Here is a transcription of the interview of Lee Rogers.

During the summer of 1945, Lee Rogers worked as a summer student at building 488, on the JPG bomb-field as a Pyrotechnics Technician.  “My main job was to help time the bombs and apparatus tested here.  There were a series of buttons around the edge of the wall where we could see the bomb-field on a shelf attached under the slanted windows.  As the aircraft approached and dropped the Illuminating round, I would push the button when the flare burst and then again when the flare stopped burning.  That interval was the time of burning. 

It was quite often that the flare was still burning when it hit the ground. Sometimes there were instances where we could not even see the flare when the plane dropped it was off target. The windows were slanted so we could see the planes coming in.  You could see the area completely around on all four walls. But the bomb field was mainly on the west side of bldg 488.  We had stools to sit on.  This is probably the clock bank where the data was collected.  There was a bank of clocks on three or four sides. Twelve clocks on each side.  We could time different operations at a time.

     We came in and met down on the main campus of JPG.  We would congregate bring up a bus on 421, thru New Marion and come in the north gate.  Our work depended on the Air Force when they were dropping experimental bombs,  or flares.  They were small bombers.  They were from JPG and Wright Field in Dayton.  I think during this time we tested what we called the VT proximity fuse, they had just invented radar and these fuses would detonate at a certain elevation.  This fuse was I think tested here and later used on the Atomic Bomb.

     Mostly I remember working here and we would go out in these cameras we would notice the elevation that the bomb would burst.  We would detect these thru our special camera.  I think these cameras were east and west of the bomb field.  I think there were probably two.  When the plane came in we would go out  in the cameras and sit and wait for the bombs to come in.  We had radio contact with the office and they would tell us when to be careful and watch for the bombs.  Some dropped close  by. 

We had an incident where we were expecting the bomb to come in.  I looked and looked but could never see the flash.  When they called me back in, I opened the door  and there was a whole about ten feet from our camera.  That hole was roughly 10 inches in diameter, I don’t know how deep it was, I could not see the bottom, but it missed the camera about 10 feet.  The camera was about ½ a mile to a mile south of building 488.  It was about ¼ mile off target.”

-------------------------------------Lee Rogers talking to Mike Moore, January 19, 2006