Oak Ridge, Tennessee, played a critical part in building the atomic bomb and ending World War II. The 1943-1945 period chronicles one of the world’s most significant engineering feats. Oak Ridge also played a critical role in my life.
My father, Paul Blakely, graduated from Washington & Lee as a chemist in 1943 and, along with his best friend, Bill Wilcox, was recruited by Kodak to come to New York City to listen to a job description available in East Tennessee that would be essential in ending World War II. After taking the job offers, Paul and Bill lived in a 4-bedroom house in Oak Ridge with two other men, all chemists.
In 1942, 59,000 acres of Oak Ridge land were transformed in a matter of weeks into a “secret city” that became known as the mysterious Manhattan District. As a direct result of a letter written by Albert Einstein to President Franklin Roosevelt in 1939, the Manhattan District was created to develop new atomic weapons with scientists working at locations named X-10, Y-12, and K-25.
Y-12, where my dad worked, separated uranium-235. The plant name had no meaning except to confuse enemy agents. The plant size and cost were enormous. Over 24,000 people were on the payroll. Construction costs ran over $300 million by 1946.
Due to the shortage of men workers, women workers were used throughout the Y-12 plant. My mother, Tinque Spann, who was born in Soddy, Tennessee, graduated from college in three years. (Her younger brother, who wanted to become a doctor, needed to go to college right away, and the family couldn’t afford to have two students in college at the same time.)
My mother was teaching when her siblings heard about job opportunities in Oak Ridge. My mother’s sister was afraid to go through job interviews alone, so the two of them went to Oak Ridge personnel at Christmas time, when teachers were on vacation.
It turned out that my father interviewed my mother and hired her immediately. He told my mom that she would be separating a secret chemical and if some chemical fell on the floor, she needed to let him know so he could carefully retrieve the chemical as a scientific requirement. They married in August 1944. I was conceived in December…thus my name Carol.
Oak Ridge townspeople gathered at Blankenship Field (the high school football field) on August 6, 1945, where they learned the great news: “War Ends!”
My dad had cancer as a result of his exposure to radiative chemicals. He died in 2002.
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