Leslie Richard Groves, Jr - Book 2

In Book 1, The Hesperus Prophecy, we don’t know much about Groves, except that his team built the door sealing Lincoln’s Tunnel from the Old Executive Office Building. In Girl in the Glass, we finally meet Captain Leslie Groves, Jr. (click here for Book 1 Groves webpage)

Leslie Groves, Jr served as a United States Army Corps of Engineers officer. Before getting tasked to lead massive, important projects, Groves was an engineer inspecting construction sites. As we learn in the novel, he has just completed Command School at Fort Leavenworth, “where the Army sends their best and brightest prospects, the military’s future leaders.”

In the novel, we also learn that Groves is an abrasive character. After a particularly tense encounter, James is told about Captain Groves:

“Please excuse the captain, he has a quirky way of expressing joy. He’s an abrasive S.O.B. but smart as a whip and dedicated as any man.”

This description is based on a real comment by Colonel Kenneth D. Nichols, one of Groves's aides. He famously described Groves as "the biggest S.O.B. I have ever worked for," while also acknowledging Groves's intelligence, decisiveness, and commitment.

On July 1, 1939, just a month after the Clypeate’s meeting in Mount Olympus, Captain Groves was posted to the War Department General Staff in Washington, D.C., where his career soon took off. In 1941, recently promoted Major Groves was placed in charge of building the War Department’s new headquarters, better known as the Pentagon, and in 1942, Major Groves was picked to direct the Manhattan Project, the top-secret research project that developed the atomic bomb during World War II. In Girl in the Glass, we learn Leslie Groves’ meteoric rise is tied to the Clypeate’s questionable cooperation with the U.S. Army.

Leslie Groves, Jr

Leslie Groves, Jr with Oppenheimer, surveying atomic test damage

Groves eyeing up Japan