Thomas Farrell
Encyclopedia
Major General Thomas Francis Farrell (December 3, 1891–April 11, 1967) was the Deputy Commanding General and Chief of Field Operations of the Manhattan Engineer District
, acting as executive officer to General Leslie Groves
.
, the son of John Joseph Farrell, Sr. and Margaret Connolly. He graduated from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
in 1912. He worked on the Panama Canal
from 1913 to 1916. He served in the 1st Engineers in the American Expeditionary Force
in France in 1918 and while serving won the Distinguished Service Cross
. He resigned from the Regular Army in 1926, and as a civilian became the head of construction and engineering of the New York State Department of Public Works.
Groves
, Farrell returned to active duty with the rank of Lieutenant Colonel
to act as Groves' executive officer in the Operations Branch of the Construction Division under the Office of the Quartermaster General. Gen. Farrell went to the China-Burma-India
theatre to help build the Burma Road
. In January 1945, General Groves chose Farrell as his second-in-command
, and Farrell was stationed in Los Alamos
.
On signing a receipt for the plutonium
from Oak Ridge
, Farrell commented, "I recall that I asked them if I was going to sign for it shouldn't I take it and handle it. So I took this heavy ball in my hand and I felt it growing warm, I got a certain sense of its hidden power. It wasn't a cold piece of metal, but it was really a piece of metal that seemed to be working inside. Then maybe for the first time I began to believe some of the fantastic tales the scientists had told about this nuclear power."
Farrell supervised the Trinity test
at Alamogordo, observing at the 10-mile bunker with J. Robert Oppenheimer. In his report on the test, he stated, "The effects could well be called unprecedented, magnificent, beautiful, stupendous, and terrifying. No man-made phenomenon of such tremendous power had ever occurred before...It lit every peak, crevasse and ridge of the nearby mountain range with a clarity and beauty that cannot be described but must be seen to be imagined. Seconds after the explosion came, the air blast pressed hard against the people watching, to be followed almost immediately by the strong, sustained, awesome roar which warned of doomsday and made us feel we puny things were blasphemous to dare tamper with the forces previously reserved for the Almighty."
In August, he went to Tinian
to hand-deliver the orders from President Truman
to Col. Paul Tibbets
(commander of the Enola Gay
). He signed the bomb, "To Hirohito
, with love, T. F. Farrell."
and Nagasaki to inspect the effects of the atomic bombs on those cities.
After the war, Farrell was promoted to the rank of Major General
. He retired from active service in April 1946.
He was appointed chairman of the New York City Housing Authority
by Mayor William O'Dwyer
on Robert Moses
's recommendation. He subsequently worked as a consultant for the Triborough Bridge and Tunnel Authority
on projects such as the Cross Bronx Expressway.
His children were Thomas, Barbara, Peter, Patricia, and Stephen. His son, Thomas Jr., graduated from West Point, received the Distinguished Service Cross, and died at Anzio
in 1944; a port repair ship, the USS Thomas F. Farrell Jr., was named in his honor. Farrell's daughter, Barbara Farrell Vucanovich, was the first woman from Nevada
to be elected to the United States House of Representatives
, serving from 1983 to 1997. Farrell's granddaughter, Patty Cafferata, served as State Treasurer of Nevada from 1983 to 1987.
Farrell died of cancer in April, 1967.
Manhattan Project
The Manhattan Project was a research and development program, led by the United States with participation from the United Kingdom and Canada, that produced the first atomic bomb during World War II. From 1942 to 1946, the project was under the direction of Major General Leslie Groves of the US Army...
, acting as executive officer to General Leslie Groves
Leslie Groves
Lieutenant General Leslie Richard Groves, Jr. was a United States Army Corps of Engineers officer who oversaw the construction of the Pentagon and directed the Manhattan Project that developed the atomic bomb during World War II. As the son of a United States Army chaplain, Groves lived at a...
.
Before World War II
Farrell was born in 1891 in Troy, New YorkTroy, New York
Troy is a city in the US State of New York and the seat of Rensselaer County. Troy is located on the western edge of Rensselaer County and on the eastern bank of the Hudson River. Troy has close ties to the nearby cities of Albany and Schenectady, forming a region popularly called the Capital...
