- Frederick Ashworth
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For the rugby league footballer of the 1920s and '30s for Cumberland, and Oldham, see Fred Ashworth.
Frederick Lincoln Ashworth
Frederick Ashworth in 2004Nickname Dick Born 24 January 1912
raised at Beverly, MassachusettsDied 3 December 2005
Phoenix, ArizonaAllegiance United States of America Service/branch United States Navy Years of service 1933-1968 Rank Vice Admiral Unit Manhattan Project
Commander, U.S. 6th FleetBattles/wars World War II Vice Admiral Frederick Lincoln "Dick" Ashworth (January 24, 1912 – December 3, 2005) was a United States Navy officer who served as the weaponeer on the B-29 Bockscar that dropped the atomic bomb "Fat Man" on Nagasaki, Japan on August 9, 1945.
- Main Article: Atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki
Contents
Early life
A native of Beverly, Massachusetts, Ashworth graduated from Beverly High School in 1928. He graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy in 1933.
Holding the rank of commander, he became Director of Operations for Project Alberta, the portion of the Manhattan Project tasked with dropping of the weapons on Japan, and selected Tinian as the location of its operating airbase. The director of Project Alberta, Captain William Parsons, had been weaponeer during the first mission August 6, when Hiroshima had been bombed.
Prior to his being named to Project Alberta, Ashworth had been commander of Torpedo Squadron Eleven (VT-11), a Grumman TBF Avenger unit based on Guadalcanal and the USS Hornet.
Ashworth remained in the Navy after the war and was Commandant of Midshipmen at the United States Naval Academy in 1958. He was promoted to vice admiral and served as commander of the United States Sixth Fleet from 1966 until his retirement in 1968.
Retirement
Frederick L. Ashworth lived for over three decades in Santa Fe, New Mexico. He died in Phoenix, Arizona at the age of 93.
See also
External links
References
- Brown, Edward R. What Only Two Could Do: Frederick Lincoln Ashworth, a Beverly High School Graduate and the Delivery of the Atomic Bomb. Beverly, Mass.: Beverly Historical Society, 2006.
Categories:- 1912 births
- 2005 deaths
- American military personnel of World War II
- People from Beverly, Massachusetts
- People from Santa Fe, New Mexico
- Manhattan Project people
- United States Naval Academy alumni
- United States Navy admirals
- United States Navy personnel stubs
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