J u l y / A u g u s t 2 0 1 0

Vol. 8 No. 4

Supporting the Warfighter 

Beyond the Front Lines

Supporting the Warfighter 

Beyond the Front Lines
On My Mind

Supporting the Warfighter in the 

Battlespace and Beyond

One of NGA’s principal missions is to provide geospatial intelligence to the members of this 

nation’s armed services—the men and women who protect the United States and its interests—and 

our international military allies who join the fight.

NGA’s maps, charts, aeronautical navigation products, force-protection graphics and other 

resources enable a diverse military mission set, and we take pride in that. But we bring something 

more to our servicemembers. NGA officers deploy forward, in theater and at crisis locations, 

where they participate fully in the daily ops tempo. At any given time, NGA has more than 200 

volunteer forward-based deployers engaged in military support activities. 

Supporting Combat Forces and the Combatant Commands

In Iraq we support security operations and assist local authorities as they work to build strong 

institutions that will sustain the country as the international presence winds down.

In Afghanistan, NGA delivers actionable GEOINT to U.S. and coalition troops in the NATO-led 

International Security Assistance Force. We are also helping the Afghan government build its 

own GEOINT capacity. Equally important, we support the international multidisciplinary military 

teams now applying their collective expertise to create long-term strategies to promote stability 

and development.

In addition, NGA Support Team personnel assigned to the Combatant Commands provide 

on-site analysis and resources to servicemembers to help them meet the GEOINT mission 

requirements of their respective areas of responsibility.

Supporting Military Humanitarian Missions

Humanitarian assistance and disaster relief operations are increasingly part of the mission 

of our armed services. Our warfighters rely on NGA and the power of GEOINT as they battle to 

save lives and alleviate suffering.

Earlier this year, Haiti was struck by a magnitude-7 earthquake. When the Southern Command 

mobilized to coordinate rescue and relief operations, NGA was there. Our deployed personnel 

supported not only SOUTHCOM, but also the work of Joint Task Force-Haiti, the U.S. Navy, the 

U.S. Marine Expeditionary Force, elements of the U.S. Army’s 82nd Airborne Division, the Coast 

Guard and the entire multi-agency and international effort. 

The April 2010 explosion of the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig killed 11 workers and released 

an ongoing oil spill that continues to endanger the Mississippi Delta and surrounding Gulf Coast 

states. The U.S. Coast Guard was the military service called upon to coordinate the national 

response to the crisis. NGA’s officers, working in our Domestic Mobile Integrated GeospatialIntelligence System vehicle, provided the geospatial imagery, analysis and data necessary for 

the development of a common operating picture—key to a unified effort.

When members of our armed services are planning and executing a mission, whether for 

combat operations, building host nation capacity or humanitarian assistance and disaster 

relief, NGA is there—with expert capability, both on site and through 24x7 reachback, laying 

the essential GEOINT foundation for mission success.

Robert B. Murrett

Vice Admiral, USN

Director
Pathfinder ›› July/August 2010 ›› Vol. 8 No. 4

3 Pathfinder ›› July/August 2010 

8

Contents

On the Cover

The National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency is both a 

member of the Intelligence Community and a Department 

of Defense Combat Support Agency. As part of the DoD, 

one of NGA’s main responsibilities is providing geospatial 

intelligence to America’s armed services. Supporting these 

mission partners takes many forms, including providing 

personnel, products, services and technical solutions 

to fully integrate GEOINT into their internal processes. 

From imagery and maps used by soldiers and Marines 

in Afghanistan to geospatial data for the U.S. Coast 

Guard to help contain the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, 

NGA supports America’s warfighters. GeoEye satellite 

image used on the cover.

Published by the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency

Office of Corporate Communications

4600 Sangamore Road, Mail Stop D-54

Bethesda, MD 20816-5003

Telephone: (301) 227-7388, 

DSN 287-7388

E-mail: pathfinder@nga.mil

Director

Vice Adm. Robert B. Murrett, U.S. Navy

Deputy Director

Lloyd Rowland

Office of Corporate Communications, Director

Kimberly Thompson

Public Affairs, Chief

Karen A. Finn

Editor

Marshall Hudson

Associate Editor

Laura L. Lundin

The Pathfinder is the medium with which the National 

Geospatial-Intelligence Agency enhances and promotes 

public awareness and understanding of the discipline of 

geospatial intelligence. The Pathfinder is an authorized 

Department of Defense publication for members of the 

Department of Defense. Contents of this publication 

are not necessarily the official view of, or endorsed by, 

the U.S. government, Department of Defense or NGA. 

Articles in the Pathfinder may be reproduced in whole 

or in part without permission, unless stated otherwise. 

If they are reproduced, please credit the author and the 

“National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, the Pathfinder 

magazine.” Any reproduction of graphics, photographs 

and imagery is subject to the original copyright.