, the son of John Joseph Farrell, Sr. and Margaret Connolly. He graduated from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
Stephen Van Rensselaer established the Rensselaer School on November 5, 1824 with a letter to the Rev. Dr. Samuel Blatchford, in which van Rensselaer asked Blatchford to serve as the first president. Within the letter he set down several orders of business. He appointed Amos Eaton as the school's...
in 1912. He worked on the Panama Canal
Panama Canal
The Panama Canal is a ship canal in Panama that joins the Atlantic Ocean and the Pacific Ocean and is a key conduit for international maritime trade. Built from 1904 to 1914, the canal has seen annual traffic rise from about 1,000 ships early on to 14,702 vessels measuring a total of 309.6...
from 1913 to 1916. He served in the 1st Engineers in the American Expeditionary Force
American Expeditionary Force
The American Expeditionary Forces or AEF were the United States Armed Forces sent to Europe in World War I. During the United States campaigns in World War I the AEF fought in France alongside British and French allied forces in the last year of the war, against Imperial German forces...
in France in 1918 and while serving won the Distinguished Service Cross
Distinguished Service Cross (United States)
The Distinguished Service Cross is the second highest military decoration that can be awarded to a member of the United States Army, for extreme gallantry and risk of life in actual combat with an armed enemy force. Actions that merit the Distinguished Service Cross must be of such a high degree...
. He resigned from the Regular Army in 1926, and as a civilian became the head of construction and engineering of the New York State Department of Public Works.
The Manhattan Project
In February 1941 at the direction of then-ColonelColonel
Colonel , abbreviated Col or COL, is a military rank of a senior commissioned officer. It or a corresponding rank exists in most armies and in many air forces; the naval equivalent rank is generally "Captain". It is also used in some police forces and other paramilitary rank structures...
Groves
Leslie Groves
Lieutenant General Leslie Richard Groves, Jr. was a United States Army Corps of Engineers officer who oversaw the construction of the Pentagon and directed the Manhattan Project that developed the atomic bomb during World War II. As the son of a United States Army chaplain, Groves lived at a...
, Farrell returned to active duty with the rank of Lieutenant Colonel
Lieutenant colonel
Lieutenant colonel is a rank of commissioned officer in the armies and most marine forces and some air forces of the world, typically ranking above a major and below a colonel. The rank of lieutenant colonel is often shortened to simply "colonel" in conversation and in unofficial correspondence...
to act as Groves' executive officer in the Operations Branch of the Construction Division under the Office of the Quartermaster General. Gen. Farrell went to the China-Burma-India
China Burma India Theater of World War II
China Burma India Theater was the name used by the United States Army for its forces operating in conjunction with British and Chinese Allied air and land forces in China, Burma, and India during World War II...
theatre to help build the Burma Road
Burma Road
The Burma Road is a road linking Burma with the southwest of China. Its terminals are Kunming, Yunnan, and Lashio, Burma. When it was built, Burma was a British colony.The road is long and runs through rough mountain country...
. In January 1945, General Groves chose Farrell as his second-in-command
Second-in-command
The Second-in-Command is the deputy commander of any British Army or Royal Marines unit, from battalion or regiment downwards. He or she is thus the equivalent of an Executive Officer in the United States Army...
, and Farrell was stationed in Los Alamos
Los Alamos National Laboratory
Los Alamos National Laboratory is a United States Department of Energy national laboratory, managed and operated by Los Alamos National Security , located in Los Alamos, New Mexico...
.
On signing a receipt for the plutonium
Plutonium
Plutonium is a transuranic radioactive chemical element with the chemical symbol Pu and atomic number 94. It is an actinide metal of silvery-gray appearance that tarnishes when exposed to air, forming a dull coating when oxidized. The element normally exhibits six allotropes and four oxidation...
from Oak Ridge
Oak Ridge, Tennessee
Oak Ridge is a city in Anderson and Roane counties in the eastern part of the U.S. state of Tennessee, about west of Knoxville. Oak Ridge's population was 27,387 at the 2000 census...
, Farrell commented, "I recall that I asked them if I was going to sign for it shouldn't I take it and handle it. So I took this heavy ball in my hand and I felt it growing warm, I got a certain sense of its hidden power. It wasn't a cold piece of metal, but it was really a piece of metal that seemed to be working inside. Then maybe for the first time I began to believe some of the fantastic tales the scientists had told about this nuclear power."
Farrell supervised the Trinity test
Trinity test
Trinity was the code name of the first test of a nuclear weapon. This test was conducted by the United States Army on July 16, 1945, in the Jornada del Muerto desert about 35 miles southeast of Socorro, New Mexico, at the new White Sands Proving Ground, which incorporated the Alamogordo Bombing...
at Alamogordo, observing at the 10-mile bunker with J. Robert Oppenheimer. In his report on the test, he stated, "The effects could well be called unprecedented, magnificent, beautiful, stupendous, and terrifying. No man-made phenomenon of such tremendous power had ever occurred before...It lit every peak, crevasse and ridge of the nearby mountain range with a clarity and beauty that cannot be described but must be seen to be imagined. Seconds after the explosion came, the air blast pressed hard against the people watching, to be followed almost immediately by the strong, sustained, awesome roar which warned of doomsday and made us feel we puny things were blasphemous to dare tamper with the forces previously reserved for the Almighty."
