A Wisconsin Dells native whose loss of a coin flip kept him off the plane that dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima has died in Albuquerque, N.M., at the age of 92. Leon D. Smith left UW-Madison as a student and was drafted into the Army in 1943. Two years later, he was an electrical engineer and one of three “weaponeers” on the Pacific island of Tinian preparing the atomic bombs “Little Boy” and “Fat Man” for delivery. He played an integral part in assembling the bombs that ended the war, having transferred from the Army to the Army Air Force after suffering extensive hearing loss. The transfer and his UW-Madison background in electrical engineering placed him on the Manhattan Project, where he was assigned to the Army Air Force?s 509th Composite Group, specifically training to deliver the atomic bomb.
Office of Strategic Communication