Jacob Beser (May 15, 1921 – June 16, 1992) was a lieutenant in the

United States Army Air Forces The United States Army Air Forces (USAAF or AAF) was the major land-based aerial warfare service component of the United States Army and ''de facto'' aerial warfare service branch of the United States during and immediately after World War II ...

who served during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

. Beser was the radar specialist aboard the '' Enola Gay'' on August 6, 1945, when it dropped the

Little Boy "Little Boy" was the type of atomic bomb dropped on the Japanese city of Hiroshima on 6 August 1945 during World War II, making it the first nuclear weapon used in warfare. The bomb was dropped by the Boeing B-29 Superfortress ''Enola Gay'' p ...

atomic bomb on Hiroshima. Three days later, Beser was a crewmember aboard '' Bockscar'' when the

Fat Man "Fat Man" (also known as Mark III) is the codename for the type of nuclear bomb the United States detonated over the Japanese city of Nagasaki on 9 August 1945. It was the second of the only two nuclear weapons ever used in warfare, the fir ...

bomb was dropped on

Nagasaki is the capital and the largest Cities of Japan, city of Nagasaki Prefecture on the island of Kyushu in Japan. It became the sole Nanban trade, port used for trade with the Portuguese and Dutch during the 16th through 19th centuries. The Hi ...

. He was the only person to have served as a strike crew member of both of the 1945 atomic bomb missions.

Background

Jacob Beser grew up in

Baltimore Baltimore ( , locally: or ) is the List of municipalities in Maryland, most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland, fourth most populous city in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, and List of United States cities by popula ...

Maryland Maryland ( ) is a state in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It shares borders with Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware and the Atlantic Ocean to ...

, where he attended the Baltimore City College (high school) graduating in June 1938. Beser then studied mechanical engineering at The Johns Hopkins University, also in Baltimore, but dropped out the day after the

attack on Pearl Harbor The attack on Pearl HarborAlso known as the Battle of Pearl Harbor was a surprise military strike by the Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service upon the United States against the naval base at Pearl Harbor in Honolulu, Territory of Hawaii ...

to enlist in the Army Air Forces. He was Jewish and extremely restless to get into the fight against Hitler. Because of his training and educational background Beser was sent to Los Alamos and worked on the

Manhattan Project The Manhattan Project was a research and development undertaking during World War II that produced the first nuclear weapons. It was led by the United States with the support of the United Kingdom and Canada. From 1942 to 1946, the project w ...

in the area of weapons firing and fusing. There, he met or worked with various luminaries in the Manhattan Project, such as Robert B. Brode,

Norman Ramsey Norman Foster Ramsey Jr. (August 27, 1915 – November 4, 2011) was an American physicist who was awarded the 1989 Nobel Prize in Physics, for the invention of the separated oscillatory field method, which had important applications in the const ...

Niels Bohr Niels Henrik David Bohr (; 7 October 1885 – 18 November 1962) was a Danish physicist who made foundational contributions to understanding atomic structure and quantum theory, for which he received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1922 ...

, Enrico Fermi, Edward Doll, and General

Leslie Groves Lieutenant General Leslie Richard Groves Jr. (17 August 1896 – 13 July 1970) was a United States Army Corps of Engineers officer who oversaw the construction of the Pentagon and directed the Manhattan Project, a top secret research project ...

Mission

The unit that dropped the atomic bombs,

509th Composite Group The 509th Composite Group (509 CG) was a unit of the United States Army Air Forces created during World War II and tasked with the operational deployment of nuclear weapons. It conducted the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan, in ...

, was activated at Wendover Army Air Field, Utah, December 17, 1944. The crews trained with practice bombs called "pumpkins" because of their size and shape. The pumpkins were useful for training, having been designed to have the same aerodynamic qualities of the

atomic bomb. The 509th deployed to

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 the ...

in the Marianas in May 1945. It was a self-contained unit, with personnel strength of about 1,770 soldiers, mechanics, specialists and aviators. It consisted of the 393rd Bomber Squadron, the 320th Troop Carrier Squadron, the 390th Air Service Group, the 603rd Air Engineering Squadron, the 1027th Air Materiel Squadron, the 1395th Military Police Company, and the First Ordnance Squadron (in charge of handling the atomic bombs). On August 6, 1945, the first atomic bomb to be used in combat was dropped by a

B-29 Superfortress The Boeing B-29 Superfortress is an American four-engined propeller-driven heavy bomber, designed by Boeing and flown primarily by the United States during World War II and the Korean War. Named in allusion to its predecessor, the B-17 F ...

bomber A bomber is a military combat aircraft designed to attack ground and naval targets by dropping air-to-ground weaponry (such as bombs), launching torpedoes, or deploying air-launched cruise missiles. The first use of bombs dropped from an air ...

