Theresa Strottman: It’s Saturday March 21, 1992, and it’s approximately 10:20 in the morning. We are speaking with Jerry Roensch. We thank you so much for coming this morning.
Eleanor (Jerry) Roensch: My pleasure.
Strottman: To start off the interview, I wonder if you could briefly tell me when and where you were born and a little something about your early education and training.
Theresa Strottman: It’s Saturday, February 15, 1992, approximately 11:28 AM. We’re interviewing Kay Manley. We really appreciate your coming here today. Briefly tell me when and where you were born and something about your education and training.
[Interviewed by Cynthia Kelly and Tom Zannes.]
Paul Vinther: I'm Paul Vinther. P-A-U-L V-I-N-T-H-E-R.
I have a first name, Alvin, but never went by it so everybody knows me as Paul. And I first came to Hanford on June the 26th, 1950. I remember that vividly because that was the day after the Korean War started. And I'd been in the Navy, went back to college, and came down here for a job, and at that time GE was running the plant and we were known as “tech grads.”
Donald Trauger: Yes, I’m Donald Trauger. And Trauger is T-R-A-U-G-E-R, Trauger. My mother-in-law when we first married would say auger, Trauger so she could remember it. [Laughter.]
Kelly: All right. Well, tell us how you came to Oak Ridge and how—what you did as your role in the Manhattan Project; where you were from and how you got involved.
Tinian Island was the launching point for the atomic bomb attacks against Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan. One of three islands in the Northern Marianas, Tinian is less than forty square miles in size and located approximately 1,500 miles south of Tokyo. The round-trip flight from Tinian to Tokyo took B-29s an average of twelve hours. This proximity to Japan is one reason Tinian served as the headquarters of the 509th Composite Group.
Stirling Auchincloss Colgate: I’m Stirling Auchincloss Colgate. And the first name is spelled with an extra “I,” S-T-I-R-L-I-N-G. My middle name is Auchincloss, A-U-C-H-I-N-C-L-O-S-S. And that last name is Colgate, and when I was around ten or eleven years old or somewheres like that, I changed my name and chose that myself, so I’m happy about that name. I like it.
