2 Pathfinder | Winter 2015

| editor's message |

We all have a story to tell. We tell stories as individuals, 

as an agency and as a collaborator within the larger 

intelligence community. 

The Pathfinder magazine is one way we convey 

the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency’s story.

The magazine’s primary audience is you, the workforce. 

As part of Team NGA, you’re busy. Those of us who 

work on the Pathfinder get that. It’s our job to make reading the magazine 

worth your time. We think we’ve done that with this issue.

We’ve changed the layout and added new departments to not only get your 

attention, but to fill the pages with content that matters to you.

Our guest commentaries in this issue are new. In our Viewpoint department 

[pg. 8] you’ll notice articles written by individuals from outside the agency 

on matters of GEOINT and national security. Agree with them? Disagree 

with them? Let's start some conversations. Submit a letter to the editor to 

Pathfinder@nga.mil and we’ll consider it for the next issue. That goes for all of 

the articles.

Telling Our Story — also new — is written from the trenches. The 

storytelling is from an employee’s perspective. This issue’s article is on the 

congressional budget process [pg. 15]. How does that concern you? If the 

agency doesn’t communicate its “story” well, your project may not be funded. 

It also concerns you because as part of Team NGA, the work that happens 

on a different floor from yours — or across the country or overseas — does 

matter. Stovepipes are so passé. Collaboration begins by taking an interest in 

another’s work. 

The back cover is a new look for us, but an idea whose time has come again. 

Brought to us by NGA’s history program, Know the Earth will feature a 

previously classified NGA product and a challenge. You’ll find the answer 

and explanation in the current issue. 

And expect more changes to come. As Deputy Director Sue Gordon said in her 

interview [NGA’s New Firebrand Deputy pg. 4], “In order to be relevant, you have 

always got to be reinventing.”

NGA’s story is complex, and by its nature, often times classified. Even so, 

both President Obama and Director Cardillo have told the public, we will be 

more transparent. To the extent we can in the Pathfinder, we are. 

To be sure, others outside the agency read the magazine. They read it to help 

them decide if they’d like to work here, to glean information for their own 

endeavors, or maybe to get a better understanding of what their parent, spouse 

or friend does at work. We hope they find the information useful and candid.

This issue continues the magazine’s tradition of telling the NGA story. Its 

content and how we’ve conveyed it will have consequences — good ones 

we hope. Hey, someone should create a tool to document that [Lens of 

Consequence pg. 22].

V/r,

Regina Galvin

Editor

The Pathfinder promotes awareness and 

understanding of geospatial intelligence, 

and is published by National GeospatialIntelligence Agency’s Office of Corporate 

Communications.

The Pathfinder is an authorized Department 

of Defense publication for members of the 

DOD. Contents of this publication are not 

necessarily the official view of, or endorsed 

by, the U.S. government, DOD or NGA. 

Articles in the Pathfinder may be reproduced 

in whole or in part without permission, 

unless stated otherwise. If reproduced, credit 

the author and the “National GeospatialIntelligence Agency, the Pathfinder 

magazine.” Reproduction of graphics, 

photographs and imagery is subject to 

the original copyright.

NGA Leadership

Director: Robert Cardillo

Deputy Director: Sue Gordon

OCC Leadership

Director: William M. Caniano

News & Information Chief: Tim Taylor

Editor: Regina Galvin

Designer: Maurice Smith

Contributing Editor: Kelly Graveline

Photography: Anthony Boone; Kevin Clark

pathfinder@nga.mil

www.nga.mil

@NGA_GEOINT

NatlGEOINTAgency

Putting the

power of

in users’ hands

Contact us

Telephone: 571-557-5400

DSN 547-5400

Approved for Public Release, 15-222.
Pathfinder | Winter 2015 3

| table of contents |

22

26

Features departments

22 The Lens of Consequenc

A new perspective for 

mission success and 

customer consequence

26 DePloyed Serv

NGA’s expeditionary 

mission support team

new 

firebrand

deputy

4 Team 

8 ViewPoi

12 Understand the Worl

14 Insig

16 Collaboration

32 Know the Ear

4
4 Pathfinder | Winter 2015

| Team

SG: Number one, my heritage throughout my career has been one of 

partnership with industry. I have great experiences with industry that 

make me see it as an incredible positive force. Secondly, I am not wedded 

to the past. Others may see me as someone who seeks change. I’m not 

about change, I’m about relevance. In order to be relevant, you have 

always got to be reinventing, reimaging. Thirdly, I am so optimistic about 

our future. If we can just find a way to step into this moment — what 

NGA, coupled with the state of geospatial capabilities in the commercial 

sector now, can deliver to this nation and society is absolutely stunning. 

So, I bring three things: the benefit of experience, good, fundamental 

curiosity and a belief that you can do things differently, and an 

absolute belief that we have a moment that we must step up to. 

SG: It’s fundamentally sound because of our shared accomplishments. 

And, I think relations can be much better if we improve our agility 

and eliminate barriers to entry. Our partners have so many ideas and 

they’re clamoring to do something with them — for us to do something 

with them. We are predisposed to want to work with industry. 

That’s our heritage. The number of opportunities is accelerating and 

they’re coming and going. We certainly need to improve on both our 

accessibility and our adoption. In order to improve, industry needs 

to continue to work on bringing ideas that matter, not just ideas.

SG: Being a better partner has three simple components. Number one 

is if we can be clearer about where we want to go, that is incredibly 

useful to our partners. The second is if we can be more open about 

how to get there, then that will allow the innovation. You can see 

I put a lot of responsibility on the government side. We can be a 

better partner by believing that the way we’ve done it historically, is 

not necessarily the way it needs to be done going forward. The third 

component is being more decisive and being a little quicker to act. 

What do you uniquely 

bring to the role 

industry advocat

What is the state o

industry relations 

with N

How can NG

a better partner 

to industry?

NGA’s new firebrand depu

Sue Gordon challenges business as usual for 

agency and its partne

By Regina Galvin, Office of Corporate Communications

On a late Friday afternoon, soon after she began her deputy director job, the 

traffic in and out of Sue Gordon’s office was more indicative of an early Monday 

morning. A self-described firebrand, Gordon found time in her schedule for an 

interview with the Pathfinder to discuss her role as industry advocate and the 

opportunities and challenges the agency faces with its industry partners.
Pathfinder | Winter 2015 5

| Team

How can NGA find b

industry partners?

What do you see as 

being a disrupter to

industry relations?

What is the one chang

that’s most needed for

NGA’s improvement w

industry relations?

You seem encourag

by future possibilities.

From where does that

optimism come

SG: We have great partners, and there are even more out there. 

We are doing some exciting things to provide access for those 

who are trying to find their way to us. But I would challenge our 

potential partners to understand that as intriguing as their ideas are, 

we are still a system and they bear some responsibility to understand 

the environment into which we’re trying to integrate their solution. 

The second thing they can do, and I think this is hard and 

something the director has said before, tell us when we’re about to 

make a mistake. Earlier, I said we can be better partners by having 

a clearer vision of where we want to go. Industry can help if they 

will muster their courage and be honest with us about the realities 

of the world that they see. There are so many great ideas popping — 

particularly because the world has figured out the incredible reach 

and power of connecting time and space to events. That [realization] 

has created this great churning cauldron of ideas that we want to 

take advantage of. The most effective partners going forward will be 

the ones who understand how to fit these advances into our system 

and/or, how we can change our system to take advantage of it. 

SG: Budget pressure always has the potential to scare us off. I 

don’t think it has to be. I think that’s the conventional wisdom 

and it can happen that way. I’ve seen some of the best innovation 

happen during times of fiscal downturn. The second thing that 

could be a disruptor — again, I put the pressure on us — is if we’re 

not aggressive enough about taking the ideas and imagining how 

they can advance our work. The world’s going to continue to turn 

and we want to be the partner of choice for the people with the 

ideas. If we’re not aggressive enough and we can’t figure out how 

to get those ideas in, I think we could miss some real openings.

SG: Well, I’ve said a much clearer demand signal from us, lower 

barriers to entry that will bring more players to the table, and more 

work by our partners on the how not just the what. I think industry 

can help us with analytics, not just more sources of data. I think as 

the agency moves to [Robert Cardillo’s] idea of consequence and as 

more foundational data become available, our real value added will 

be in what we can put together and what insights we can reveal. 

SG:There is something awesome about the purpose that comes with 

working in national security. I’m a huge advocate of industry and 

the innovation engine they bring. But what the government brings is 

the motivation of enduring challenges and the perseverance to find 

solutions. I think that the combination of the two energies is incredibly 

exciting. Now all we have to do is make the magic happen together. 

Background: Sue Gordon, a 26-year veteran of the Central Intelligence Agency, brings an intrinsic knowledge of the intelligence 

community, business acumen and proven innovative technology ideas to her new home at the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency.
6 Pathfinder | Winter 2015

| Team

NGA Salut

Air Force Tech. Sgt. Cale Brennan 

has a long history with geospatial 

intelligence and the National 

Geospatial-Intelligence Agency. He 

has served his country since 2003 and 

has supported NGA for nine years 

in some capacity, including an NGA 

deployment to Afghanistan in 2012.

He serves as an example of leadership 

and a steward of NGA values according 

to Chris Greene, NGA branch chief 

of the Asia/Pacific Foundational 

Geospatial-Intelligence Division.

Brennan supported the Asia/

Pacific branch for four years at the 

Rivanna Station in Charlottesville, 

Virginia. There he assisted Greene 

in oversight of daily production 

requirements and managing 

military and civilian personnel.

“The branch is large, and it’s large 

because the Asia/Pacific mission is 

critical to the Defense Intelligence 

Agency that we support. That made 

bridging daily communications 

between personnel, particularly our 

military and civilian personnel, a 

key part of my job,” Brennan said. 

“Military and civilian employees 

don’t always approach issues the same 

way, and managing those healthy 

differences can lead to better analysis. 

It’s something I learned years ago 

and I enjoy doing very much.”

