81 years ago today... the ultimate FAFO day

EricStratton-RushChairman · Aug 6, 2026

I may have posted this before, but my wife's Dad was pushed through ND and then MIT with Masters (Chem Eng.) in 1943. He then packed up his young wife and headed to Oakridge to work on The Manhattan Project. He had passed away by the time I met my wife so I never was able to speak with him about it. However, my wife always said he was highly conflicted once he eventually found out what he was working on (he didn't know until after Hiroshima bombing).

I visited Ground Zero and the memorial in Hiroshima back in 2016 and thought the Japanese do a fairly good job presenting their role in WW2 and the background to the use of atomic bombs. It was a little weird walking through the memorial/museum while group of grade school kids taking tours and all looking at me funny.

Midnighter · Aug 6, 2026

EricStratton-RushChairman said:
I may have posted this before, but my wife's Dad was pushed through ND and then MIT with Masters (Chem Eng.) in 1943. He then packed up his young wife and headed to Oakridge to work on The Manhattan Project. He had passed away by the time I met my wife so I never was able to speak with him about it. However, my wife always said he was highly conflicted once he eventually found out what he was working on (he didn't know until after Hiroshima bombing).

I visited Ground Zero and the memorial in Hiroshima back in 2016 and thought the Japanese do a fairly good job presenting their role in WW2 and the background to the use of atomic bombs. It was a little weird walking through the memorial/museum while group of grade school kids taking tours and all looking at me funny.

View attachment 1385242

LIved in Japan for three years and the closest big city was Hiroshima. The memorial there is very humbling. Really amazing story - thanks for sharing.

'Effective service'.....

PSU89er · Aug 6, 2026

EricStratton-RushChairman said:
I visited Ground Zero and the memorial in Hiroshima back in 2016 and thought the Japanese do a fairly good job presenting their role in WW2 and the background to the use of atomic bombs.

Really, because everything I've ever read or heard is that the Japanese did everything to not present how WW2 went down. Like until the advent of the internet they never taught in school that the japanese bombed Pearl Harbor. They basically taught in school that the US being an imperalistic power came across the pacific and the Japanese fought back.

I've read that the Germans have always done a great job of educating their people of what Hitler did and what he was and the damage he caused. The Japanese did the exact opposite. What Japan was doing in the 1930's in China and Korea isn't something that you would want people to know about. Keep in mind, in the Shito religion. Hirohito was considered a living god prior to ww2. You are not going to acknowledge that someone deemed as a deity was in charge of absolute human atrocities for 20 years. Because he was viewed this way by the people of Japan saved his life. US military figure that putting him on trial for war crimes would cause a massive outbreak of guerrilla warfare throughout Japan. The war around Japan would never stop.

EricStratton-RushChairman · Aug 6, 2026

PSU89er said:
Really, because everything I've ever read or heard is that the Japanese did everything to not present how WW2 went down. Like until the advent of the internet they never taught in school that the japanese bombed Pearl Harbor. They basically taught in school that the US being an imperalistic power came across the pacific and the Japanese fought back.

I've read that the Germans have always done a great job of educating their people of what Hitler did and what he was and the damage he caused. The Japanese did the exact opposite. What Japan was doing in the 1930's in China and Korea isn't something that you would want people to know about. Keep in mind, in the Shito religion. Hirohito was considered a living god prior to ww2. You are not going to acknowledge that someone deemed as a deity was in charge of absolute human atrocities for 20 years. Because he was viewed this way by the people of Japan saved his life. US military figure that putting him on trial for war crimes would cause a massive outbreak of guerrilla warfare throughout Japan. The war around Japan would never stop.

I was speaking about the way they present everything at the actual memorial museum at ground zero in Hiroshima. The best book I ever read about how US prepared to occupy and rebuild Japan was The Chrysanthemum and the Sword.

LionJim · Aug 6, 2026

Apropos that I here take the opportunity to promote the go-to book on the Manhattan Program, The Making of the Atom Bomb, by Richard Rhodes. I cannot say enough about this book, gets deep into the science and the personalities. (Rutherford discovering that the atom had a positively charged nucleus is by itself worth the price of admission. And, the story of a crucial male-female coupling that fit just fine in the lab all of a sudden not fitting right smack dab in the middle of the Trinity Test countdown, dang.) I’m your friend. Have I ever lead you wrong? Get the book.

