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A typical warship was a very high reflector of radar—a radar profile equal to about fifty barns. Our frigate would show up a hell of a lot smaller than a dinghy. By the time we were ready for full-scale testing in the early summer of 1985, the Navy was eager to subject our prototype to the most rigorous radar testing imaginable. Several of their radar experts claimed that there was no way we could duplicate the low radar cross section achieved by a thirty-foot model in a pool with a full-size prototype on the real ocean. We had heard those same skeptical predictions before from the Air Force over our stealth airplane, but in the wonderful world of stealth, once we had acquired the right shape, the size of an object really didn’t matter. The military had a tough time understanding that basic fact.
Skunk Works
Ben R. Rich and Leo Janos
It started for Bradley, finally, with Russell’s unfortunate injury in January 1969, which ended a ferocious rivalry even in practices that awed teammates. Bradley would admit later he never could relax as a pro until after the Russell injury. “We are having the 40th anniversary celebration of our championship at this hotel here in New York and I see Cazzie and I realize there’s still something between us,” Bradley related. “When I ran for president, Cazzie participated in an event in Chicago. The next day we’re told to get to the Garden early because the current Knicks would like to meet the championship Knicks. One guy shows up, David Lee. We’re in the room and Cazzie says, ‘Can I talk to you, Bill?’ He says, ‘I’m a Christian preacher now in South Carolina and I cannot preach my best sermon if there’s anything that’s heavy on my heart. So if I ever did anything in those years that hurt or offended you, would you forgive me?’ And I say, ‘Cazzie, of course. If I ever said anything that offended you, would you forgive me?’ And he said, ‘Of course.’ And we hugged and 40 years of tension disappeared. One of the more beautiful moments in my life.”
Truman’s indignation disguised his own great uneasiness about bombs that destroyed entire cities. In the last days of the war, Los Alamos had cast a third plutonium core for shipment out to Tinian, where a Fat Man high-explosive assembly was ready to receive it. Truman decided not to authorize its use and told his Cabinet why; Secretary of Commerce Henry Wallace noted the President’s reason in his diary: “Truman said he had given orders to stop the atomic bombing. He said the thought of wiping out another 100,000 people was too horrible. He didn’t like the idea of killing, as he said, ‘all those kids.’ ”881 In October, not long before his confrontation with Oppenheimer, already impatient with Soviet intransigence in Eastern Europe, Truman had complained to his budget director, Harold D. Smith, “There are some people in the world who do not seem to understand anything except the number of divisions you have.” Smith had rejoined in the Jimmy Byrnes mode, “Mr. President, you have an atomic bomb up your sleeve.” And Truman had concluded somberly, “Yes, but I am not sure it can ever be used.”
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