Brennan was part of GEOINT and 

NGA history in 2010 when he and 

a group of analysts were transferred 

from the Defense Intelligence 

Agency’s Military Forces Analysis 

operations to the new DIA center in 

Charlottesville. In conjunction with 

this move, he was also a part of the 

transfer of all DIA-assigned GEOINT 

analysts from DIA to NGA.

“In 2007, I was on assignment [with] 

DIA. Then in 2009, I was embedded 

with NGA in anticipation of NGA 

ownership of military analysts. We 

were a test group of analysts owned 

by DIA but functioning operationally 

under NGA. There were hiccups, 

but we managed,” Brennan said.

“Then I was selected to go 

Charlottesville in 2010 to help guide 

the DIA analysts who, like me, 

were now in NGA billets. Having 

been through the process, I taught 

them how to operate as an employee 

under NGA’s operational and 

administrative instructions versus the 

military or DIA’s,” said Brennan.

Brennan said that the biggest issue 

during the pilot and then formal 

transition from DIA to NGA was 

breaking down existing walls between 

military and civilian workforces 

amidst the administrative challenges 

of moving to another agency.

Breaking down those barriers is 

a specialty of Brennan’s, according 

to those who work with him.

Greene said, “Brennan was hired 

to validate the accuracy and quality 

of the branch's GEOINT, but he 

became a natural at helping manage 

the team and bridging natural gaps in 

experience, training, education and 

operating in an environment with 

military from different branches and 

employees from different agencies.”

Brennan’s duty at NGA ended in 

December 2014. He now serves as an 

imagery analyst to CENTCOM where 

he works alongside NGA analysts.

Air Force Tech Se

Cale Brenn

By Kristen Mackey, Office of Corporate Communications
Pathfinder | Winter 2015 7

| Team

I Am NGA

Dwight Dean is highly respected within 

the National Geospatial-Intelligence 

Agency and the geospatial community, 

said his supervisor, Chad Wright.

As the staff lead for integrated operations 

to the National Geospatial-Intelligence 

Committee, known as GEOCOM, Dean 

perpetually looks for ways to optimize the 

value of NGA and GEOINT in addressing 

national security issues, said Wright.

With three years at NGA and having 

worked in various intelligence and analysis 

capacities for two decades prior to NGA, 

Wright said that Dean is the right person to 

serve as the NGA employee representative 

of the committee, facilitating integration 

of analytic capabilities and collection across 

GEOINT platforms.

Dean said that he represents the 

geospatial community with a high 

level of confidence because of his long 

history in the defense and intelligence 

community, but mainly due to the 

support he has at NGA.

“NGA is the nexus for all things 

GEOINT. This is the place to be if you 

want to be part of cutting-edge geospatial 

technology, mapping, analysis and national 

security,” Dean said.

“Dwight brings exuberance and a love 

of mission to the office each day,” Wright 

said. “His experience and passion for the 

maturation of NGA and GEOINT is 

inspiring to all of us.”

“My work with my leadership and my 

peers — who I refer to as my ‘work family’ 

— provides me with all the knowledge and 

skills that I need to effectively represent 

NGA as we achieve and upgrade the goals of 

the GEOINT enterprise,” Dean said.

But, Dean credits most of his success to 

his family.

“My parents have been my greatest 

mentors. They taught me the importance 

of faith, family, hard work, education, 

honesty, and community and national 

service,” said Dean. “My wife and 

kids remind me of the impact I may 

have on others, and they improve my 

understanding of local or world events, 

and, of course, new technologies. They 

help me maintain a healthy work-life 

balance too, keeping me grounded and 

giving me strength.”

Dean has a bachelor’s degree in 

engineering, a master’s degree in strategic 

intelligence, post-graduate degrees in 

military arts and sciences, joint and 

combined military operations, and postgraduate certifications for information 

technology disciplines.

“I have also completed training in 

multiple GEOINT disciplines over the 

course of my career,” Dean said. “This 

education and training, coupled with 

my operational experience, has been 

critical to my success supporting NGA 

and NSG missions.” 

“My work with my leadership and my

peers — who  refer to as my ‘work

family’ — provides me with all the 

knowledge and skills that  need.

– dwight dean

“NGA is th

nexus for all 

things Geoint.”

– dwight dean

Dwight 

By Kristen Mackey, Office of Corporate Communications
| View point |

8 Pathfinder | Winter 2015

A Note o

the State of

Geograph

and Geospa

Intellige

Resea

By Richard M. Medina and George F. Hepner, 

University of Utah

Today’s research environment is one 

where basic research and understanding 

are not valued as much as engineering 

and technology application. With 

consideration to geospatial intelligence, 

in many cases there is more interest in 

capability-driven technologies rather than 

working to understand fundamental 

processes to foster long-term preemption and mitigation of problems.

The “geo” in geospatial represents, among 

other concepts, spatial pattern and awareness, 

places of identity or homeland, scale, 

connectivity between individuals, groups 

and places, and activities within geographic 

space. Within the last 10 years, some have 

touted the end of these traditional core 

concepts of geography, reasoning that access 

to massive amounts of information negates 

a need for geographic knowledge as our 

geospatial activities would be replaced by data 

computation and virtual interaction. These 

are misguided sentiments leading to the belief 

that spatial organization is so intuitive to us 

as humans that anyone can be a geographer 

without the need for formal education and 

training. What we have realized is twofold. 

First, understanding these concepts with 

consideration to political, social or economic 

phenomena requires rigorous scientific 

methodologies founded on spatial thinking 

and reasoning. And second, the need for 

geographical knowledge and understanding is 

greater than ever and ignoring that need will 

eventually lead to extreme failures in policy.

Spatial and platial understanding is 

inherent to human existence. These 

concepts are the base to the individual and 

collective understanding of our personal 

and group identity, our connection to the 

physical environment, and a justification 

for our existence. While the friction of 

distance may be decreasing due to cheaper 

and more available transportation and 

communications technologies, humans 

still require physical places, connections to 

environment, desire for a homeland and a 

Editor’s note: New to Pathfinder—in this issue we introduce 

Viewpoint commentaries. The articles are written by subject 

matter experts outside the agency on topical matters of 

GEOINT and national security. 
| Viewpoint |

Pathfinder | Winter 2015 9

The analysis and opinions represented in this article 

are strictly the authors' and do not necessarily 

reflect the positions of NGA, the IC, or DoD

Richard M. Medina is an assistant professor in

the Department of Geography at the University of

Utah and director of the Geospatial Intelligence

Research Lab. richard.medina@geog.utah.e

George F. Hepner is a professor in the Department 

Geography at the University of Utah and director of 

the USGIF-approved certificate program in geospatia

intelligence. george.hepner@geog.utah.edu

Medina and Hepner co-authored “The Geography o

International Terrorism: An Introduction to Spaces and Pla

of Violent Non-State Groups,” ISBN-13: 978-1439886861

host of other geographic realities that cannot 

be replicated in the virtual world, at least 

for the foreseeable future. For example, an 

October 14, 2014, article in The Washington 

Post highlights Amazon’s plans to open 

a store in New York City. Many would 

wonder why the most successful virtual 

shopping company would want to open 

a physical store. Obviously, the answer is 

that they see an unmet market, which will 

yield a profitable outcome. Although an 

online retailer, Amazon is acutely aware of 

geographic realities with respect to factors 

such as warehouse location, shipping routes 

and population/income distributions.

Another more germane example of the 

importance of geographical concepts involves 

global terrorism. Al-Qaida ideologists 

wrote years ago about crucial geographies, 

controlling post-conflict regions and 

capturing resources. The al-Qaida grand 

plan was focused on control of land as 

a basis for expansion. And although the 

media portray the Islamic State as a religionbased political movement, which it is, the 

more fundamental basis for understanding 

ISIS is their perceptual and aspirational 

geographic endgame of a caliphate. 

Their black flag and narrative of jihadist 

justification involves historical geographic 

and culturally relevant regions, including 

Khorasan, an area spanning parts of Iran, 

Afghanistan and Turkmenistan. In spite of 

their tenuous control, ISIS has divided their 

area of administration in Syria and Iraq 

into provinces with leadership by regional 

government to control the people and 

resources within those provinces. In Syria 

and Iraq, ISIS has already taken control of 

oil fields, water and agricultural areas. In 

spite of their massive virtual recruiting 

efforts and religious-political characterization, 

much of the ISIS campaign is centered 

on human and physical geography.

Given the physical geography of the 

recent battles in Afghanistan, Iraq and 

Syria, the use of technology-based geospatial 

intelligence has achieved good results. The 

climate, lack of heavily vegetated landscape 

and limited topographic relief in most of 

the areas has made satellite imagery, drone 

use and tactical communications very 

effective. However, being overly dependent 

on these technologies, combined with 

our failure to anticipate, educate our 

intelligence and military personnel, and 

acquire high-resolution human geography 

information will be a major disadvantage 

when the focus turns to other areas, such 

Africa, Asia and Latin America, as it 

likely will in the future. Physical space 

is needed for training, planning and 

supplying of sustained insurgent and 

terrorist operations. Understanding the 

spatial patterns of cultural backgrounds, 

social connections and capital, routes, and 

geographic intentions are key to mitigating 

problems. The geography of cultural or 

ethnic disagreements can facilitate or agitate 

a regional conflict into a global one. Most 

people operate on geographic realities of 

need, power and control, threat, security, 

etc. (or perceived realities), not postulated 

political and sociological theories.

What does this all mean for the future of 

geospatial intelligence? We must be cautious 

on our path toward thinking we can gain a 

full understanding of human behavior and 

resultant actions through technology and the 

computation of big data. Trends of opensource intelligence, social media assessment 

and reliance on hardware technology 

and other technological capabilities for 

understanding human behavior are very 

popular, but we should not be deceived 

into believing that they can take the place of 

modern approaches to human geography and 

other social science disciplines. Geospatial 

intelligence managers and analysts should 

be fluent in core concepts of spatial analysis, 

geostatistics and research methodologies, 

and they should have small area cultural 

knowledge and understanding of larger 

area social and physical systemic processes.