12 15

5 NGA in the News

6 Q&A with NGA Director Vice Adm. 

Robert B. Murrett

›› F E A T U R E S

8 Innovative Graphical Display Improves 

Naval Forces Operations

10 Exercises Develop Military Readiness 

12 NGA Supports Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill 

Remediation Efforts 

14 The Foundation of Warfighter Support 

›› D E P A R T M E N T S

15 Partnerships: A Long Flight Home 

17 Our Heritage: Memory: Where 

is the Real War?
4 Pathfinder ›› July/August 2010 

DOD photo

» National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency personnel in St. 

Louis, Mo., Washington D.C., and other locations around 

the nation are providing geospatial intelligence support 

to the Deepwater Horizon Response Effort. 

Ongoing GEOINT support to the crisis is accounting for 

the location and status of deployed booms, the location 

oil near land and the overall extent of the oil spill.

NGA products include graphics of major infrastructure, 

environmentally sensitive regions along the Gulf coast, 

operational planning map atlases and notices to mari-

time and air navigation safety. For more about the NGA 

response to the oil spill, see the story NGA Supports Gulf 

of Mexico Remediation Efforts on page 12.

NGA Responds 

to Oil Spill
3 Pathfinder ›› July/August 2010 

NGA IN THE NEWS

Secretary Gates Announces Next NGA Director

On Feb. 22, Secretary of Defense Robert M. Gates announced that 

Letitia Long will serve as the next director of the National GeospatialIntelligence Agency. Long currently serves as deputy director of the 

Defense Intelligence Agency. 

“Her more than 30 years of engineering and intelligence experience 

include service as the deputy undersecretary of defense for intelligence, 

deputy 

director of naval intelligence and as a coordinator of Intelligence Community activities for the director of central intelligence,” Gates said.

Director of National Intelligence Dennis C. Blair stated, “Ms. Long’s 

historic appointment reflects her 32 years of exceptional government 

service, including more than two decades in the Intelligence Community. She is highly respected throughout the Intelligence Community and 

Department of Defense.”

Long will be the first woman to lead a major intelligence agency when 

she 

assumes her new post later this summer.

DIA Director Lt. Gen. Ronald Burgess announced on April 19 that Robert 

Cardillo, who currently serves as the DIA deputy director for analysis, 

will become the new deputy director of DIA when Long assumes her 

post at NGA. Previously, Cardillo served as director of NGA’s Analysis 

and Production 

Directorate and Source Operations and Management Directorate.

Blair announced on April 21 that current NGA Director Vice Adm. Robert 

B. 

Murrett will take over as the ODNI director of intelligence staff later this 

year following the retirement of Lt. Gen. John F. (“Jeff”) Kimmons.

Extended Learning Site Opens in Tampa, Fla.

The National Geospatial-Intelligence College formally opened its 

first Extended Learning Site at MacDill Air Force Base, Tampa, Fla., 

with a ribbon-cutting ceremony on March 24. The MacDill site is 

part of the agency’s continuing drive to push GEOINT resources forward throughout the National System for Geospatial Intelligence.

The MacDill site will provide tradecraft and leadership training to 

NGA employees and other NSG members in the region. Personnel 

from many commands and agencies who attend training at the 

site will learn to apply GEOINT more effectively to make decisions 

critical to mission success. Additional sites are projected for other 

civilian and military locations in the near future.

5 Pathfinder ›› July/August 2010 

JARIC 50th Anniversary Celebration

NGA Director Vice Adm. Robert B. Murrett was the 

guest of honor for the 70th Anniversary of the United 

Kingdom’s Joint Air Reconnaissance Intelligence 

Center July 1. JARIC, the United Kingdom’s National 

Imagery Exploitation Centre is part of the UK Ministry 

of Defence. 

JARIC is part of MOD’s Intelligence Collection Group 

and provides advanced imagery intelligence to 

the armed forces and other intelligence partners 

through the exploitation of satellite imaging systems, 

airborne and ground-base collection systems.

GIMS

The National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency has 

just completed the successful rollout of the GEOINT 

Information Management System. GIMS brings 

together disparate tools and systems to centralize 

the management of tasking and collection for 

government and commercial sources. 

GIMS replaces the Requirements Management 

System and the Production Management Alternate 

Architecture and enables NGA officers and our 

mission partners to more efficiently and effectively 

capture, save, and share collection strategies, 

perform research, order imagery, and automate 

many other collection management functions.

NGA Previews the ADAPX Pen

At the recent USGIF Tech Days event NGA exhibited 

the ADAPX pen, a technology developed through 

In-Q-Tel. In-Q-Tel is an NGA partnership with CIA to 

seek new solutions from nontraditional providers of 

technology—venture capital, start-up companies, 

academia and industry. 

This digital pen allows the average, nonmapmaker 

user to mark up maps, imagery and notebooks, then 

upload the markings into ArcGIS, Microsoft One Note 

or Excel. The hardcopy map contains digital ink that 

reacts to the pen. 