, the '' Enola Gay'', over the Japanese city of Hiroshima, killing 70,000 people, including 20,000 Japanese combatants and 20,000 Korean slave laborers. The thirteen-hour mission to Hiroshima under the command of famous pilot Colonel

Paul Tibbets Paul Warfield Tibbets Jr. (23 February 1915 – 1 November 2007) was a brigadier general in the United States Air Force. He is best known as the aircraft captain who flew the B-29 Superfortress known as the ''Enola Gay'' (named after his moth ...

, began at 0245

time. By the time the ''Enola Gay'' rendezvoused with its two accompanying B-29 Superfortresses at 0607 over Iwo Jima, the group was three hours from the target area. "Little Boy's" detonation was triggered by radar sensors on the bomb that measured its altitude as it fell. Beser's job was to monitor those sensors and ensure that there was no interference that could have detonated it prematurely. The bomb fell away from the aircraft at 09:15:17

time. Beser did not watch the bomb detonate but he heard the bomb's radar signals switch on and then cut off at the moment the intense light generated by its detonation filled the plane. Three days later in a second B-29 Superfortress bomber, '' Bockscar'', Beser repeated this task over

with

, the

plutonium Plutonium is a radioactive chemical element with the symbol Pu and atomic number 94. It is an actinide metal of silvery-gray appearance that tarnishes when exposed to air, and forms a dull coating when oxidized. The element normally exhibi ...

implosion bomb that became the second and last atomic bomb used in combat. Beser was the only crew member to accompany both atomic bomb missions and besides the commanding officers/pilots, had a scientific understanding of the new weapons' potential and destructiveness, as a result of his earlier high school and university education.

Later life

In 1946, Beser was one of the founding members of

Sandia National Laboratories Sandia National Laboratories (SNL), also known as Sandia, is one of three research and development laboratories of the United States Department of Energy's National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA). Headquartered in Kirtland Air Force Bas ...

, in

New Mexico ) , population_demonym = New Mexican ( es, Neomexicano, Neomejicano, Nuevo Mexicano) , seat = Santa Fe , LargestCity = Albuquerque , LargestMetro = Tiguex , OfficialLang = None , Languages = English, Spanish ( New Mexican), Navajo, Ke ...

. He came home to Baltimore and in the mid-1950s began a long career working on defense projects for Westinghouse. When asked about his atomic bomb missions on numerous interviews, Beser made the following response: He wrote a book about the experiences of flying on both flights; ''Hiroshima & Nagasaki Revisited'' was written in 1988. Beser was an amateur ("ham") radio operator, holding the callsign W3NOD. He died of natural causes in 1992 and was survived by his wife Sylvia, their four sons, and nine grandchildren. He was inducted into the "Hall of Fame" of his alma mater high school, Baltimore City College, the third oldest public high school in America.

Military decorations

His decorations include:

Silver Star citation

:Beser, Jacob :First Lieutenant, U.S Army Air Forces :393d Bombardment Squadron, 509th Composite Group, 20th Air Force :Date of Action: August 6, 1945 :Headquarters, 20th Air Force, General Orders No. 69 (September 22, 1945) :Citation:

Notes

External links

Audio Recording of 1985 Lecture by Jacob Beser
Voices of the Manhattan Project * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Besser, Jacob 1921 births 1992 deaths Jewish American military personnel Military personnel from Baltimore United States Army Air Forces personnel of World War II Manhattan Project people Baltimore City College alumni People associated with the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki Johns Hopkins University alumni United States Army Air Forces officers Recipients of the Air Medal Recipients of the Silver Star Recipients of the Distinguished Flying Cross (United States) People from Pikesville, Maryland 20th-century American Jews