In August, he went to Tinian
Tinian
Tinian is one of the three principal islands of the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands.-Geography:Tinian is about 5 miles southwest of its sister island, Saipan, from which it is separated by the Saipan Channel. It has a land area of 39 sq.mi....
to hand-deliver the orders from President Truman
Harry S. Truman
Harry S. Truman was the 33rd President of the United States . As President Franklin D. Roosevelt's third vice president and the 34th Vice President of the United States , he succeeded to the presidency on April 12, 1945, when President Roosevelt died less than three months after beginning his...
to Col. Paul Tibbets
Paul Tibbets
Paul Warfield Tibbets, Jr. was a brigadier general in the United States Air Force, best known for being the pilot of the Enola Gay, the first aircraft to drop an atomic bomb in the history of warfare. The bomb, code-named Little Boy, was dropped on the Japanese city of Hiroshima...
(commander of the Enola Gay
Enola Gay
Enola Gay is a Boeing B-29 Superfortress bomber, named after Enola Gay Tibbets, mother of the pilot, then-Colonel Paul Tibbets. On August 6, 1945, during the final stages of World War II, it became the first aircraft to drop an atomic bomb as a weapon of war...
). He signed the bomb, "To Hirohito
Hirohito
, posthumously in Japan officially called Emperor Shōwa or , was the 124th Emperor of Japan according to the traditional order, reigning from December 25, 1926, until his death in 1989. Although better known outside of Japan by his personal name Hirohito, in Japan he is now referred to...
, with love, T. F. Farrell."
Post-war
On August 30, 1945, Farrell led teams of scientists to HiroshimaHiroshima
is the capital of Hiroshima Prefecture, and the largest city in the Chūgoku region of western Honshu, the largest island of Japan. It became best known as the first city in history to be destroyed by a nuclear weapon when the United States Army Air Forces dropped an atomic bomb on it at 8:15 A.M...
and Nagasaki to inspect the effects of the atomic bombs on those cities.
After the war, Farrell was promoted to the rank of Major General
Major General
Major general or major-general is a military rank used in many countries. It is derived from the older rank of sergeant major general. A major general is a high-ranking officer, normally subordinate to the rank of lieutenant general and senior to the ranks of brigadier and brigadier general...
. He retired from active service in April 1946.
He was appointed chairman of the New York City Housing Authority
New York City Housing Authority
The New York City Housing Authority provides public housing for low- and moderate-income residents throughout the five boroughs of New York City. NYCHA also administers a citywide Section 8 Leased Housing Program in rental apartments...
by Mayor William O'Dwyer
William O'Dwyer
William O'Dwyer was the 100th Mayor of New York City, holding that office from 1946 to 1950.-Biography:O'Dwyer was born in County Mayo, Ireland and migrated to the United States in 1910, after abandoning studies for the priesthood...
on Robert Moses
Robert Moses
Robert Moses was the "master builder" of mid-20th century New York City, Long Island, Rockland County, and Westchester County, New York. As the shaper of a modern city, he is sometimes compared to Baron Haussmann of Second Empire Paris, and is one of the most polarizing figures in the history of...
's recommendation. He subsequently worked as a consultant for the Triborough Bridge and Tunnel Authority
Triborough Bridge and Tunnel Authority
MTA Bridges and Tunnels, legal name Triborough Bridge and Tunnel Authority, is a division of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, that operates seven intrastate toll bridges and two tunnels in New York City...
on projects such as the Cross Bronx Expressway.
His children were Thomas, Barbara, Peter, Patricia, and Stephen. His son, Thomas Jr., graduated from West Point, received the Distinguished Service Cross, and died at Anzio
Operation Shingle
Operation Shingle , during the Italian Campaign of World War II, was an Allied amphibious landing against Axis forces in the area of Anzio and Nettuno, Italy. The operation was commanded by Major General John P. Lucas and was intended to outflank German forces of the Winter Line and enable an...
in 1944; a port repair ship, the USS Thomas F. Farrell Jr., was named in his honor. Farrell's daughter, Barbara Farrell Vucanovich, was the first woman from Nevada
Nevada
Nevada is a state in the western, mountain west, and southwestern regions of the United States. With an area of and a population of about 2.7 million, it is the 7th-largest and 35th-most populous state. Over two-thirds of Nevada's people live in the Las Vegas metropolitan area, which contains its...
to be elected to the United States House of Representatives
United States House of Representatives
The United States House of Representatives is one of the two Houses of the United States Congress, the bicameral legislature which also includes the Senate.The composition and powers of the House are established in Article One of the Constitution...
, serving from 1983 to 1997. Farrell's granddaughter, Patty Cafferata, served as State Treasurer of Nevada from 1983 to 1987.
Farrell died of cancer in April, 1967.