William S. Wood, Radar & Electronics Development at Camp Evans  1942 - 1978

This is a small world story.  I was introducted to Bill Wood Jr. by my dear neighbors Ruth and Bruce Beers. As my name is Fred Carl, Bill asked if knew of a William C. Carl who taught physics at Bayonne High School.  Bill's father had him as a physics instructor and also lived with him and his wife for a summer. William C. Carl was my grandfather and Bill's Dad, William S. Wood worked from January 1942 to his retirement at Camp Evans.
    Bill related a number of memories about his Dad working at Camp Evans, traveling to White Sands for V2 rocket launches  and having secret information.  Later he would hand me a box of papers and photos his dad had left.  This information gives us an insight into some ot the activities a Camp Evans engineer was involved.  For example the photo of William Wood at his workbench gives us more evidence that Camp Evans was involved in Digital Computer development and computer application to military systems in the 1950's.  In this specific photo a mortor locating digital computer.  Two other photo's are from White Sands of V2 rocket launches.  One is above, of a V-2 on the launching pad.  The other shows the V-2 in flight.  Click on the photo to enlarge it.  Camp Evans personnel were responsible for tracking the launches and had responsibility for the scientific payloads in a few launches.
    The box of papers has William Wood's career advancement from 1942 radio mechanic to Senior electronics engineer.  He worked on improving the SCR-268 radar tracking and ranging during WWII.  Also during the war he was given a special assignment under strickest secrecy to build a prototype radar device..  He was later told this radar device was used in the Manhatten Project.  The atomic bombs were trigged by modified radar devices (AN/APS-13).  Test drops of dummy bombs were done in New Jersey.  The official Manhatten project history states the preproduction units were in short supply and the Signal Corps provided the units.  Camp Evans was the Signal Corps radar laboratory.  Possibly William Woods device was used in the dummy tests.  During the war he would also work on the AN/TPS-1 and AN/TPS-3 mortor locator radar.
    After the war he worked on experimental radars, for example the SCR-548.  When to White Sands Proving Grounds with the experimental radar to track V-2 rockets.  He worked on the AN/MPQ-4, AN/MPQ-7, AN/MPQ-10, AN/MPQ-22  and AN/TPS-25.  As there are a number of papers in the box I will update this page over time with additional information.  The old hand-typed documents, many carbon copies, are not easily scanned.

Page created December 24, 2000

Thanks to Dr. Bill Wood of Wall Township for sharing his father's person effects to assist our research.

From: Personal Effects of William S. Wood

Index/Highlights: In the works

• Mr. Wood's 1957 promotion  recommendation.
• AGENDA - OPEN HOUSE  on September 24, 1977 an open house was held for families of Camp Evans personnel.

Page updated January 4, 2004  page created December 29, 2000