reground is the

Dave McDonald ranch house, not to be confused with the George McDonald ranch where the bomb's core was assembled. Army on Jan. 26, 1945. He said he passed through four camps, took basic for two days and arrived at Trinity Site on Feb. 17. On arriving he was put in charge of what he called the "East Jesus and Socorro Light and Water Company." It was a one-man operation --himself. He was respons

ible for maintaining generators, wells, pumps and doing the power-line work. A friend of Rudder's, Loren Bourg, had a similar experience. He was a fireman in civilian life and ended up trained as a fireman for the Army. He worked as the station sergeant at Los Alamos before being sent to Trinity Site inApril1945. In a letter Bourg said, "I was sent down here to take over the fire prevention and fire department. Upon arrival I found I was the fire department, period." As the soldiers at Trinity Site settled in they became familiar with Socorro. They