Within the geospatial intelligence 

profession, the current technological push 

includes focus on exploration of big data and 

data mining. Recent studies have shown the 

bias of making tactical and policy decisions 

on the basis of social media analysis, which 

inherently includes sampling biases and 

primarily reflects the sentiment of certain 

demographic groups (e.g., young, literate, 

tech aware), whereas power, especially in 

traditional societies, resides in individuals 

and groups outside of the demographic 

being sampled. Geospatial data uncertainties 

and biases should be known prior to actions 

being taken on results from social media 

mining and other big data applications.

We should not let human geography, a 

long established discipline, be used as a 

buzz word. It is difficult to appreciate a 

discipline like geography when the first time 

many students see it in its true form is in 

college, if at all. Many people still believe that 

geography is the study of maps, or the study 

of state capital locations, or even worse, the 

study of rocks. The primary focus of human 

geography is to understand the spatial 

patterns of human behavior and interactions. 

From these patterns, insights into processes 

of behavior can be gained. In these uncertain 

times, it is vital to understanding the 

world and to leverage that understanding 

to design sound policies to address the 

global problems we face. Geography is a 

critical component to this understanding.
10 Pathfinder | Winter 2015

| Viewpoint |

Editor’s note: New to Pathfinder—in this issue we introduce Viewpoi

commentaries. The articles are written by subject matter experts outside

the agency on topical matters of GEOINT and national secur

Analysts who follow China’s People’s 

Liberation Army may be in for an 

exciting couple of years beginning in 

2015. This massive defense establishment 

of some 2.3 million persons is now a 

year and a half into what promises to 

be an extended period of re-energized 

modernization and reform. The PLA’s 

objective is to enhance their capacity 

to conduct joint operations with 

special emphasis on maritime and 

aerospace domains and other hightech battle spaces — goals they have 

been pursuing for many years.

This current round of military 

modernization was launched as part of 

the larger, ambitious national reform 

agenda Chinese President Xi Jinping 

laid out at the Third Plenum, an annual 

meeting of the Central Committee, 

held in November 2013. Section 15 

of the Plenum’s Decision announced 

a significant military reform agenda, 

covering nearly 46 key areas.

We should expect the upcoming 

reforms, especially organizational 

changes, to be wide-ranging and 

touch a lot of rice bowls in the PLA. 

In addition to myriad articles by PLA 

leaders suggesting this will be the case, 

another indicator is the intense political 

work campaign that has been underway 

since the Plenum. This campaign is 

clearly meant to unify thinking and 

prepare the force for what is to come. 

The leitmotif is that outmoded thinking 

and vested institutional interests must 

be swept away in order to create a PLA 

that can fight and win battles. Also 

noteworthy is the creation of a special 

leading small group chaired by Xi to 

oversee and push forward reforms.

None of this is surprising, for even 

the PLA would be quick to point out 

that institutional resistance to change 

has been a problem. It would appear 

then that the PLA has encountered its 

own “Goldwater-Nichols” moment. 

Just as it took an act of Congress in 

1986 to force the U.S. military to forge 

a joint organization, it would seem 

that the force of Xi and the Central 

Committee are going to be leveraged to 

impel the PLA to do what it has long 

known must be done, but which has 

proven too bureaucratically difficult 

without external catalyzing forces.

While strategic indication and 

warning of impending change has 

been placed in the public domain, the 

specifics of what may transpire have 

been unsurprisingly absent. Still, it is 

clear from the available information 

that six major issues will be addressed.

First, command and control for joint 

operations. The Plenum’s Decision was 

quite clear that creating new and better 

command and control arrangements 

for joint operations at the national and 

theater levels is going to receive attention. 

The fact that this issue was singled 

out in the Decision suggests that joint 

command and control — a fundamental 

prerequisite of joint operations — has 

been elusive for the PLA since they 

started thinking about joint operations 

almost two decades ago. We should also 

expect to see adjustments to operationallevel, joint warfighting doctrine and new, 

more rigorous joint training regimens.

Second, we should anticipate 

organizational changes. This may include 

rebalancing the force structure among 

the services, and possible changes within 

the four general departments and the 

military regions. As the PLA rebalances 

its force structure, we should expect 

the force projection services (the navy 

especially, but also the air force and 

missile forces) to be the beneficiaries 

of increased emphasis and resources, 

underscoring the importance of the 

maritime and aerospace domains. PLA 

authors also write of the need for the 

elimination, reduction or consolidation 

of noncombat organizations and 

noncombat essential staffs. Another 

significant reduction of the ground 

forces may also be in the cards.

Third is the persistent issue of 

human capital. This means finding 

ways to increase the quality of officers 

and noncommissioned officers, and 

enhancing the professional military 

education system to serve the joint 

force the PLA aspires to create. The 

PLA is still not satisfied with the 

human talent it is attracting, retaining 

and training. This is a challenge that 

goes back as far as Deng Xiaoping’s 

tenure in the late 1970s and 1980s.

2015 

Should b

an Exc

Ye

By David M. Finkelstein
Pathfinder | Winter 2015 11

| Viewpoint |

Fourth, enhancing defenserelated research and development 

and technology acquisition will be on 

the agenda. Improving civil-military 

integration will be given prominence, 

meaning that the military and civilian 

R&D sectors must seek greater 

synergies and be mutually supporting 

in order to ensure the PLA can field 

state-of-the-art weapons systems and 

other battlefield technologies.

Fifth, there is much discussion of the 

need to develop and better integrate “new 

type operational forces” — those key 

assets or units which are characterized 

by cutting-edge technologies and 

are deemed essential for prosecuting 

modern campaigns. Examples include 

the use of cyberspace, outer space, the 

electro-magnetic spectrum, ISR assets 

and precision-guided munitions. The 

term is sometimes applied to special 

operations forces, and special aviation 

assets such as unmanned aerial vehicles 

and electronic counter-measures units. 

These capabilities reside at the heart 

of what the PLA has been referring to 

since the early 2000’s as “Local War 

Under Informitized Conditions”, the 

current term used to describe a generic 

high-tech conflict that has served as the 

capabilities-based driver for Chinese 

military modernization for over a decade.

Finally, and of potentially great 

significance, we should expect 

adjustments to the strategic-level 

guidance that informs China’s defense 

posture, force deployments, contingencyplanning and plans for modernization 

(army building). Specifically, the Third 

Plenum’s Decision stated that the PLA 

should make adjustments to the “Military 

Strategic Guidelines for the New 

Period”, which is the near-equivalent of 

a national military strategy for China.

While the time tables for these and 

other reforms are unknown, some articles 

suggest the year 2020 as a target date. If 

so, decisions will have to be made soon. 

For example, on December 25, 2014, 

Xinhuanet (the online news provider of the 

Xinhua News Agency, China’s official press 

agency), reported that Xi had approved the 

Central Military Commission’s Opinion 

on building new type headquarters. 

Consequently, 2015 could be the year in 

which some of these reforms start to roll 

out, especially the organizational changes. If 

so, it should make for an exciting time for 

those who follow the Chinese armed forces. 

We should not be surprised to find ourselves 

surprised by what may roll out this year.

David M. Finkelstein, Ph.D. is the vice president

CNA Corporation, a non-profit research institute i

Arlington, Virginia, and the director of the CNA's

China Studies division. The analysis and opinion

represented in this article are strictly the author's 

and do not necessarily reflect the positions of NGA, 

the IC, or DoD. Contact him at finked@cn
12 Pathfinder | Winter 2015

| Understand the Worl

12 Pathfinder | Winter 2015

| Understand the Worl

PacomArea

Responsibilit

Information and map provided by NGA Office of Geogra

Two of the three largest 

economies are located in the 

Asia Pacific, along with ten 

of the 14 smallest. The AOR 

includes the most populous 

nation in the world, the largest 

democracy, and the largest 

Muslim-majority nation. More 

than one third of Asia Pacific 

nations are smaller, island 

nations, including the smallest 

republic in the world and 

the smallest nation in Asia. 

Asia Pacific is prone 

to natural disasters 

– between 1980 and 

2009 - 45 percent of the 

world’s natural disasters 

occurred in this region. 

With a 25 percent share 

of the global GDP, the 

region suffered 42 

percent of the economic 

losses on account of 

natural disasters.

Of the world’s top 20 megacities – 

those with populations of 10 million 

or more – half are located in Asia 

with around 40 percent of Asia Pacific 

population residing in urban areas. 

By 2026, over half Asia Pacific’s 

population will be urban, and by 2050 

the proportion could reach two-thirds.
Pathfinder | Winter 2015 13

| Understand the Worl

Pathfinder | Winter 2015 13

| Understand the Worl

United States Pacific Command area of responsibility, AOR, 

covers more of the globe than any of the other geographic 

combatant commands and shares borders with all of 

the other five geographic combatant commands. 

Asia is home to several language families and many language 

isolates. Most Asian countries have more than one language 

that is natively spoken. For example, 600 languages are 

spoken in Indonesia, more than 800 languages spoken in 

India, and more than 100 are spoken in the Philippines.

The 36 nations 

comprising the Asia 

Pacific region are 

home to more than 50 

percent of the world's 

population, 3,000 

different languages, 

several of the world's 

largest militaries, and 

five nations allied with 

the U.S. through mutual 

defense treaties. 

The region is a vital driver of the global 

economy and includes the world's busiest 

international sea lanes and nine of the ten 

largest ports. The Asia Pacific is also a 

heavily militarized region, with seven of the 

world's 10 largest standing militaries and 

five of the world's declared nuclear nations. A sizeable middle class has emerged in the region. 

Defining a middle-class income as $2 to $20 per 

capita per day, between 1990 and 2008 the middle 

class rose from 21 to 56 percent of the region’s 

population – or to nearly 1.9 billion people – a 

bigger rise than in other regions of the world.

“The United States has been a

will remain a Pacific power.” – National Security Strategy, Feb. 20
14 Pathfinder | Winter 2015

| Insight

When satellite imagery was novel and 

through the early years of geographic 

information systems computing, 

the predecessors to the National 

Geospatial-Intelligence Agency stood 

nearly alone in the world of remote 

sensing and GIS technology.

In 2015, the GEOINT world is 

commercialized and many previously 

considered privileged capabilities are now 

in the hands of every Internet-connected 

smartphone user, tablet enthusiast and 

geography aficionado. Mobile device 

users search the Yelp app for the best 

nearby restaurants then seamlessly initiate 

Google Maps to find their way there.

