The Special Engineer Detachment (SED) was a
US Army
The United States Army (USA) is the land service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army of the United States in the U.S. Constitution.Article II, section 2, cla ...
program that identified enlisted personnel with technical skills, such as machining, or who had some science education beyond high school. Those identified were organized into the Special Engineer Detachment, or SED. SED personnel began arriving at
Los Alamos in October 1943. By August 1945, 1800 SED personnel worked at Los Alamos. These troops worked in all areas and activities of the Laboratory, including the
Trinity Test
Trinity was the code name of the first detonation of a nuclear weapon. It was conducted by the United States Army at 5:29 a.m. on July 16, 1945, as part of the Manhattan Project. The test was conducted in the Jornada del Muerto desert ab ...
, and were involved in overseas operations on
Tinian
Tinian ( or ; old Japanese name: 天仁安島, ''Tenian-shima'') is one of the three principal islands of the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands. Together with uninhabited neighboring Aguiguan, it forms Tinian Municipality, one of th ...
.
References
Sources
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Further reading
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*{{citation, publisher=Library of Congress, work=Veterans History Project, title=Herbert M. Lehr Collection (Special Engineering Detachment 1943–1946), date=2019-11-06, id=AFC/2001/001/12058, url=http://memory.loc.gov/diglib/vhp/bib/12058
External links
Special Engineer Detachment - "Scientists in Uniform"at childrenofthemanhattanproject.org
Manhattan Project