

Stanley Jack Birnbaum was offered a fellowship in cybernetics which was the forerunner of computers. He elected to attend medical school as a more lucrative profession. He had no educational background but caught up his pre-med courses and then graduated number one from Weill-Cornell Medical School in New York City [Annotator's Note: New York, New York] in 1951. His whole career was spent there working his way from introductory medical student to retirement as professor emeritus. He supervised the GYN department while on the staff.

Stanley Jack Birnbaum was happy as a native New Yorker [Annotator's Note: New York, New York] growing up there. His life was contented. His father was in the insurance business and his mother was a housewife. He attended public schools and college. He attended college at the early age of 13. Birnbaum and his wife continue to enjoy life in New York. The cuisine and entertainment keeps them happy. The city is a great place to live. The Great Depression did not affect him much since his father was an assistant manager of the insurance office. His job was fairly stable. There was no problem with food or other issues at home. Birnbaum did not get along with his sister, perhaps because he was a prodigy in mathematics and considered a genius.

Stanley Jack Birnbaum fought the war that was considered a "popular war" because it was necessary. He was a tall, healthy 18 year old and the Army recognized his skills and academic abilities. He has no complaint about the Army. He enjoyed the discipline and was treated fairly. Places he went had lots of girls and that made him happy. He thought himself invincible. He never ran to shelters during air raids in London [Annotator's Note: London, England]. He was in college when Pearl Harbor was attacked on 7 December 1941 [Annotator's Note: the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on 7 December 1941]. Classes were dismissed for fear of enemy attack. He remembers Roosevelt's [Annotator's Note: Franklin Delano Roosevelt, 32nd President of the United States] speech about the "day of infamy". Most of his early time in the Army was spent training in radar. That was the forerunner of today's electronics. He attended Harvard [Annotator's Note: Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts] and MIT [Annotator's Note: Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, Massachusetts], both in Cambridge, Massachusetts. When he went to Silver Springs, Maryland he lived with a nice family as he had done at Harvard and MIT.

Stanley Jack Birnbaum worked on the battery component in the development of the proximity fuse. He explains the process he used to develop that instrument and how the battery worked to power the fuse. The components had to be made very small. Test firings occurred at the beach so the surface of the ocean could be used to trigger the detonation. Five individuals worked with Birnbaum in the development of the proximity fuse. The work was very secret. Birnbaum did not work on introducing the shells to the troops until after the Battle of the Bulge [Annotator's Note: Battle of the Bulge or German Ardennes Counter Offensive, 16 December 1944 to 25 January 1945]. It was a very important development. It ended air raids even with the buzz bombs [Annotator's Note: V-1 pulse jet flying bomb, German name: Vengeance Weapon 1; Allied names: buzz bomb, doodlebug]. There was no defense against the fuse. The infantry eventually used it for air burst rounds. Later, it aided in tracking the trajectory of a shell so the source could be targeted for bombing.

Stanley Jack Birnbaum fell into his landing craft before landing at one of the American beaches at Normandy about five days after D-Day [Annotator's Note: Allied invasion of Normandy, France on 6 June 1944]. He was immediately given multiple pairs of combat boots upon his arrival on the beach. He had no idea what to do with them. He was only with a staff sergeant. They ultimately made their way to Paris [Annotator's Note: Paris, France] where they participated in the liberation parade. He enjoyed celebrating with the ladies of the joyous city. Thee Germans did not damage the city much. Eisenhower [Annotator's Note: General of the Army Dwight David "Ike" Eisenhower, Supreme Commander, Allied Expeditionary Force; 34th President of the United States] was SHAEF [Annotator's Note: Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force]. Birnbaum reported directly to SHAEF and not to any specific unit. He was sent to the British Army and reported to Montgomery [Annotator's Note: British Field Marshal Sir Bernard Law Montgomery]. His job was to introduce the new weapon, the proximity fuse. He had no problem working with the British. He had previously had girlfriends in Britain. Birnbaum worked out of a collaborator's garage. The British were responsible for the defense of the active port of Antwerp [Annotator's Note: Antwerp, Belgium]. Birnbaum broke the news of Roosevelt's [Annotator's Note: Franklin Delano Roosevelt, 32nd President of the United States] death to his comrades. He heard the announcement in a French radio broadcast. No one believed him. He had learned French in school but improved it with his French girlfriend in Paris. He was in Wiesbaden [Annotator's Note: Wiesbaden, Germany] on V-E Day [Annotator's Note: Victory in Europe Day, 8 May 1945]. He was not allowed to fraternize and was happy to leave. The city had been devastated by the Allied bombing. He returned to the United States in 1946. He enjoyed firing the various weapons he came in contact with during the war. He was never in danger while doing so.

Stanley Jack Birnbaum completed medical school in 1951 and continued in the operating room until his late 80s [Annotator's Note: Birnbaum holds his hands out to show how steady they are]. He retired at 90 years of age. He still teaches third year medical students. He chose the field of OB-GYN largely because of the instructors. There are few fatalities so the ending of a case is usually happy. He was number one in his graduating class and the dean tried to talk him out of it. A student of his caliber never selected OB-GYN prior to that. Birnbaum is pleased he persevered and selected the field. During the Korean War [Annotator's Note: 1950 to 1953], he was almost reactivated but received a reprieve. The Second World War happened while he was an innocent young man. He was not being shot at but close enough to the front lines to know he was at war. He never felt threatened though. He had a civilized experience during the war. The National WWII Museum [Annotator's Note: in New Orleans, Louisiana] helps veterans remember what they did. It educates inexperienced civilians on what happened. Some of the exhibits are graphic but life is graphic. Birnbaum spent the whole day at The National WWII Museum with family prior to his interview. He recommends the experience to others. It is a nice thing for the World War 2 veterans since they are well recognized by those in the Museum. He also found the people in New Orleans very pleasant.