Steve JG · Aug 6, 2026

EricStratton-RushChairman said:
I may have posted this before, but my wife's Dad was pushed through ND and then MIT with Masters (Chem Eng.) in 1943. He then packed up his young wife and headed to Oakridge to work on The Manhattan Project. He had passed away by the time I met my wife so I never was able to speak with him about it. However, my wife always said he was highly conflicted once he eventually found out what he was working on (he didn't know until after Hiroshima bombing).

I visited Ground Zero and the memorial in Hiroshima back in 2016 and thought the Japanese do a fairly good job presenting their role in WW2 and the background to the use of atomic bombs. It was a little weird walking through the memorial/museum while group of grade school kids taking tours and all looking at me funny.

View attachment 1385242

The Atomic Bomb museum in Las Vegas is a very interesting and surprisingly engaging experience Worth doing if you find yourself in Vegas

LafayetteBear · Aug 6, 2026

LionJim said:
Apropos that I here take the opportunity to promote the go-to book on the Manhattan Program, The Making of the Atom Bomb, by Richard Rhodes. I cannot say enough about this book, gets deep into the science and the personalities. (Rutherford discovering that the atom had a positively charged nucleus is by itself worth the price of admission. And, the story of a crucial male-female coupling that fit just fine in the lab all of a sudden not fitting right smack dab in the middle of the Trinity Test countdown, dang.) I’m your friend. Have I ever lead you wrong? Get the book.

When did we ever suggest that we did not consider you our friend?

DELion · Aug 7, 2026

Chemical engineers played a large role in the Manhattan Project. In 1942, the government approached DuPont to assist with the effort. But at the time, there was public sentiment that DuPont was profiteering from wars so the company was reluctant to sign on. They eventually agreed to provide assistance with the caveat that their compensation would be $1. The company was the primary contractor in design and construction of facilities at both Oak Ridge and Hanford.

https://ahf.nuclearmuseum.org/manhattan-project-spotlight-ei-du-pont-de-nemours-company/

Aardvark86 · Aug 7, 2026

DELion said:
Chemical engineers played a large role in the Manhattan Project. In 1942, the government approached DuPont to assist with the effort. But at the time, there was public sentiment that DuPont was profiteering from wars so the company was reluctant to sign on. They eventually agreed to provide assistance with the caveat that their compensation would be $1. The company was the primary contractor in design and construction of facilities at both Oak Ridge and Hanford.

https://ahf.nuclearmuseum.org/manhattan-project-spotlight-ei-du-pont-de-nemours-company/

And a key guy working on that reactor development with DuPont was dr John wheeler, who I met some years ago and whose cabin I will visit in Maine this fall.

out of curiosity, how many of you have read bronowski’s science and human values? My sense is it’s not required for younger generations any more. The intro on his trip to Nagasaki is one of the better openers you’ll find.

razpsu · Aug 7, 2026

EricStratton-RushChairman said:
I may have posted this before, but my wife's Dad was pushed through ND and then MIT with Masters (Chem Eng.) in 1943. He then packed up his young wife and headed to Oakridge to work on The Manhattan Project. He had passed away by the time I met my wife so I never was able to speak with him about it. However, my wife always said he was highly conflicted once he eventually found out what he was working on (he didn't know until after Hiroshima bombing).

I visited Ground Zero and the memorial in Hiroshima back in 2016 and thought the Japanese do a fairly good job presenting their role in WW2 and the background to the use of atomic bombs. It was a little weird walking through the memorial/museum while group of grade school kids taking tours and all looking at me funny.

View attachment 1385242

Your dad saved thousands if not millions of lives. God bless him. My nephew is at los alamos working on nuclear stuff way above my pay grade. Think his team just had a major break through.
For a few trillionths of a second in June 2025, a tiny capsule of fusion fuel—a mix of deuterium and tritium gases—just 2 millimeters across, burned at nearly 260 million degrees Fahrenheit—about 10 times hotter than the core of the sun. “During this brief time frame, our experiment was the hottest point in the solar system,” says physicist R… l….., who was among the Los Alamos National Laboratory scientists who conducted the experiment at the National Ignition Facility (NIF) at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California.