While NGA, and its predecessor agencies, 

may have helped bring Google Earth to the 

world, today the creation and utilization of 

GEOINT is something the general public 

participates in and private industry shapes.

This open and agile GEOINT 

environment is filled with fast-paced 

technology development requiring increased 

vigilance by NGA technology watchers in 

order to keep the agency on the cutting edge.

To that end, last fall, the Analysis 

directorate’s technology executive, Todd 

Johanesen, rolled out the first of a three-part 

plan to the agency and its mission partners: 

the Analysis Technology Plan 2020.

The plan’s first part, Defining the 

Analysis Technology Vision for 2020, 

outlines a future vision that addresses 

four categories of technologies: Research 

& Discover, Access & Visualize, Exploit 

& Analyze, and Expose & Report.

Fulfilling the technical needs in 

each of these categories should provide 

NGA’s analysts with the much desired 

time to dive into deep analysis.

“It is fundamentally about 

empowering the GEOINT analyst,” 

said Carter Christopher, a former 

technology executive team member 

and integral crafter of the plan.

“Analysts’ jobs will be increasingly 

difficult in the coming years. With 

GEOINT data volumes growing 

exponentially and rarely being purpose 

built for GEOINT analysis, we will need 

to rely on new technologies to help our 

analysts efficiently triage, integrate, analyze 

and expose the data and our insights 

to our customers,” said Christopher.

Prior to the plan’s release, strategic 

technology goals were ill-defined and 

addressed internally with a ‘tactical’ 

approach said Johanesen. “The Analysis 

directorate published a technology plan 

in order to explain to the workforce, 

industry, R&D and academia the direction 

we were headed, our expectations for 

leveraging new and emerging technology, 

and to put into context how we want 

to do GEOINT analysis in the 2020 

timeframe,” said Johanesen.

Given the rapidly changing 

landscape of GEOINT technologies, 

he said the plan wasn’t a prescription, 

but rather a broad vision.

“As technology matures and we 

leverage it against intel issues, we expect 

the end results will be slightly different 

than what we originally proposed,” said 

Johanesen. “This should bring the agility 

to our technology plan that’s similar to 

the agility expectations of our analysts.”

Timing Consideratio

When the plan was released, there were 

technological, R&D and acquisition 

initiatives emerging simultaneously 

that supported internal projects with 

substantial technological requirements 

(such as Map of the World, Structured 

Observation Management and Activitybased Intelligence). The timing of the roll 

out of the plan was fortuitous, according to 

Johanesen, because it informed NGA’s R&D 

partners of the end goals that often are lost 

in the language of the contract vehicles or 

in one-on-one internal communications.

Since the plan came out when it did, 

industry and academia will be able to 

compete for funding and contracts with 

a “big picture” idea of what the analysts 

will be looking for in these initiativesupport contracts rather than just a list 

of technical requirement details.

Consequences of

Developing the

“From an internal perspective, the 

plan should give our R&D teams in 

InnoVision a common direction for their 

strategic planning, rather than a long list 

of things we wish we had that is hard to 

plan against,” said Johanesen. “From an 

external perspective, academic, industry 

and R&D partners can form their own 

strategies for meeting our goals that 

separated the long-term projects from 

our day-to-day technology needs.”

The next two pieces of the 

Analysis Technology Plan 2020 

will be released later this year.

“This document is an attempt to 

better define our needs and expectations,” 

Johanesen said. “In turn, this will help 

NGA arrive in 2020 with a state-ofthe-art system that supports GEOINT 

analysis across the broad spectrum of 

customers that we support, reinforcing 

NGA as the premier place for geospatial 

analysis, as we should be.”

An Agile Approach to S

NGA’s Analytic P

By Michaela Mesquite, Analysis Technology Executive Team

The plan can be found online at: http://goo.gl/2Vj2KF
| Insight

Pathfinder | Winter 2015 15

In Hollywood, the executive branch 

typically gets one of two treatments: 

romanticized or demonized. On 

one hand, you have “The American 

President,” and “The West Wing,” 

and on the other, “Scandal” and 

“House of Cards,” just to name a 

few. Regardless of the approach, 

the realities of working the budget 

process inside a federal agency would 

not make any script in Hollywood. 

Why? Because it’s hard work 

consisting of long hours, ever-shifting 

requirements and difficult decisions.

At the National GeospatialIntelligence Agency, the Congressional 

and Intergovernmental Affairs Division, 

within the Office of Corporate 

Communications is responsible for the 

agency’s engagement with Congress. 

One of our most important tasks is 

conveying and seeking congressional 

support for NGA’s budget.

Each year, the president is required by 

law to submit a budget to Congress by 

the first Monday in February. Although 

this action kicks off the congressional 

budget process, our work starts 

almost a year prior as we work across 

NGA to inform key stakeholders on 

challenges as we collectively compile the 

agency’s budget. In an already fiscally 

strained environment, it’s a challenge 

that requires a lot of ingenuity, 

and often compromise, to create a 

budget that squeezes the greatest 

value from a limited pool of funds.

As an executive-level agency, we must 

submit our budget through the Office 

of the Director of National Intelligence, 

the Department of Defense, and the 

Office of Management and Budget. 

Leaders in these organizations review 

each agency’s budget request to ensure 

consistency with national priorities. 

Through the submission of his budget, 

the president issues the dollar and cents 

implementation of those priorities.

With their “power of the purse,” 

Congress is responsible for passing 

annual legislation authorizing and 

appropriating funds for federal 

programs. In effect, through the 

budget process, Congress checks 

the work of the executive branch 

and includes its perspective as 

representatives of the American people.

This is when our office goes into 

overdrive. We help coordinate hundreds 

of personnel from across the agency 

— from senior executives to analysts, 

staff officers and contractors — and 

support the flow of information to 

congressional staff. We must spend 

as much time on the gritty details of 

how resources should be allocated 

as on the broad value of NGA’s 

contributions to national security.

In 2014, NGA accomplished this by 

providing over 160 briefings, meetings and 

visits with members and staff from Capitol 

Hill, and 300 responses to inquiries.

And during the upcoming budget 

cycle, the NGA Director, Robert 

Cardillo, will get his own Hollywood 

— or C-SPAN — moment: budget 

hearings. As an important component 

of congressional oversight, agency 

heads and administration officials 

testify before the House and Senate, 

defending the president’s budget. 

The director has the responsibility 

of justifying why the agency’s budget 

provides the greatest value for taxpayers 

at the lowest possible cost. He will be 

afforded the opportunity to describe 

his vision for the agency, explain 

his rationale for resource decisions 

and present the agency’s successes as 

the geospatial intelligence provider 

for warfighters and policymakers. 

He’ll also field questions on topics 

ranging from the agency’s assessment 

of key global conflicts to the status 

of the agency’s plan to develop a new 

facility in the St. Louis region.

At the end of this journey, several 

budget bills that have been passed by 

both houses in Congress will land on 

the president’s desk for his signature.

The question that remains is, how 

well did the agency tell our story and 

convey the value of NGA? If we did 

it right, the GEOINT segment of 

the budget the president asked for 

appears in the documents he’s about 

to sign. And NGA gets to perform 

our critical mission for one more year. 

Now that’s a sequel worth fighting for.

NGA and th

Budget Proc

By Dan Wessel, Office of Corporate Communications, legislative affairs officer

Dan Wessel is a Legislative Affairs Officer at NGA 

he does not develop an annual household budget.

Tell us your personal, unclassified

version of the work your office 

does for NGA for possible 

inclusion in the next Pathfinder.

Send your 600 word or less 

account to Pathfinder@nga.mil.

What’s your st
16 Pathfinder | Winter 2015

| Collaboration

Photo by Kevin Clark

NGA and Mercyhurst Univ

Create Unique Experienc

Students in Intelligen

By M. Karen Walker, InnoVision Communications 

In the fall semester of 2013, the 

National Geospatial-Intelligence 

Agency and Mercyhurst University 

launched a new partnership that gives 

students real-world experience in 

researching and briefing findings to 

NGA analysts and decision-makers.

Through a Cooperative Research 

and Development Agreement initiated 

and managed by NGA’s InnoVision 

Directorate, students enrolled in the Tom 

Ridge School of Intelligence Studies and 

Information Science engage with NGA 

analysts during the capstone course of 

their undergraduate or graduate program.

Each semester, groups of students 

form teams to research a question posed 

and vetted by NGA for unclassified, 

open-source research. Near the end 

of the semester, students brief their 

findings to NGA decision-makers and 

members of the analyst corps at the NGA 

Campus East in Springfield, Virginia.

“The partnership with Mercyhurst 

gives us the ability to broaden the 

context for geospatial analysis,” said 

Ann Freelander, the NGA Analysis 

Directorate’s liaison to Mercyhurst.

Freelander said that the questions 

address issues that represent gaps in 

NGA analysts’ situational awareness 

and ability to project future trends in 

their regions of interest. Additionally, 

students research and develop briefings 

on issues that interest the intelligence 

and defense communities, but that 

do not require a current allocation 

of NGA’s analytic resources.

Previous student groups have 

conducted research to understand the 

geospatial aspects of cyber networks; the 

nature of global cyber security threats; 

human geography; factors contributing 

to state fragility and stability; and the 

interplay of energy, economy, and 

critical infrastructures in countries of 

the Middle East, West and Central 

Africa, East Asia, and Latin America.

The fall 2014 cohort of students 

worked on three questions regarding 

telecommunications infrastructure 

Photo by Kevin Clark

Mercyhurst students briefed their 

findings to NGA decision-makers.
Pathfinder | Winter 2015 17

| Collaboration

developments in North Africa, the impact 

of maritime resource issues on regional 

tensions in the East and South China 

Seas over the next five to 10 years, and 

the likelihood that Arctic and non-Arctic 

nations will meet their economic goals 

in the region within the next 10 years.

Kris Wheaton, J.D., Mercyhurst 

professor and capstone course lead, 

agrees with Freelander that better 

questions lead to better analysis.

“Our students conduct research for 

people who are in the business, asking 

questions the way they are really asked. 

