being outdoors a lot. Davis said he went to relieve a guard at the
Mockingbird Gap post and the soldier told Davis he was surprised by
the number of "crawdads" in the area considering it was so dry. Davis
gave the young man a quick lesson on scorpions and warned him not to
touch.

Throughout 1945 other personnel arrived at Trinity Site to help
prepare for the test. Carl Rudder was inducted into the Army on Jan.
26, 1945. He said he passed through four camps, took basic for two
days and arrived at Trinity Site on Feb. 17. On arriving he was put
in charge of what he called the "East Jesus and Socorro Light and
Water Company." It was a one-man operation--himself. He was
responsible for maintaining generators, wells, pumps and doing the
power line work.

A friend of Rudder's, Loren Bourg, had a similar experience. He was a
fireman in civil life and ended up trained as a fireman for the Army.
He worked as the station sergeant at Los Alamos before being sent to
Trinity Site in April 1945. In a letter Bourg said, "I was sent down
here to take over the fire prevention and fire department. Upon
arrival I found I was the fire department, period."

As the soldiers at Trinity Site settled in they became familiar with
Socorro. They tried to use the water out of the ranch wells but found
it so alkaline they couldn't drink it. In fact, they used Navy salt-
water soap for bathing. They hauled drinking water from the fire
house in Socorro. Gasoline and diesel was purchased from the Standard
bulk plant in Socorro.

According to Davis, they established a post office box, number 632, in