Grant Green · Aug 8, 2026

DELion said:
Chemical engineers played a large role in the Manhattan Project. In 1942, the government approached DuPont to assist with the effort. But at the time, there was public sentiment that DuPont was profiteering from wars so the company was reluctant to sign on. They eventually agreed to provide assistance with the caveat that their compensation would be $1. The company was the primary contractor in design and construction of facilities at both Oak Ridge and Hanford.

https://ahf.nuclearmuseum.org/manhattan-project-spotlight-ei-du-pont-de-nemours-company/

DuPont had been profiteering from just about every significant American conflict and beyond. Its how they built the company.

slight clarification. Compensation was $1 of profit. All expenses were included.

Aardvark86 · Aug 8, 2026

Grant Green said:
DuPont had been profiteering from just about every significant American conflict and beyond. Its how they built the company.

slight clarification. Compensation was $1 of profit. All expenses were included.

Weeeeeelllll… when you make explosives, you make a certain amount of profit from conflict

Grant Green · Aug 8, 2026

Aardvark86 said:
Weeeeeelllll… when you make explosives, you make a certain amount of profit from conflict

And use money and connections to promote entry into conflicts. Includes Henry DuPont who was a US senator and chairman of the committee on expenditures in the military affairs department. He was a big fan of entry into WWI.

ClarkstonMark · Aug 11, 2026

LionJim said:
Apropos that I here take the opportunity to promote the go-to book on the Manhattan Program, The Making of the Atom Bomb, by Richard Rhodes. I cannot say enough about this book, gets deep into the science and the personalities. (Rutherford discovering that the atom had a positively charged nucleus is by itself worth the price of admission. And, the story of a crucial male-female coupling that fit just fine in the lab all of a sudden not fitting right smack dab in the middle of the Trinity Test countdown, dang.) I’m your friend. Have I ever lead you wrong? Get the book.

Got the book. It's ~800 pages, so will take awhile for me to get through.
Thanks for the rec

Pennstatel0 · Aug 12, 2026

LionJim said:
Apropos that I here take the opportunity to promote the go-to book on the Manhattan Program, The Making of the Atom Bomb, by Richard Rhodes. I cannot say enough about this book, gets deep into the science and the personalities. (Rutherford discovering that the atom had a positively charged nucleus is by itself worth the price of admission. And, the story of a crucial male-female coupling that fit just fine in the lab all of a sudden not fitting right smack dab in the middle of the Trinity Test countdown, dang.) I’m your friend. Have I ever lead you wrong? Get the book.

Agree completely. This is one of the finest books I’ve ever read. The first 150 pages or so are a succinct history of atomic physics in the 1900s. Which were led by German, Austrian, and Hungarian Jewish physicists. Hitler made them unwelcome in Germany and they ended up in the US. After about 1942 the science for the bomb was known. The remaining challenge was engineering, figuring out how to purify U235. Thats a quick overview.

LionJim · Aug 13, 2026

ClarkstonMark said:
Got the book, The Making of the Atomic Bomb. It's ~800 pages, so will take awhile for me to get through.
Thanks for the rec

Enjoy the first paragraph, what a classic opening!

EricStratton-RushChairman · Sep 9, 2026

LionJim said:
Apropos that I here take the opportunity to promote the go-to book on the Manhattan Program, The Making of the Atom Bomb, by Richard Rhodes. I cannot say enough about this book, gets deep into the science and the personalities. (Rutherford discovering that the atom had a positively charged nucleus is by itself worth the price of admission. And, the story of a crucial male-female coupling that fit just fine in the lab all of a sudden not fitting right smack dab in the middle of the Trinity Test countdown, dang.) I’m your friend. Have I ever lead you wrong? Get the book.

At your recommendation I am half way through this book currently... it has really sucked me in. My Dad passed back in 2022; he had BS & MS in Chemistry from Notre Dame. I would have loved to speak with him about the science discussed. We would often joke about the difference between engineers (me) and scientists (him). His favorite joke was...

Chemist, biologist, and physicist are standing under a flag pole looking upwards. Engineer walks by and asks what they are doing. "Trying to figure out height of this flag pole" says the chemist. The engineer unscrews the flag pole, lays it down, and measures it as 25 feet. The biologist says, "Typical engineer... we want the height and he gives us the length".

