William L. Uanna

William Lewis "Bud" Uanna (May 13, 1909 – December 22, 1961) was an American security expert, who gained prominence as a security officer with the Manhattan Project, which built the first atomic bomb during World War II.

Uanna was in charge of security at the project's facility at Oak Ridge, Tennessee, and later at the 509th Composite Group, which dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

After the war, he headed the Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) program to provide security clearances to its personnel, and developed the top-secret Q clearance. He later served as chief of physical security at the State Department.

Education and military career William Lewis Uanna was born in Medford, Massachusetts, on May 13, 1909, the son of Italian immigrants Anthony Uanna and Theresa Ferullo. He attended Medford High School, and then Tufts College on an athletic scholarship, where he was a halfback on the college football team, and an intercollegiate wrestling champion, earning a degree in engineering. He soon returned to Tufts and got a M.A. in education.

Uanna worked for private companies as well as the US Army Corps of Engineers. As a civilian with the Corps of Engineers he was involved in the construction of Grenier Army Air Field in New Hampshire and Fort Devens in Massachusetts, where he later served as an Army Counter Intelligence agent during World War II. Between 1949 and 1954 he attended the American University in Washington, D.C.

Enlisting in the U.S. Army on May 28, 1941,

In February 1943, Uanna was posted to X Corps, then based at Sherman, Texas, where he was responsible for setting up the first intelligence units assigned to combat formations in the United States. With 112 officers and 35 agents he conducted investigations and evaluated the loyalty of individuals within X Corps and trained its troops in security procedures. In August 1943, Uanna became an instructor at the CIC school in Chicago.

From 1949 to 1951, Uanna worked as an Intelligence Specialist at the newly established Central Intelligence Agency (CIA),

After this, Uanna accepted a temporary assignment at the Department of State as Otto Otepka's assistant. Otepka was in charge of State's Evaluations Division. Amidst allegations from Senator Joseph McCarthy about the presence of Communist sympathizers in the Army and State Department, Uanna's expertise in countering subversion won him the position. Using procedures he had developed at the AEC, Uanna wrote the Evaluators Handbook that would be used by State Department investigators to review the loyalty and "suitability" of employees in accordance with Executive Order 10450 and Executive Order 10501.

Uanna (third from right) at Marine Security Guard Graduation, c. 1958 In 1953 the State Department's physical security was split between foreign and domestic branches. Uanna reorganized these into one group called the Division of Physical Security, consisting of four branches, and took over as its new chief. He then published the Protection of Dignitaries Manual and developed the handbook used at the training school for Marine Security Guards assigned to U. S. embassies, legations and consulates overseas.

Film portrayals Uanna was portrayed by James Whitmore in the 1952 motion picture Above and Beyond. Lawrence H. Suid noted that Whitmore's Uanna "seems to be a fictional character, a cinematic creation who always seems to know the right answers, to do the right thing". Whitmore wanted to meet Uanna, but was unable to do so. Uanna has also been portrayed by Stephen Macht in the 1980 TV movie Enola Gay: The Men, the Mission, the Atomic Bomb and Minor Mustain in the 1995 Japanese/Canadian film Hiroshima.