Trinity Test

Trinity Test. . , Trinity was the code name of the first detonation of a nuclear weapon. It was conducted by the United States Army at 5:29 am on Monday, July 16, 1945, as part of the Manhattan Project. The test was conducted in the Jornada del Muerto desert about 35 miles (56 km) southeast of Socorro, New Mexico, on what was then the USAAF Alamogordo Bombing and Gunnery Range., The only structures originally in the vicinity were the McDonald Ranch House and Its ancillary buildings, which scientists used as a "clean room" for assembling the bomb components. A base camp was constructed and there were 425 people present the test., The code name "Trinity" was assigned by J. Robert Oppenheimer, for the director of the Los Alamos Laboratory, inspired by the poetry of John Donne. The test was of an implosion-design plutonium device, informally nicknamed "The Gadget", of the same design as the Fat Man bomb later detonated over Nagasaki, Japan, on August 9, 1945., The complexity of the design required a major effort from the Los Alamos Laboratory and concerns about whether it would work led to a decision to conduct the first nuclear test. The test was planned and directed by Kenneth Bainbridge. The Uranium bomb Little Boy was a simpler design and did not require a test., What was at stake? , At stake was an invasion of Japan and with it the lives of thousands of American and Allied troops and millions of Japanese lives. Thousands of American troops were already redeploying from Europe to the Pacific. The Soviet Union (America's wartime ally) was contemplating an invasion of Northern Japan. President Truman wanted to end the war as soon as possible, with the least amount of casualties. After the horrific battle for Okinawa, the President did not want an even more horrific invasion of Japan., Fat Man Deployment , The Fat Man plutonium core and its initiator left Kirtland Field for Tinian Island on July 26, 1945 in a C-54 transport plane. It arrived on Tinian on July 28. Also on July 28, three specially-modified B-29s flew from Kirtland Field carrying three Fat Man bomb assemblies each encased in an outer ballistic shell. They arrived at Tinian on August 2, 1945., 320th Troop Carrier Squadron (320th TCS) , The 320th Troop Carrier Squadron was assigned to the 509th Composite Group. The Squadron acquired the nickname The Green Hornet Line. The 320th provided transportation of both troops and material. It was a Douglas C-54 Skymaster cargo plane of the 320th TCS which transported the Fat Man core and initiator.