Marshall2323 · Sep 9, 2026

History is written by the victors

LionJim · Sep 9, 2026

EricStratton-RushChairman said:
At your recommendation I am half way through this book currently... it has really sucked me in. My Dad passed back in 2022; he had BS & MS in Chemistry from Notre Dame. I would have loved to speak with him about the science discussed. We would often joke about the difference between engineers (me) and scientists (him). His favorite joke was...

Chemist, biologist, and physicist are standing under a flag pole looking upwards. Engineer walks by and asks what they are doing. "Trying to figure out height of this flag pole" says the chemist. The engineer unscrews the flag pole, lays it down, and measures it as 25 feet. The biologist says, "Typical engineer... we want the height and he gives us the length".

“Really sucked me in,” it’s one of the most fascinating books you can ever read. Glad you’re enjoying it.

Nitt1300 · Sep 9, 2026

Marshall2323 said:
History is written by the victors

with the exception of our Civil War

Marshall2323 · Sep 9, 2026

Nitt1300 said:
with the exception of our Civil War

Well, 70 years ago in elementary school I was taught that the "Civil War was fought to free the slaves."

LionJim · Sep 9, 2026

Nitt1300 said:
with the exception of our Civil War

That’s pretty much changed. “Battle Cry of Freedom” and Ken Burns had a lot to do with that. And you can bring up the southern states secession proclamations any time you like, they lay it on pretty thick.

Nitt1300 · Sep 9, 2026

Marshall2323 said:
Well, 70 years ago in elementary school I was taught that the "Civil War was fought to free the slaves."

you didn't grow up in the south, then

Nitt1300 · Sep 9, 2026

LionJim said:
That’s pretty much changed. “Battle Cry of Freedom” and Ken Burns had a lot to do with that. And you can bring up the southern states secession proclamations any time you like, they lay it on pretty thick.

Marshall2323 · Sep 9, 2026

Nitt1300 said:
you didn't grow up in the south, then

bingo

BobPSU92 · Sep 9, 2026

“What’s so civil about war anyway?”

Still in State Colllege · Sep 9, 2026

then the USA pinned it on a couple of scapegoats

FGDreadnought · Sep 9, 2026

while in Los Alamos on an afternoon off from a board meeting, we toured the Bradbury Museum, great info and examples of the bombs. I'd advise anyone who visits Los Alamos to take in the museum. It is "off the beaten track" so to say and along the way you can visit cliff dwellings as a bonus. We thought so much of the visit we dropped by again with our children to show them the site of the bomb creation and cliff dwellings on the way to summiting Wheeler Peak and Taos Ski Valley, great trip.

bdgan · Sep 9, 2026

EricStratton-RushChairman said:
It was a little weird walking through the memorial/museum while group of grade school kids taking tours and all looking at me funny

I felt the same way several decades ago when I visited Pearly Harbor and was surrounded by Japanese visitors

massimoManca II · Sep 9, 2026

Marshall2323 said:
Well, 70 years ago in elementary school I was taught that the "Civil War was fought to free the slaves."

Kinda … but we weren’t taught the full story ….

Contrary to everything we were taught “the North” wasn’t exactly noble about their fight against slavery: essentially the North’s end game was that a free South would end the flow of fleeing black folk heading north … Hearing that in Dr. Philip Klein’s HST21 lecture that day in Spring ‘88 was a jaw-dropper

SkiSkiSki · Sep 9, 2026

Still in State Colllege said:
then the USA pinned it on a couple of scapegoats

View attachment 1428840

Compare those 2 cities to the city that wasn't a scapegoat:

Direct Casualty Comparison

Raid / Event	Date	Estimated Immediate Deaths	Total Estimated Deaths (End of 1945)	Estimated Injuries	Area Destroyed
Tokyo Firebombing (Operation Meetinghouse)	March 9–10, 1945	~80,000 – 100,000+	~100,000+	40,000 – 100,000+	~16 sq. miles (41 km²)
Hiroshima (Little Boy / Uranium)	August 6, 1945	~70,000 – 80,000	~90,000 – 140,000	~70,000+	~4.7 sq. miles (12 km²)
Nagasaki (Fat Man / Plutonium)	August 9, 1945	~35,000 – 40,000	~60,000 – 80,000	~60,000+	~1.8 sq. miles (4.7 km²)

Nitt1300 · Sep 9, 2026

massimoManca II said:
Kinda … but we weren’t taught the full story ….