The questions have the ring of truthfulness, 

allowing me to create a realistic learning 

environment, and inspiring our students 

to think like professionals,” Wheaton said.

Students Deep

Their Apprecia

for Geospatial Anal

According to Wheaton, Mercyhurst 

students who earn their degree in 

intelligence studies obtain positions in 

a variety of agencies and private sector 

firms. But wherever they go, they can 

find ways to use their newly gained and 

freshly honed geospatial analysis skills.

The signing of the NGA

Mercyhurst CRADA was well 

timed, inWheaton’s estimation.

“It has become increasingly clear, in the 

past five years, that students enter our 

program with an interest in geospatial 

data and new tools, taking on mapping 

projects as freshmen,” Wheaton said. “By 

the end of their four-year program, they 

understand that they cannot be an IC 

professional without an appreciation for 

geospatial analysis; it’s integral to the art 

and science of modern intelligence.”

Ana Barbic, a former student of 

Wheaton’s who is now a global threats 

analyst for Monsanto Company, 

described her fascination with maps 

and trying her hand with ArcGIS.

“The NGA assignment fueled that fire 

even more. I seek every opportunity 

to provide a geospatial analysis with 

my assessments because maps are 

a great way to make intelligence 

more accessible and interesting to 

decision-makers,” Barbic said.

The students also gain appreciation 

for the myriad ways in which geospatial 

intelligence can be applied. Current 

Mercyhurst student Alicia Stoklosa 

shared her excitement to learn 

that NGA and other IC agencies 

support humanitarian missions.

“I was fascinated by the way 

NGA used imagery analysis to 

provide timely and appropriate aid 

to those in need during the 2009 

earthquake in Japan,” Stoklosa said.

With this increased awareness, Stoklosa 

said that she can combine her passion 

for the environment with her interest 

in intelligence analysis, widening 

her career development prospects.

NGA’s Questions Broad

Students’ Perspecti

Wheaton expressed appreciation 

for NGA’s effort to provide a wide 

variety of questions. Mercyhurst 

students graduate the capstone course 

with a well-rounded skill set and 

knowledge base, Wheaton explained.

“We’re investing in a process of 

critical thinking, teaching students 

how to conduct and apply their 

analyses to a working body of 

knowledge,” Wheaton said.

Barbic likewise commented on the 

importance of a wider perspective and 

cross-training. Barbic and her teammates 

conducted a strategic assessment of 

the Venezuelan economy. With no 

prior experience in economic analysis 

and a portfolio of work concentrated 

in the Middle East-North Africa and 

Eastern Europe, Barbic undertook basic 

research on Latin American economies.

Barbic said that despite the 

steep learning curve at the 

beginning, she provided a fresh 

and alternative perspective to the 

estimates that her team produced.

“One of my teammates had 

extensive experience in economics, 

and together, all five us were able to 

debate effectively on the topic and 

learn from each other,” Barbic said.

Barbic attributed her growing interest 

in economics to the capstone course.

“I was made acutely aware of how 

interconnected, both directly and 

indirectly, a nation’s economy is with 

other elements of the country,” she said.

The team tasked with researching 

resource competition in the South and 

East China seas found the scope of 

the question especially challenging.

“We were surprised by the wide 

range of subject matter that the NGA 

analysts wanted us to look at, under one 

overarching question. But after weeks 

of research and creating our knowledge 

base, we learned that many factors affect 

the outcomes of various situations,” said 

current Mercyhurst student Katelyn Bailey.

The question’s complexity required 

the team to give more than a simple 

yes-no answer to whether conflict would 

occur in the next five to 10 years.

“We have to know how every single 

indicator affects other indicators, and 

the many ways that a flag or trigger for 

conflict could play out,” Bailey said.

Gaining Experienc

 Leaders and Team Builde

Maximino Peiz, a current Mercyhurst 

student who completed the Strategic 

Intelligence capstone course in the fall 

2014 term, said that the most important 

lessons involved character and leadership.

Peiz described how the partnership 

with NGA provides an opportunity 

to display and refine the skills gained 

through earlier course work.

“This particular capstone course is 

centered more around managing people 

and responsibilities than learning more 

new methodologies,” Peiz said. “The 

most successful teams learned to 

work through differences in order to 

accomplish their assigned task.

By helping each other out, we 

learned how to share roles and 

responsibilities,” Peiz said.
18 Pathfinder | Winter 2015

| Collaboration

There is a consistency to National 

Geospatial-Intelligence Agency Director 

Robert Cardillo’s speeches —whether 

he is addressing audiences within the 

intelligence community or those in the 

public domain: the geospatial intelligence 

landscape is changing. For proof, he cites 

the proliferation of commercial satellites, 

NGA’s release of mobile applications 

via iTunes and Google Play, and crowdsourcing development through a public 

software-sharing site called GitHub.

He also talks about NGA’s 

collaboration with worldwide partners 

to address global events such as the 

Ebola crisis, the 2013 typhoon in the 

Philippines, and security at major 

public gatherings such as the Olympics 

and World Cup. Through unclassified 

websites and use of open sources, 

NGA and its allies are increasingly 

Possibility EUCOM NST build

new ways to collaborate

Open to

integrating and sharing knowledge 

of the world, even while separated by 

physical barriers, national policies, 

security walls, and diverse information 

technologies and analytic tools.

Open-source intelligence, or OSINT, 

has been building its place among the 

other INTs since 1996 when the AspinBrown Commission stated that the 

United States’ access to open sources was 

“severely deficient” and that it should 

become a priority for congressional 

funding. It took nearly another decade 

for the full significance of open sources to 

be understood; “The 9/11 Commission 

Report” confirmed that the terrorist 

attacks on that day were planned almost 

entirely using open-source information.

Today, an estimated 80-90 percent 

of finished intelligence products are 

derived at least in part from open sources 

according to the National Intelligence 

Estimate published by the National 

Intelligence Council under the Office of 

the Director of National Intelligence.

Numerous federal committees and 

program offices across the defense and 

intelligence communities focus on 

open-source materials. OSINT, like 

the other INTs, also has a functional 

manager. The Central Intelligence 

Agency operates the DNI Open Source 

Center to analyze and share open-source 

intelligence materials through both its 

headquarters and overseas bureaus.

Geospatial open so

At the National Geospatial-Intelligence 

Agency, analysts review open-source 

data through a spatial lens. Because of 

their location and terrain understanding, 

GEOINT analysts are able to provide 

By Jeanne Chircop, Office of Corporate Communica
Pathfinder | Winter 2015 19

| Collaboration

context relevant to key intelligence 

questions. NGA analysts also use geospatial 

open-source intelligence, or GOSINT, 

when supporting unclassified efforts.

“Our open-source software 

continues to increase first responder 

efforts and maintain a necessary level 

of transparency between the federal 

and local communities,” said Cardillo 

following a speaking engagement last 

fall in Huntsville, Alabama, where he 

discussed numerous ways the agency 

uses GOSINT to support national 

security and humanitarian efforts. 

Among them, NGA’s unclassified 

GEOINT is contributing to the fight 

against Ebola in West Africa by helping 

to identify safe water sources, optimal 

locations for temporary hospitals and the 

quickest routes for supply deliveries.

Open collabo

NGA leverages GOSINT in support of 

its customers and allied partners wherever 

they are. Crowd-sourced data and social 

media analysis are regularly used for 

tipping and cueing. Following social media 

outlets such as Twitter and Facebook, for 

instance, provides near real-time situational 

awareness as public conditions change.

The “NATO Open Source Intelligence 

Handbook” presents OSINT as “an 

essential contextual and foundation 

element for classified intelligence 

operations” in the 21st century. 

Additionally, NGA’s Geospatial Open 

Source Initiative focuses on how the 

agency supports its allied partners 

through unclassified open sources.

“At the command level, [Air Force] Gen. 

Breedlove, the four-star commander of 

[the United States European Command], 

has repeatedly commented on the 

value of open-source intelligence, its 

shareability and how it can strengthen 

NATO resolve,” said Ashley Hendrix of 

the NGA Support Team to EUCOM.

Using OSINT as the basis for 

collaboration with allied partners 

has obvious benefits. Beyond those 

afforded every user, GOSINT offers 

specific advantages for international 

collaboration. It can be leveraged at little 

cost to either the U.S. government or 

the allied partner. There are no security 

barriers and no required agreements.

“Since no formal sharing agreements are 

required for open-source intelligence, this 

has oftentimes created a common operating 

picture for foreign partners with limited 

GEOINT backgrounds,” said Hendrix.

OSINT tr

NGA has learned from its OSINT 

engagements over the years and is now 

taking part in launching a fully releasable 

open-source curriculum. Its primary 

aim is to assist military service members 

who work within an unclassified Internet 

protocol router domain environment. To 

date, informal desk-side training has been 

conducted with more than 200 military 

personnel. An additional 40 service 

members attended more structured 

training in the form of a workshop in 

Stuttgart, Germany, sponsored by the 

EUCOM NST. The event was supported 

by the Geospatial Open Source division 

within NGA’s Source directorate, along 

with key linguists and GOS experts.

“Military service members know 

how to use crowd-sourced data and 

social media for tipping and cueing. 

Many of them have grown up using 

Facebook, Twitter and other platforms, 

but we also teach how to stay safe from 

a webmaster while they are conducting 

those searches,” said Hendrix.

NGA is also working collaboratively 

with other IC agencies comprising the 

National Open Source Committee 

to create and deliver a teachable 

curriculum to foreign partners.

“Because of our success with the 

[military] components, we began 

reaching out to select foreign partners 

to teach geospatial open-source 

concepts and fuse those concepts 

with commercial imagery, purchased 

through DigitalGlobe under our 

NextView License,” said Hendrix.

To date, international training 

engagements have been arranged 

with priority EUCOM partners 

in cooperation with the EUCOM 

NST’s international affairs liaison.

The growing focus on open sources, 

including commercial imagery, has 

sparked EUCOM to establish a 

formal Open Source Element as a 

new program in theater, according 

to Hendrix. NGA and EUCOM will 

partner in training OSE analysts to 

look at open-source information and 

social media through a spatial lens.

