TARGET HIROSHIMA, by Al Christman, U.S. Naval Institute Press, Annapolis, Md., 1998; 305 pages, $29.95 cloth.

“Target Hiroshima,” by Al Christman is subtitled “Deak Parsons and the Creation of the Atomic Bomb.” And that’s essentially what it is: a history of how the bomb came to be and a biography of William “Deak” Parsons, the Navy admiral and scientist who as weaponeer on the bomber Enola Gay completed the assembly of the atomic bomb dubbed “Little Boy” during the flight to Hiroshima in 1945. “As bomb commander,” the author writes, “he approved the release of the bomb that forever changed the world.”

The book also touches on Parsons’ visits to Hancock Point in Maine, where he courted his wife, Martha Cluverius. Their daughter, Peggy Parsons Bowditch, continues to summer here.

In his opening chapter, “A New Kind of Warrior,” Christman writes, “Deak Parsons’ naval career spanned the years 1918 to 1953, a full cycle from post World War I to post World War II. During that time the relationship between American science and the military changed from indifference to collaboration. The result was a weapons revolution that perfected radar and created the first mass-produced smart weapons, modern military rockets, guided missiles, and the atomic bomb. Parsons played active roles, both military and technical, in these major advances. His is a life that reveals both lessons and cautions concerning the use of science for military purposes. It is the life of a new kind of warrior.”

In his preface, Christman, a retired Air Force major and a naval historian, writes about the 32 years he has worked on this book. He says it was difficult to produce a Parsons biography until now because “most of the records that could give substance to his achievements remained classified for security reasons.” As he writes, “In the Parsons odyssey we view the perspective of the military officer who worked most intimately with the Los Alamos scientists. We accompany him as he plans for and then takes charge of the overseas assembly of the combat bombs. We accompany him as bomb commander on the Hiroshima mission. We enter the nuclear age with Parsons as the Atomic Admiral who did the initial planning for Operation Crossroads and then provided technical direction in its execution. Through him we see the problems, the possibilities, and the limitations not only of nuclear energy but of other technological advances that came out of the World War II scientific mobilization.”

It was when he was a student at the Naval Academy at Annapolis that William Parsons became known as “Deak.” As the author explains, “Playing on the name Parsons, the midshipmen bestowed upon the serious young man from New Mexico the moniker Deacon. Deacon soon contracted to Deke or Deak — a nickname that would cling to him even as he went to sea, to naval proving grounds, and into scientific laboratories.”

Born in Chicago in 1901, Parsons grew up in the small town of Fort Sumner, N.M. His father had moved his city family to the town so his children would “have the freedom of the new West.” As a young man, Deak Parsons “craved the drama of physical discovery: the secrets of electrical creation, schematics of engines, the wonders of the vacuum tube, the principles of flight.”

He entered the Naval Academy in 1917, and it was at Annapolis that he met the admiral’s daughter, Martha Cluverius, whom he was to marry. Martha was a member of one of America’s most prestigious Navy families, the Sampsons, long a prominent Maine summer family on Hancock Point.

Deak had been a classmate of Adm. Jack Crenshaw’s and was best man at Crenshaw’s wedding when he married Elizabeth Cluverius, Martha’s sister. Martha was the maid of honor.

“Target Hiroshima” includes many references to life on Hancock Point in the summers. In 1939, Deak and Martha were to spend their last summer in Maine until after the war and the completion of the secret “Manhattan Project.” As the author writes, that summer “they made the most of this time together in Maine: clambakes, tennis, square-dancing, and, if family legend is correct, frequent episodes of sneaking off alone together for `beer in the bushes.”‘

Besides interviewing Deak’s widow, Christman also interviewed their daughter, Peggy, who tells what it was like to have been a child at Los Alamos, among all the prominent scientists and military folk.

Of the flight to Hiroshima on Aug. 6, 1945, Christman writes, “Of the men on the plane, only Parsons, Tibbets , and Maj. Thomas W. Ferebee, the bombardier, knew that the bomb was nuclear. Parsons alone knew all the technical details. Indeed, he was one of the few men in the whole Manhattan Project with access to the bomb’s entire range of secrets — scientific, military, engineering, assembly and delivery.”

Christman has written a fine, fascinating and taut account of both Deak Parsons, the sailor-scientist who became the “unsung hero of Los Alamos,” and of the creation of the atomic bomb. He is that rare writer, too, who can make extremely complex matters clear and interesting to the general reader.

Throughout, his portrait of Parsons is most impressive and one comes to admire the admiral. As the author writes, “Deak was able to work with others and avoid contention … at the same time he was very painstaking and patient in carrying through on the objective.”

He describes Deak as “quiet, analytical, mild, unassertive, an experimenter at heart.” His wife, Martha, described Deak as “a very gentle soul”; and Christman says, “Deak lived `pretty much by the book’ and stood opposed to preferential treatment, especially for himself.” Deak’s sister Clarissa, who called him “Boy,” said, “He talks when it’s important”; and Martha said, “He was happiest when he had a problem.” According to Christman, Deak had “uncommon scientific ability” and yet “he could still shine without arousing the resentment of his peers.” Aboard ship, instead of playing bridge with his fellows, he’d be reading and studying.

One summer years ago when I mentioned to Peggy Bowditch that her father had dropped the bomb on Hiroshima, she said, “He couldn’t fix a thing around the house.”

“Target Hiroshima” consists of 19 chapters, an epilogue, 24 pages of photographs, and an appendix of William S. Parsons’ honors, which include the Silver Star, the Distinguished Service Medal and the Legion of Merit, among others.

At the end of his life in 1953, Parsons became upset over the Communist charges against Robert Oppenheimer, the brilliant Los Alamos director of the Manhattan Project, who had been a close friend. “Those closest to Parsons at home and at work concluded that stress was a major factor in his death. He had always kept his problems to himself; he constantly extended himself.”

In his epilogue, Christman writes, “The Deak Parsons legacy goes beyond military decorations, honorary science degrees, street names, ships, buildings. It lives on in the advanced weaponry and technology of the American armed forces, rigorous standards in nuclear weapons training, and a philosophy of military-scientific cooperation for military research and development.”