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The Calutron Girls
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The calutron girls were a group of young girls, mostly high school graduates who joined the World War Two efforts in Oak Ridge, Tennessee in 1945.<ref name="Freeman2015"/> Although they were not allowed to know at the time, these girls were monitoring dials and watching meters for a calutron.<ref name="Fanning2014"/> A calutron is a mass spectrometer that is used to separate the isotopes in uranium. The enriched uranium is what was used to make the first atomic bomb. At Y-12, a National Security Complex, the girls were trained and then put to work.<ref name="Nickell2010"/> Gladys Owens, one of the few calutron girls, recalls being told by a manager "We can train you how to do what is needed, but cannot tell you what you are doing. I can only tell you that if our enemies beat us to it, God have mercy on us!" This was enough for the girls to understand the importance of what they were doing, even if they weren't allowed to know. The women lived in Fostoria Hall located in "West Town" near Jefferson Circle. Their rent was $10 a month and they worked seven days a week rotating between shifts, never allowed to socialize or talk on the job. Many of the girls were afraid that if they spoke they would be accused of talking about the work they were doing. Some girls who spoke too much were known to have disappeared. When one woman did not return for her clothes, the remaining girls were told she had died of drinking poisonous moonshine. 
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