“Our previous inability to forecast, 

understand or counter events 

foreshadowed in publically available 

information characterizes both the 

vastness of public domain information 

volume within the European theater and 

the challenge borne by the command 

to efficiently obtain, scrutinize, utilize 

and retain open source information with 

accuracy and timeliness,” said Robert 

Post, director of the new ECOSE.

“The ECOSE stand-up is the catalyst 

for change, and the NST’s effort is 

really the type of program where new 

energy yields dramatic results,” he said.

Increased use of open sources also begs 

the question of how NGA will continue 

to provide services of consequence in 

the future. Cardillo isn’t worried.

“Geospatial intelligence is by 

its nature open ... it’s a map. It’s 

a photo,” he said. “Because of the 

frame of reference we provide, we 

can be a place where people can 

integrate and collaborate.”

What is open s

Open sources are unclassified, publicly available sources o

•	 Internet and social media sources (e.g.,

websites, blogs, webcams, social media)

•	 Mass media (e.g., television, radio, 

newspapers, magazines)

•	 Books, journals and brochures

•	 Think tank studies, dissertation

•	 Photos and video

•	 Census dat

•	 Commercial imager

•	 Subscription databases 

and services
20 Pathfinder | Winter 2015

| Collaboration

For the past two years, the Intelligence 

Community has focused on developing 

and implementing the Intelligence 

Community Information Technology 

Environment initiative, known as IC 

ITE. IC ITE provides a number of 

services that support Director of National 

Intelligence James R. Clapper’s vision 

of true intelligence integration. While 

many are focused on the mission user 

improvements that IC ITE will bring, 

personnel at NGA are working behind 

the scenes to develop and implement 

the framework and policies necessary to 

support this ambitious undertaking.

System security, often an 

afterthought when designing or using 

IT resources, is required for the IC 

to operate on all networks and is 

a key component to the success of 

the initiative’s success. This includes 

safeguarding the IT infrastructure 

against outside malicious actors while 

ensuring intelligence professionals 

have the right authentications 

and accesses to data within the 

new integrated environment.

“NGA is leading the community 

in this area by proactively adopting 

emerging IT solutions and simplifying 

security processes,” said former NGA 

Deputy Director Mike Rodrigue. 

“NGA’s work is an example of how 

the entire IC can better manage 

and operate securely within the IC 

Cloud. By executing this security 

strategy, NGA is able to more 

rapidly – and transparently – provide 

online, on-demand GEOINT.”

In the summer of 2014, NGA 

was the first IC agency to deploy 

an operational capability to the 

Commercial Cloud Services, or C2S, 

which offers agile, cost effective cloud 

computing to the IC. To test the 

capabilities of the cloud environment 

and to drive forward one of its 

key initiatives, NGA chose to first 

add the foundational elements for 

NGA’s dynamic Map of the World, 

an initiative which enables analysts 

throughout the IC to access data of 

all intelligence disciplines. Once fully 

operational, MoW will enable users 

to visualize and access integrated 

intelligence content fixed to accurate 

geographic features on the Earth.

“These initial capabilities are 

noteworthy, but they are only the first 

steps in a long process to evolve NGA’s 

role as the provider of a platform for 

intelligence integration, which will 

enable all agencies to collaborate in 

one environment,” said David White, 

NGA’s former chief information officer.

NGA’s Deputy CIO Shishu 

Gupta noted that once MoW is fully 

deployed in the C2S as a common 

service for the IC, it will provide the 

opportunity for other agencies to 

decommission their agency-unique 

geospatial portals and data programs.

By Angela French and Mary Kitson, Office of the Chief Information Of
Pathfinder | Winter 2015 21

| Collaboration

As the first to release capabilities 

into the C2S, NGA leaders knew 

they needed to formulate a strategy 

for securing content and mitigating 

risk in this environment that could 

be used by the entire IC. Fortunately, 

NGA security professionals had an 

early concept to build upon, one 

that was used to secure and test 

one of IC ITE’s first services, the 

Desktop Environment, or DTE.

Led by NGA’s Office of the Chief 

Information Officer, staff from multiple 

key components, the DTE Joint 

Program Management Office and the 

Defense Intelligence Agency began 

working together in the summer of 

2013 to develop a method for testing 

and securing DTE. The environment 

provides a common suite of collaborative 

tools such as “.coe” email addresses 

and the same instant messaging 

capabilities for the entire IC.

For initial DTE security, the team 

focused on implementing a new IC 

security mandate — Intelligence 

Community Directive 503 — which 

improves the agency’s process of assessing 

and authorizing information systems 

for use and establishes the new Risk 

Management Framework. This stateof-the-art countermeasure is a more 

intuitive risk management process, 

according to Lance Dubsky, NGA’s 

chief information security officer.

“The countermeasure better serves 

program managers’ needs throughout 

the IT system lifecycle and provides 

leadership a near real-time security 

posture of NGA’s systems,” said Dubsky.

All systems used within IC ITE must be 

accredited using ICD 503 requirements.

“The RMF improves the way we manage 

risk associated with NGA’s information 

systems,” said Dubsky. “Through better 

safeguarding of our systems and using 

common services and practices, we can 

responsibly manage IT security in an 

increasingly dangerous world while offering 

substantial savings to program budgets.”

After successfully securing the DTE 

using ICD 503 and RMF, the security 

testing team used best practices and lessons 

learned to adapt its security strategy to 

apply to systems and GEOINT content 

added to the cloud environment.

Air Force Tech. Sgt. Jason Hess, who 

serves as NGA’s IC Cloud information 

system security manager, worked 

with NGA IT Services to develop 

the first security strategy for adding 

content into C2S by leveraging the 

agility that the RMF provides.

“By using the enterprise services of 

others, we have reduced our typical 

security process from 90 days to two 

weeks,” said Hess. “The streamlined 

process enables us to develop more 

systems in an agile framework while also 

doing it securely. Program managers need 

to be able to have enough information 

about security-related risk to make a 

decision quickly about launching their 

IT system in support of the mission.”

Security engineers and developers 

who are working to add programs 

that will enable MoW supported 

the risk-based security solution.

The ability to move at mission 

speed is all about how you approach 

security according to Allison 

Roulier, an IT Services engineer.

“Using a streamlined approach to 

security risk management changes 

everything,” said Roulier. “The best way 

to adopt the new process successfully 

is to jump in with both feet.”

According to Hess, NGA’s 

security personnel continue to 

improve how NGA applies ICD 

503 requirements and manages risk 

as it adds more content to C2S.

“The team has held a number of 

cloud security summits to collaborate 

with IC partners — including the 

CIA, DIA, NRO, NSA and FBI — 

to ensure a community approach to 

securing all systems that will used in 

the IC IT environment,” Hess said.

Risk Management Frame

The RMF is a flexible, lifecyclebased process for managi

cybersecurity risk in highly dynamic 

environments. It emphasizes the

need to protect missions, not just 

information assets, by encouraging 

decision makers to consider the 

economic and operational costs of 

protective measures weighted against 

requirements for meeting the mission.

Working in 

Cloud Environm

Cloud-based architectures enable

convenient, online and on-demand 

network access to a shared pool of 

computing and data storage resources. 

TheIC Cloud allows users to discov

access and store data in a more 

efficient and secure manner.
22 Pathfinder | Winter 2015

| Features

The Lens of

Consequence

By Sara Barker, Xperience Communications

A N

perspectiv

for MISS

suc

Nothing less than a cultural 

change is underway at the National 

Geospatial-Intelligence Agency.

The fundamental character that 

will define NGA under the leadership 

of Director Robert Cardillo is one 

with a laser sharp focus on customer 

consequences. Cardillo's intent 

is to make sure NGA delivers on 

its promise to provide world-class 

GEOINT. The truth of whether 

NGA is the premier GEOINT 

provider will play out in the results 

of this new focus on consequence. 

To that end, Cardillo posted 

a call to action to the workforce 

through the agency’s internal 

communications. It was a challenge 

to think about all they do in terms 

of what their customers accomplish 

with their work, whether those 

customers are external or internal.

“Pursuing consequence together 

must be the ethos that defines who we 

are or who we must strive to become,” 

Cardillo wrote. “I want to hear about 

consequences for our customers 

within 12 hours, and I don’t want 

there to be more than one level of 

approval between the employee who 

reports the consequence and me.”

In response to this challenge, 

Navy Cmdr. Craig Lawless of NGA’s 

Customer Engagement Initiative 

is leading an effort that on Feb. 2, 

unveiled a “consequence tool” to 

the workforce. While discussing the 

intent of the tool, Lawless said the 

agency lacks a single repository to 

contain customer consequences, even 

though there are multiple avenues for 

customers to provide feedback to NGA. 

“This tool not only puts a report 

of a customer consequence on the 

fast lane to the director, it provides 
Pathfinder | Winter 2015 23

| Features

an opportunity for the workforce 

to reflect on how their work 

affects their customers,” Lawless 

said. “And it’s not just a tool; it’s 

a process that intends to shift the 

culture consciousness at NGA.” 

That process begins with any 

member of the agency workforce 

who notices a consequence that an 

internal or external customer has 

realized through the receipt of an 

NGA product or service. He or she 

opens up the “consequence tool” from 

the internal NGA homepage and 

enters the customer’s consequence, 

including details such as its content, 

context, conveyance, and any 

collaborators. Once the “submit” 

button is clicked, the entry goes 

through only one validator before it 

arrives at the NGA director’s desk.

Lawless points out that the 

validation step is essential to the spirit 

of the process because it can spark a 

dialogue. For example, the validator 

may return to the author to discuss 

whether their submission truly qualifies 

as a consequence or to encourage them 

to reach out to the customer for more 

details regarding their consequence. 

“That is the kind of conversation 

that needs to occur more often 

to better focus us on what we are 

doing that really makes a difference 

for our customers,” said Lawless.

According to Cardillo, the 

consequence process “will get 

us in the habit of looking at our 

work through the lens of customer 

consequence ... by encouraging 

dialogue with our customers, it will 

help NGA be more effective in our 

response and more anticipatory 

in our approach. It will also help 

reveal where we can do better.”
24 Pathfinder | Winter 2015

| Feature

What exactly is a “customer consequence” 

and what does it look like? 

