Without a building in sight, the seven men waited until amilitary policeman arrived to drive them to the base, where theywere greeted with the cryptic sign: “What you see here/What you dohere/What you hear here/Stays here.”īy 1943, scientists working on the top-secret Manhattan Projectwere close to designing a working atomic bomb, and the governmentbegan preparing for its use. There was no official train stop for Wendover Air Force Base -Bob Hope used to call it Left Over Base because of its desolatelocation on the Arizona/Utah border - and Sprouse remembers thetrain barely stopping when their bags were thrown out and the mentold to step off. You’re leavingimmediately.” He had no idea where he was going or why he had beenselected, and still doesn’t. When Sprousefinally responded, he was told, “Pack your bags. Sprouse was drafted into the Army in 1943, studied with the ArmyAir Corps for 18 months in Florida, and was then sent to a base inTopeka, Kan., where he assumed he was waiting to be sent to theEuropean Theater.īut then one night, well after lights out, an officer walkeddown the aisle of his barracks, calling his name. “We didn’t know beans back then,” the Mississippi native said."They didn’t talk to us about when we were going, what we weregoing to do.” Sixty years later, Sprouse, 83, lives in Escondido and speaksseveral times a year to high school students about his days withthe 509th Composite Group. Historians believe the two bombs killed up to 120,000people. 14, President Harry Truman announced that Japan hadsurrendered. Three days later at 11 a.m., the atomic bomb “Fat Boy” wasdropped on Nagasaki, Japan, from the B-29 Bock’s Car, flown by Maj.Charles Sweetney. Paul Tibbets from an air station on Tinian, a Pacificisland about 1,270 miles south of Tokyo.
6, 1945, a 9,000-pound atomic bomb named"Little Boy” was dropped on Hiroshima from the Enola Gay, a B-29flown by Col. In later years, some historians have questioned America’s use ofthe atomic bombs, saying that Japan was ready to surrender and thatthe bombings were unnecessary and downright barbaric.Īt 8:15 a.m.