Leslie Groves

Main article: Leslie Groves

Leslie Richard Groves Jr. (17 August 1896 – 13 July 1970) was a United States Army Corps of Engineers officer. He is best known for two big jobs he did during World War II.

The Pentagon

He oversaw the building of the Pentagon. This is the big office building that became the home of the United States War Department.

The Manhattan Project

Even more importantly, he led the Manhattan Project. This was a secret research program that made the atomic bomb.

Early Life and Career

Groves came from a military family. He went to school at the United States Military Academy at West Point. Before the Manhattan Project began in 1942, he had worked on construction and planning. This helped him manage the big job of building places across the United States for research and making the bomb.

Leadership in the Manhattan Project

He chose important locations such as Oak Ridge, Tennessee, Los Alamos, New Mexico, and Hanford, Washington for the project. Groves made many big decisions during this time.

After World War II

After the war, he kept working on nuclear weapons projects until 1947. Later, he worked for a private company, Sperry Rand. His work on the atomic bomb changed history forever.

Early life

Leslie Richard Groves Jr. was born on 17 August 1896 in Albany, New York. His father was a pastor who later became a United States Army chaplain. Because of his father's job, Groves moved often between many Army posts.

He went to Queen Anne High School and later tried to join the United States Military Academy at West Point. He didn’t get in the first time, but he tried again and succeeded. He began at West Point on 15 June 1916. When the United States joined World War I in 1917, the training time was made shorter. Groves finished fourth in his class and became a second lieutenant in the Corps of Engineers.

Between the wars

After finishing at West Point, Leslie Groves went to Camp A. A. Humphreys in Virginia. He studied at the Engineer School and later commanded a company at Fort Benning, Georgia.

He married Grace Wilson in 1922, and they had two children.

Groves served in Hawaii and helped build a trail. He also worked in Galveston, Texas, where he supervised important construction projects. Later, he led a survey team in Nicaragua and helped restore water supplies after an earthquake. He earned an award for his efforts.

World War II

Construction Division

Leslie Groves was promoted to major in 1940. He helped prepare buildings and spaces for the growing U.S. Army. Groves was a strong leader who could get things done. He made changes to make construction faster and better, so that camps and buildings were ready on time.

By late 1940, Groves took charge of a part of the Construction Division. He used new ways to speed up building, like deciding what to build first and making sure materials arrived quickly. His work helped get many men ready for service, with homes for two million men almost done by mid-December 1940.

Manhattan Project

The Manhattan Project was a secret effort to build the atomic bomb during World War II. It started in 1942, and General Groves led it. He made sure the project kept moving forward, handling scientists, engineers, and big building projects. Groves chose J. Robert Oppenheimer to lead the science team at Los Alamos in New Mexico. The project had to find materials like uranium and thorium. By 1945, the Manhattan Project had made atomic bombs. These bombs were later used in Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan.

After the war

Responsibility for nuclear power and nuclear weapons moved from the Manhattan District to the Atomic Energy Commission on 1 January 1947. Groves became chief of the Armed Forces Special Weapons Project in February 1947. This office moved to the Pentagon in April.

In January 1948, the Chief of Staff of the United States Army, General of the Army Dwight D. Eisenhower, spoke with Groves about his work. Later that month, Groves was given an honorary promotion to lieutenant general. He retired from the Army on 29 February 1948.

Later life

After his time in the military, Groves became a vice president at Sperry Rand. He moved to Darien, Connecticut in 1948. He retired in 1961 and wrote a book about the Manhattan Project called Now It Can Be Told.

In 1964, Groves went back to Washington, D.C. He died in 1970 from a heart attack. A funeral service was held at Fort Myer, Virginia, and he was buried at Arlington National Cemetery.

Legacy

Groves is remembered with a park named after him along the Columbia River near the Hanford Site in Richland, Washington. At the United States Military Academy, an award called the LTG Leslie R. Groves Award is given to the best cadet in nuclear engineering classes.

Many movies and shows have shown Groves. He appeared in a 1980 British TV series and in several films. These include a 1989 film where Paul Newman played him, and a 2023 film directed by Christopher Nolan starring Matt Damon.

Dates of rank

Leslie Groves had a long and important career in the U.S. Army. He was promoted through the ranks, showing his skill and leadership. His work included overseeing the building of the Pentagon and leading the Manhattan Project during World War II. These were both very big and important jobs.