According to Robert Cardillo, director, 

National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, 

it is what the customer accomplishes 

with NGA’s work when data and analysis 

are so persuasive it can be applied to the 

customer’s mission at their decision point. 

For examples of customer consequence, 

read on to learn how FEMA’s Urban 

Search and Rescue Task Force used NGAcreated trajectory maps to locate the 

remains of victims following the 2014 

Snohomish mudslides and how satellite 

images from NGA enabled the U.S. 

Marines to determine the best location 

for an urgently needed water purification 

system after Typhoon Haiyan in 2013. 

Snohomish County mudslid

When the March 22, 2014, mudslide 

occurred in Snohomish County, 

Washington, FEMA’s Incident Support 

Team knew they needed NGA expertise, 

specifically NGA's Integrated Work Group 

– Readiness, Response and Recovery, 

or IWG-R3, team. According to IWGR3 team member Todd Hildreth, the 

first day they arrived, he and teammate 

Aaron Davis worked 20 hours straight. 

“We got there and had our work cut 

out for us,” said Hildreth. “First, we 

had to find the data on the Washington 

state GIS [geographic information 

system]. Then we determined what the 

customer needed and finally, we prepared 

those products for the next day.” 

Among the products the NGA IWGR3 provided FEMA each day was a 

trajectory map — in both geo-coded 

electronic and physical versions — of where 

the remains of the victims were found in 

relation to their last known location. 

 According to Hildreth, the product 

helped increase the thoroughness of 

the searching and tracking efforts. 

“We were able to provide sanitized 

versions of the maps to liaisons to pass on 

to the victims’ families,” said Hildreth. 

Davis acknowledged that creating 

the maps was a part of the job that was 

especially meaningful since it allowed 

the families to have some closure. 

 “A nice thing about these types of 

engagements is that the customers are right 

in front of you, asking their questions, 

providing feedback,” Davis said.

While representing NGA, Davis and 

Hildreth were the unexpected benefactors 

of customer consequence. FEMA’s IST 

and Urban Search and Rescue teams told 

them directly how much they helped 

and the public showed their appreciation 

by dropping off baked goods daily.

“We feel lucky to have been 

able to help,” Davis said.

Assistance during Typhoon 

On Nov. 7, 2013, a few months before the 

Snohomish County disaster, Typhoon Haiyan, 

the strongest tropical cyclone ever recorded 

at landfall, hit the Philippines, eventually 

killing more than 6,300 people and leaving 

nearly 8 million homeless or displaced. The 

Philippines asked the United States for help. 

When Marine Lt. Col. John Bilas 

landed at Villamor Air Base in Manila, 

a wrecked country greeted him, 

torn apart by Typhoon Haiyan. 

“I saw thousands of displaced 

persons,” he said. “Haiyan ravaged 

the country and left a massive level of 

destruction and suffering in its wake.”

Stationed with the 3rd Marine 

Expeditionary Force at Okinawa, Japan, 

Bilas, served as an intelligence officer with 

the Joint Task Force 505 and deployed as 

part of Operation Damayan, a multinational 

effort formed in direct response to the 

Filipino government’s request for assistance, 

he said. Bilas in his role with the III 

MEF supported evacuations and delivery 

of aid and relief supplies by providing 

unclassified imagery-derived products to 

multinational partners and situational 

awareness to the JTF 505 commander.

 “The commercial and [national technical 

means] imagery provided by NGA was an 

integral part of this support,” Bilas said.

According to Bilas, it was simple to 

initiate the support, requiring only a brief 

email exchange with the U.S. Pacific 

Command NGA Support Team. 

“The PACOM NST then coordinated 

with the Marine NST and NGA’s Military 

Support Directorate,” said Bilas. “There were a 

few hiccups, but once reach-back connections 

and areas of interest were set, we fell into a 

battle rhythm, meeting at the same time every 

day with the same people – the PACOM 

J2, the NST and my collections manager.” 

The JTF downloaded more than 300 

full-frame satellite images from NGA and, 

from these, created original imagery-derived 

products, including helicopter-landing 

Customer Con

By Sara Barker, Xperience Communications

 Photo by Aaron Davis
Pathfinder | Winter 2015 25

| Features

zone, beach and route studies.

Bilas said these products were central to 

the humanitarian assistance and disaster 

relief that Operation Damayan provided. As 

an example, Bilas noted how the JTF used 

imagery-derived products in its planning and 

construction of a water purification system in 

one of the hardest hit areas near Tacloban City, 

a 45-minute helicopter ride south of Manila. 

The products helped the staff discern that 

“getting to the ground would be fine, but 

roads were blocked, so air was better,” he said. 

By the time Operation Damayan 

concluded Dec. 1, 2013, NGA 

GEOINT products had supported the 

transportation of more than 1,300 aid 

flights to about 450 sites, and helped 

evacuate more than 21,000 people. 

While he considers the operation 

ultimately successful, Bilas said it was 

threatened at times by technical challenges. 

“Bandwidth still cripples us,” he said. 

“We had to use NGA’s unclassified network 

to download the [large data files] due to 

high-traffic volume delays on the classified 

network. Doing this risked overwhelming 

the [unclassified] bandwidth.” 

According to Bilas, the root of 

this problem was a systems issue. 

“We need more from NGA on the 

[unclassified] domain because, by and large, 

we do not have JWICS access,” he said. 

“We need to improve our bandwidth. I 

know Marines who could not download 

maps, so they went to Google Earth.”

Bilas explained that if customers 

have bandwidth or network-access 

constraints, NGA’s advancements 

in GEOINT are of little use. 

“I've seen analysts at NGA do great 

things on JWICS, but where does this 

go?” Bilas said. “Marines in the operating 

forces don’t have the access like analysts in 

DC. Sometimes it’s not as available as we 

would like. It's just the nature of how the 

systems are set up and how we operate in the 

tactical world. We need more from NGA.” 

Bilas said that his experience as an 

NGA customer during Operation 

Damayan was positive but he highlighted 

opportunities for improvement in light 

of Cardillo’s stated commitment to 

customer consequence. Recently, the 

director affirmed that he planned to 

focus all agency efforts “on providing our 

customers with the insights, understanding, 

foreknowledge and meaningful results that 

allow them to succeed in their mission.” 

For Bilas, fighting bandwidth constraints 

on the unclassified domain and limitedaccess to JWICS meant that his NGAenabled consequence was threatened 

by its conveyance, according to the 

director’s new terminology for success. 

“These are the types of stories we 

should be capturing and acting on,” said 

Cardillo. “Our customers want us to pay 

attention so that we know what will enable 

consequences for them before they do. They 

don’t want to be surprised by anything.”

Cardillo has stated that he hopes he 

will get to learn of specific opportunities 

for improvement via the agency’s new 

consequence tool [see related story, The Lens 

of Consequence]. For an NGA customer 

like Bilas, this openness could get his 

accessibility issues in front of Cardillo in a 

faster and more direct way than ever before. 

“I want us to make better use of our 

mistakes. They are our greatest learning 

opportunities,” Cardillo said. 
26 Pathfinder | Winter 2015

| Features
Pathfinder | Winter 2015 27

| Feature

By Kevin Clark, Office of Corporate Communicat

7:53 p.m. Molly Hatchet’s hit song “Flirting with Disaster” 

blares out of an iPhone as it vibrates on a glass coffee table in 

the living room of a townhouse outside the Capital Beltway in 

suburban Northern Virginia. A 34-year-old, medium-built, 

tattooed Air Force veteran sighs as he pauses the new “Call of 

Duty” game on his Xbox and leans over to verify the caller. 

“Rggghhh, hello?” he grunts into the phone, tired from a long 

day at work. On the other end of the line is his supervisor. 

“Hey brother,” the supervisor mumbles. 

“We got a situation. I need you here in an hour.”

“What’s going on?” he asks the supervisor. 

“Can’t talk about it over the phone, just get here!”

Forty-five minutes and two cups of coffee later, the man pulls up to 

a warehouse and slams the shifter of his silver Toyota Tacoma into the 

park position. Now overly caffeinated and eager to find out what the 

emergency is, he unlocks the door of the warehouse and pushes it open 

to find 12 of his coworkers scurrying around, aimlessly looking for three 

missing connectors they need to do an op-test on a new satellite dish. 

He turns and sees his supervisor standing 

there, his eyes fluttering with anxiety.

“Seriously,” the man says to his supervisor. “You called 

me all the way out here to help you find some connectors? 

This couldn’t have waited until morning? Those aren’t 

even the right connectors for that dish anyway!”

“That’s exactly why I called you in here, genius,” the 

supervisor yells. “Now find whatever it is you need to get 

this dish connected! You gotta have it out the door and 

on the flight line by zero-eight-hundred tomorrow!”

“Tomorrow?” the man said. “Where’s it going and who’s taking it?”

“If I was a betting man, I’d say that would be you,” the supervisor 

laughed. “We’ve got a situation going on right now overseas that 

requires some custom equipment and experienced analytics. A 

few gentlemen from the Pentagon will be briefing you in a couple 

of hours. Have your stuff ready to go and have a safe trip!”

Meanwhile back at the 

Whether embedded overseas supporting elite special operations 

units or in the United States assisting disaster relief efforts, 

NGA’s Expeditionary Operations Office, known as MSD, 

delivers mission-critical GEOINT capabilities for on-the-spot 

analysis anywhere in the world, sometimes within hours’ notice, 

according to Hector Montalvo, the logistics branch chief for MSD. 

Fittingly, the unit's motto is “GEOINT anywhere, anytime.”
28 Pathfinder | Winter 2015

“Everybody on the team either deploys 

or has deployed in support of NGA 

operations,” said Montalvo. “Sometimes 

it’s necessary to have an analyst there on 

the spot to help ease decision makers' 

uncertainty during times of crisis or on 

time-sensitive operations. Looking at a 

brief with some imagery sometimes isn’t 

enough to answer all the questions and 

keeping a steady flow of information is 

essential. That’s where we come in,” he said.

Curtiss L. Miller is a systems 

technician with the group.

