Ed Fielder was a machinist working the night shift in Los Alamos for the US Army in the early 1940s. What most people were unaware of is that he was secretly making the parts for the atomic bombs that were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1944.
A graduate of Rutherford High School in New Jersey in 1941, Fielder joined the Army Corps of Engineers and worked as a scientist and machinist, NorthJersey.com reported.
Fielder, now 93 years old, remembers two things about that time: they needed to make the parts with speed and accuracy. Fielder recalls that they did not know what they were making parts for.
Guards patrolled the work area to make sure no one discussed what they were doing with anyone else. “We couldn’t ask any of the others what they were doing. We all did our part but never saw [the bomb] put together.”
Fielder has conflicting thoughts about the bombs he helped build. “Most of the men were not there, because they were in the war. But their mothers, fathers, children and grandparents were all there,” Fielder said. “At the same time, this [bombing] ended the war.”