William Sterling Parsons

William Sterling Parsons.
William Sterling Parsons (1901–1953), nicknamed "Deak", was an American naval officer who was the weaponeer on the Enola Gay for the atomic bombing of Hiroshima, Japan, on 6 August 1945. To avoid the possibility of a catastrophic nuclear explosion if the aircraft crashed and burned on takeoff, he climbed into the cramped and dark bomb bay and armed Little Boy in flight. He was awarded the Silver Star for his part in the mission. Before he joined the Manhattan Project in June 1943, he was involved in the development of the proximity fuze. As the associate director of the Project Y research laboratory at Los Alamos under J. Robert Oppenheimer, he was responsible for the ordnance aspects of the project, including the design and testing of the non-nuclear components of nuclear weapons. He was also in charge of the development of the Little Boy gun-type fission weapon. After the war, he was promoted to rear admiral, and later became deputy commander of the Armed Forces Special Weapons Project.