The Manhattan and Elsie Projects 



105 



Pivot mounting for the Elsie gun still intact. 



rid of. At that time, we still visualized that we would be active as a design and 

 development activity because we had many requests to consider other designs 

 for atomic devices. When these MARK 8 bombs were declared surplus, they 

 asked us if we wanted them, and we decided to take them. They had to be 

 shipped across the country from Albuquerque on a special train which had 

 marine guards. At that time, the Dahlgren railway was still active. When the 

 train finally pulled into Dahlgren, there were probably a half-dozen passenger 

 cars for the marines to live on and a couple of freight cars full of atomic bombs. 

 They parked the train, and of course everyone in the area was curious about 

 why the train was there with armed marines. The bombs were unloaded and 

 put in the magazine area. 



Did the marines know what they were guarding'? 



I think they did because the officer in charge of the marines, when they got 

 here, was looking for somebody to turn the material over to, and I told him, 

 "You can give it to me." He hardly believed me because he wanted to turn them 

 over to some military type, not a civilian. I finally convinced him that he could 

 be relieved of the responsibility. 



/ guess information about them is downgraded by now. 



The weapons are no longer supersecret, I suppose. At that time, they were 

 classified SECRET-RESTRICTED DATA. This is more secret than SECRET 

 by quite a lot — sort of like TOP SECRET. Later, I think they were downgraded 

 to SECRET. Anything with SECRET- RESTRICTED DATA was guarded very 

 carefully. 