“We have about 13 techs and they 

are a highly talented group with a lot of 

responsibility,” said Miller. “You have to really 

be a jack-of-all-trades to get the job done. It’s 

one thing to have a great workstation and 

unlimited resources, but in the expeditionary 

environment, everything has limits. With 

limited bandwidth and limited equipment, 

you still have to make things work.”

Most of the group served in the 

military before coming to NGA’s deployed 

services and have extensive backgrounds 

in information systems, networks, satellite 

communications and logistics. As NGA 

employees, they start their training at a 

warehouse facility located up winding rural 

roads through dense forests outside the 

Washington, D.C. area in the mountains 

of Northern Virginia. There, surrounded 

by farms and the faint sound of the 

occasional passing car, technicians have 

the space and peace of mind to test new 

equipment, engineer new capabilities 

and train for their next deployment. 

Similar training and operational support 

is conducted at another facility in the St. 

Louis metro area, as well as two major 

deployment support locations overseas.

“Most of the technical training is 

in-house,” said Jason N. Cagle, another 

technician and the warehouse manager at 

the facility. “I came to NGA when I got out 

of the Air Force as an imagery analyst, then 

I cross-trained as a geospatial analyst and 

then into a position as a systems engineer. 

I’ve done a dozen deployments overseas 

in support of OIF and OEF [Operation 

Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring 

Freedom], and now I’m the warehouse 

manager here. It’s my job to take care 

of the facility. I love it. My job has kind 

of evolved with the mission,” he said.

Miller was a former operations 

specialist in the Navy

“When I got out, I started in NGA’s 

deployed services as a contractor before 

being hired on as a government employee. 

I like it here because we are completely selfsufficient,” said Miller. “I can do everything 

from setting up the tents to driving the 

trucks to changing the oil on generators.”

The readiness process for deployment 

usually takes about six months and varies 

from person to person, said Cagle.

“Everybody comes from different 

environments and everybody has a strong 

suit,” Cagle said. “But when they come here, 

they need to be familiar with everything 

because if the equipment goes down, 

they are the only ones there to fix it.”

The process consists of learning everything 

from information system operations and 

maintenance, geospatial applications 

and data types, all the way to generator 

maintenance and small-arms training.

“We went through some ‘crash and bang’ 

courses,” said Joseph A. Valenti, another 

technician and Air Force veteran. “They 

taught us everything from evasive driving 

techniques to weapons handling. There 

was even a course in hand-to-hand combat 

where we were had to demonstrate how to 

get up off the ground in an altercation.”

Valenti said the group didn’t always 

carry weapons on deployment, but 

started implementing weapons training 

when the Afghanistan war kicked off 

after the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11.

“Me and Cagle were with the second team 

of analysts to pull into Afghanistan after 

9/11,” Valenti said. “Back then, it was like 

the Wild West where we were at. The security 

perimeter of the base we were on consisted 

of concertina wire and some little cones. 

People were getting shot all the time and we 

were always taking a lot of fire from mortars 

and RPGs [rocket-propelled grenades].”

Cagle said, “When we got there, 

some bulldozers had just come in and 

made some six-foot dirt berms and 

threw some wire on it. That was really 

all the security there was at the time.”

Since then, the deployed services team 

has trained on the use of 9mm pistols 

and M4 carbine rifles, Cagle said.

“Where we carry and what we carry 

depends on the environment,” said Miller. 

“If we are on a big base like Bagram, 

we might only carry a side arm,” he 

said, referring to the largest U.S. base in 

Afghanistan. “But if we are going out to 

some of the [smaller bases] where there 

is less security, we carry the long guns.”

Not for the faint-hearte

Training is important in any workplace, 

but when your job description may include 

being fired upon, it is life or death.

“It can get pretty harry out there and the 

training is really important,” Miller said. “I’ve 

been shot at more times since I joined the 

deployed services than I ever did in the military. 

I spent 90 percent of my time in the Navy on a 

ship, so that kind of stuff wasn’t really anything 

to worry about,” he said. “Now, I’ve been on 

Black Hawks where we have had to make quick 

drops in altitude so the crew could engage 

enemy forces because we were taking fire.“

Cagle said with the inherently dangerous 

responsibility the group takes on and the 

limited resources available to them in the 

combat zone, field medical courses are 

also provided as part of the training.

“Every deployer on our team goes 

through basic combat first aid that way 

| Feature
Pathfinder | Winter 2015 29

they know how to apply a tourniquet 

and all that stuff,” Cagle said.

Uncertainty is an inherent factor for 

members of the Deployed Services Team.

“You never really know what’s going to 

happen,” said Miller. “You never know when 

one of those one-in-a-million rounds is going 

to come into your hooch. We took some 

heavy fire from some large mortar rounds 

inside the base I was at in Iraq back in '06. 

The concussion blew me across my desk and 

cracked all the windows and blew out some 

of the tires of our white Chevy truck,” he 

said. “A lot of guys got hurt in that one.”

“It’s all part of the job, you know,” said 

Valenti. “I’m not a desk jockey by any means. 

I like to get out there and get my hands dirty.”

Once their training is completed and 

the technicians are deployable, they have a 

wide variety of mission sets to facilitate.

“I’ve done about a dozen overseas 

deployments since '02 and at least 30 in 

the U.S. supporting everything from Super 

Bowls to hurricane response,” Valenti 

said. “No two missions are the same.”

“Adaptability is the key,” said Valenti. “We 

are there primarily as technicians, but there 

have been plenty of times where I’ve jumped 

in to help out the analysts too,” he said. “It’s 

not like we get there and get set up and then 

say, ‘All right guys, we’re up and running, we’re 

going to bed now. Have fun.’ We are all one 

team and we are staying until the mission is 

done. Actually being there and having that 

direct relationship with soldiers and airmen 

who are using the imagery is irreplaceable. 

You can’t put a value on having someone 

there on the spot to keep things going.”

Besides supporting NGA’s missions overseas, 

the MSD also provides NGA assets for disaster 

relief efforts in the U.S., using resources 

such as deployable laptops with satellite 

communications all the way up to the vehiclebased Domestic Mobile Integrated Geospatial 

Intelligence System (DMIGS) and the Mobile 

Integrated Geospatial System (MIGS). The 

DMIGS was built on a commercial fire 

truck chassis and engineered by analysts and 

technicians. It has served as a roving NGA 

operations center since 2006, containing 

everything analysts need to deliver critical 

GEOINT to relief efforts and authorities to 

help clear roadways and work out emergency 

routes during natural disasters and special 

events. The MIGS provides similar capabilities, 

but is built on a military Humvee platform.

“We all have to get our commercial 

driver’s license to drive the DMIGS,” 

said Miller. “It’s totally worth the training 

though. It’s really been a great asset for 

us. I’ve helped support every hurricane or 

disaster since 2006 and all we ever need to 

do our job is fuel and we're ready to roll. ”

In addition to IT and communications 

equipment, MSD maintains equipment to 

deploy and sustain analytical and support 

personnel in austere environments. This 

includes everything needed to perform 

their jobs home or abroad, from tents 

and sleeping bags to weapons and body 

armor and ready-to-eat meals. The 

unpredictable nature of the job keeps them 

on their toes and requires a constant state 

of readiness for unexpected requirements.

Valenti said, “You never really know what’s 

coming next. It’s always something new 

whether you’re in the states or overseas; you’ve 

got to kind of just roll with what’s going on.”

Miller said he loves his job, but it’s not 

for everybody.

“I’ve had guys come up to me after 

our base got attacked and tell me that 

they didn’t sign up for this,” Miller said. 

“The next thing you know, they are on a 

plane going back home. It’s okay though. 

I always tell them there are plenty of 

important things to do back there too.”

Cagle said he likes the job because 

you don’t do the same thing every day.

“You never know what you’re getting into 

when you come to work. If you’re watching 

the news on the weekend and something 

significant happens, you can get a pretty good 

feel for what’s coming your way on Monday 

morning; that is, if they don’t call you in before 

then,” Cagle said. “The next thing you know, 

they tell you to go home and get a bag and 

you’re driving to Fort Bragg the next day to 

get on a C-17. You can never really be sure.”

MSD maintains relationships and persistent 

communications with the NGA Support 

Teams worldwide and other customers for 

humanitarian and disaster relief support 

as well as military operations to anticipate 

requirements. MSD's constant state of 

readiness ensures equipment and personnel are 

prepared as much as possible for deployments 

prior to an actual event occurring.

The sound of a ringing phone erupts from 

the corner of a workstation surrounded by a 

half-full, warm can of Diet Coke, the latest 

issue of Men’s Health and an old SuperCircuits 

catalog. A door opens in the back of the room, 

exposing a meeting room full of technicians 

and several large video-teleconferencing screens.

“It’s your turn,” one of the techs says to 

a new guy, laughing with anticipation.

The lone, new technician, still wet 

behind the ears from training, paces 

slowly over to the phone and hesitantly 

reaches his hand to the receiver.

“Military Support,” he squeaks, barely 

getting the words out as he recalls all the 

deployment stories his coworkers have 

told him over the past six months.

On the other end of the line, there is 

silence followed by a baritone voice.

“It’s time. Are you ready to roll out?”

“I’m not a desk jockey by

any means.  like to get out

there and get my hands 

dirty.”

– Joseph Valenti

| Feature
30 Pathfinder | Winter 2015

| transparency |
Answer: The answer to our back cover question is "The Burma Road." Finished in 1938, this rugged 717 mile, overland r

provided the final challenging segment of the supply route from Rangoon to Chiang Kai-shek's forces in China. The Japanese over

Burma in 1942, but under British command, British, Chinese, and American forces wrested Burma from Japan in 1944 and the supplies

began to flow once again, arriving regularly by January 1945. Look for more on the Burma Road in the next issu

kNW

Pathfinder | Winter 2015 31

| transparency |

Coming next issue — The power of transparency 

challenges the status quo.
32 Pathfinder

| Winter 2015

| View point|

how well d

you know the 

Earth

Supplies would come

by rail from Rangoon

via Mandalay to Lashi

where it would begin. 

It played an essential

role in the Far East effort

to support China against 

the Japanese from 1938 

through 1942.

What was it?

Answer: pg. 3