1.3 THE PROJECT TRINITY ORGANIZATION
The organization that planned and conducted Project TRINITY grew out
of the X-2 Group. LASL, though administered by the University of
California, was part of the Manhattan Project, supervised by the Army
Corps of Engineers Manhattan Engineer District. The chief of MED was
Maj. Gen. Leslie Groves of the Army Corps of Engineers. Major General
Groves reported to both the Chief of Engineers and the Army Chief of
Staff. The Army Chief of Staff reported to the Secretary of War, a
Cabinet officer directly responsible to the President. Figure 1-5
outlines the organization of Project TRINITY.
The director of the Project TRINITY organization was Dr. Kenneth
Bainbridge. Dr. Bainbridge reported to Dr. J. Robert Oppenheimer, the
director of LASL. A team of nine research consultants advised Dr.
Bainbridge on scientific and technical matters (3).
The Project TRINITY organization was divided into the following groups (3):
o The TRINITY Assembly Group, responsible for assembling and arming the nuclear device
o The TR-1 (Services) Group, responsible for construction, utilities, procurement, transportation, and communications
o The TR-2 Group, responsible for air-blast and earth-shock measurements
o The TR-3 (Physics) Group, responsible for experiments concerning measurements of ionizing radiation
o The TR-4 Group, responsible for meteorology
o The TR-5 Group, responsible for spectrographic and photographic measurements
o The TR-6 Group, responsible for the airblast-airborne condenser gauges
o The TR-7 (Medical) Group, responsible for the radiological safety and general health of the Project TRINITY participants.
Each of these groups was divided into several units. Individuals were also assigned special tasks outside their groups, such as communications and tracking the TRINITY cloud with a searchlight (3).