WORLD WAR II - NONFICTION
"Target Hiroshima: Deak Parsons and the
Creation of the Atomic Bomb" 
By Al Christman
Admiral William S. (Deak) Parsons was an extraordinary man and visionary. He was one of this nation's finest engineers and a competent naval officer in a time of great need. This is an outstanding biography that traces his life from a small boy growing up in Fort Sumner, New Mexico, to his untimely death of a heart attack in 1953.
Deak Parsons was a man that recognized the potential of radar in the 1930s and was responsible for the development of the proximity fuse for the 5-inch anti-aircraft guns on naval ships. These fuses also helped the British shoot down many V-1 buzz bombs. If the Navy had listened to Parsons, detection and gunnery radars would have been developed for American ships much earlier and would have helped avert naval disasters early in the war.
What Parsons is most remembered for is his participation in the Manhattan Project. He was the man responsible for turning the nuclear research into a useable weapon. He was a great leader of men and helped the project by smoothing the waters between the civilian and military personnel. Parsons was aboard the Enola Gay on the mission to Hiroshima to make sure everything went right. A few days before the mission, he witnessed several B29s crash on takeoff and decided to arm the weapon while in the air. The guy had guts! This book contains a cornucopia of fascinating information about the people, discoveries, testing, problems and solutions encountered during the development of the first atomic weapons.
After the war, he was instrumental in setting American policy in regards to nuclear weapons. He helped devise and run the nuclear tests at operations Crossroads and Sandstone. Parsons recognized the potential of nuclear propulsion and was the one that selected Rickover to be part of the nuclear naval programs. He was also fascinated by rocketry and helped support research to bring missiles and other modern weapons into the naval inventory. When budget cuts were threatening the end of the sidewinder project, he found the money to keep the program going that gave us the world's first air-to-air guided missile.
Deak Parsons was a rare man and one wonder what else he might have accomplished if he had not died so young.
Reviewed by Kenneth S. Smith 30 January 2001
Naval Institute Press
118 Maryland Avenue
Annapolis, Maryland 21402