Contrary to everything we were taught “the North” wasn’t exactly noble about their fight against slavery: essentially the North’s end game was that a free South would end the flow of fleeing black folk heading north … Hearing that in Dr. Philip Klein’s HST21 lecture that day in Spring ‘88 was a jaw-dropper

that's laughable

Still in State Colllege · Sep 9, 2026

SkiSkiSki said:
Compare those 2 cities to the city that wasn't a scapegoat:

Direct Casualty Comparison

Raid / Event Date Estimated Immediate Deaths Total Estimated Deaths (End of 1945) Estimated Injuries Area Destroyed
Tokyo Firebombing
(Operation Meetinghouse) March 9–10, 1945 ~80,000 – 100,000+ ~100,000+ 40,000 – 100,000+ ~16 sq. miles (41 km²)
Hiroshima
(Little Boy / Uranium) August 6, 1945 ~70,000 – 80,000 ~90,000 – 140,000 ~70,000+ ~4.7 sq. miles (12 km²)
Nagasaki
(Fat Man / Plutonium) August 9, 1945 ~35,000 – 40,000 ~60,000 – 80,000 ~60,000+ ~1.8 sq. miles (4.7 km²)

It will be interesting if we see another war ever like WWII where there was no such thing as collateral damage. Nothing was off limits.

nittanymoops · Sep 9, 2026

Still in State Colllege said:
It will be interesting if we see another war ever like WWII where there was no such thing as collateral damage. Nothing was off limits.

It won’t be “interesting.” It’ll be Armageddon.

G3624 · Sep 9, 2026

I guess being born in 1955 on Nagasaki air force base could explain some things.

Binder74 · Sep 9, 2026

EricStratton-RushChairman said:
At your recommendation I am half way through this book currently... it has really sucked me in. My Dad passed back in 2022; he had BS & MS in Chemistry from Notre Dame. I would have loved to speak with him about the science discussed. We would often joke about the difference between engineers (me) and scientists (him). His favorite joke was...

Chemist, biologist, and physicist are standing under a flag pole looking upwards. Engineer walks by and asks what they are doing. "Trying to figure out height of this flag pole" says the chemist. The engineer unscrews the flag pole, lays it down, and measures it as 25 feet. The biologist says, "Typical engineer... we want the height and he gives us the length".

A side note about engineers.

A few years ago, I helped someone move and one of the helpers was an engineer. The box truck being used had plenty of room. Everyone except the engineer are bringing out the furniture and we're making good progress. Everything bogs down at the truck as the engineer is trying to pack the truck in the most optimum way.

I have nothing against engineers and one of my neighbors was one. He was a great guy but they are just different.

EricStratton-RushChairman · Sep 9, 2026

Binder74 said:
A side note about engineers.

A few years ago, I helped someone move and one of the helpers was an engineer. The box truck being used had plenty of room. Everyone except the engineer are bringing out the furniture and we're making good progress. Everything bogs down at the truck as the engineer is trying to pack the truck in the most optimum way.

I have nothing against engineers and one of my neighbors was one. He was a great guy but they are just different.

Loading a dish washer can be my kryptonite

massimoManca II · Sep 9, 2026

Nitt1300 said:
that's laughable

That tracks

Pennstatel0 · Sep 10, 2026

I took a new job at a cancer institute back in the 1990s. The institute had a contract with a specific moving company that moved many new hires.

About halfway through the move, I walked into the foyer as one mover says to the other “I hate moving fckn doctors. This guy must have almost a hundred boxes of books”

Actually, it was 183. But whos counting.

saturdaysarebetter · Sep 10, 2026

bdgan said:
I felt the same way several decades ago when I visited Pearly Harbor and was surrounded by Japanese visitors

I had that same experience and wondered what they were saying to the Japanese visitors that were there.

81 years ago today... the ultimate FAFO day

All-American

Heisman

Junior

All-American

Heisman

All-Conference

Heisman

Senior

All-Conference

Heisman

All-American

All-Conference

All-American

All-Conference

Senior

Heisman

All-American

All-American

Heisman

Heisman

All-American

Heisman

Heisman

Heisman

All-American

Heisman

All-Conference

Redshirt

All-American

Senior

All-Conference

Direct Casualty Comparison​

Heisman

All-Conference

Direct Casualty Comparison​

All-Conference

Senior

Senior

All-American

Senior

Senior

All-Conference

Direct Casualty Comparison

Direct Casualty Comparison