A user can update the map using the pen, with what 

appears on the ground. He or she can then download 

the pen’s information via a holster and upload the 

information to a digital map on a computer. The new 

information appears in a separate layer on the map, 

which can be converted to a TerraGo GeoPDF for 

easy portability.

NGA IN THE NEWS

NGA Participates 

in GEOINT Community 

Career Fair 

NGA recruiters participated in the U.S. 

Geospatial Intelligence Foundation’s 

career fair on July 15 in Reston, Va. 

The free event was open to everyone 

in the GEOINT business, from new 

graduates to former military and civilian 

professionals with program manager, 

engineering, programming and analysis experience. Career fairs help NGA 

with staffing challenges, such as hiring 

for skills with new technologies and 

imagery, as well as for backgrounds in 

the sciences, analysis, and supporting 

technical areas. NGA is also hiring 

based on expected attrition due to 

the aging of the work force and the 

move to the new facility in Springfield, 

Va. For more information about NGA 

careers, go to www.nga.mil and click 

the “Recruiting Events” banner.

Thinkstock photo

Photo courtesy of ADAPX

DOD photo
QA

6Pathfinder ›› July/August 2010 

Q&A with NGA Director Vice Adm. Robert B. Murrett, 

U.S. Navy, May 28, 2010

By Susan H. Meisner

As Vice Adm. Robert B. Murrett, U.S. Navy, 

prepares to conclude his tour as NGA 

director, he spent a few minutes sharing 

some his thoughts about the agency. 

Q: What do you view as the most significant NGA 

achievement of the past few years?

A: It is continuing the trend General Clapper started of engaging across the Intelligence Community, 

the Department of Defense, with other partners 

and the outward focus that this great organization

has always had. We have made such a difference 

in so many different mission sets by embedding 

ourselves with mission partners. We’ve taken 

responsibility for the geospatial mission set across 

the government and with our allies.

This is also part of Intelligence Community reform. 

Consistent with recommendations from the 9/11 

Commission, the WMD Commission, the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act and 

other primary guidance, we are looking outward 

to be as collaborative as we can with our mission 

partners. The geospatial mission lends itself to 

interagency cooperation because it provides that 

foundational baseline that everybody needs regardless of their mission. And I think we’re leaning 

forward very effectively.

Q: What are the benefits of NGA’s deployer program and having employees externally assigned 

with our mission partners?

A: The most important benefit is the fact that they 

have a stake in the outcome of any specific mission 

tasking, whether it’s military or civilian, domestic 

or overseas. NGA has moved away from what some 

folks describe as the transactional model. That is, 

most of the time we don’t [just] produce geospatial 

intelligence, give it to somebody else, and let them 

figure out how to use it or not. 

We have more than 2,000 of our folks at more than 

200 locations around the world that are embedded in teams, full parts of the decision making 

apparatus in many settings. They are able to provide the geospatial support that is required even 

before the end users have to ask for it. Having full 

responsibility for the outcome puts more pressure 

on our people, but also makes them far, far more 

effective.

Q: What do you see as the agency’s greatest 

strength?

A: The greatest strength is its people. There is no 

question. There is always a danger of losing sight 

of that because of the resource implications for a 

lot of our systems, our technology, our collection 

platforms or our architecture. Notwithstanding 

that, it’s the people at NGA that represent our competitive edge in Washington and in St. Louis and at 

the other locations around the world. 

Person after person tells me how great this NST 

chief is, how great this group of deployers was, 

how terrific this group of NGA people is embedded 

with their headquarters. It’s all of the members of 

this great agency and across the National System 

for Geospatial Intelligence, young and old, from so 

many different backgrounds and a lot of different 

specialties who enable the broad mission set that 

NGA has. 

Q: Which NGA contributions were the most momentous or groundbreaking? 
7 Pathfinder ›› July/August 2010 

A: I think we have done everything we possibly 

could in terms of kinetic operations and supporting our uniformed men and women who are going 

into harm’s way. We’ll never be able to calculate 

or know how many lives we’ve saved because of 

the work that we have done to support our military 

personnel, but I’m convinced it’s a significant 

number. We ought to be very proud of the work that 

our deployers in particular have done, and also all 

of the others that have supported them. 

At the same time, we have considerable challenges, as reflected in wildfires, natural disasters, 

the oil spill now in the Gulf, and the progress that 

this organization has made since Hurricane Katrina 

hit the Gulf area some years ago, at supporting 

domestic events. I think we have balanced those 

diverse mission sets effectively as an organization 

and across the NSG. 

Q: Has technology changed the GEOINT tradecraft? 

A: The big thing here is the way that we have harnessed technology so effectively. Our InnoVision, 

Acquisition and Enterprise Directorates and others 

have done a terrific job in advancing the technology, and it has had a dramatic effect on how we 

do business. We reach out and touch hundreds of 

different places around the world with thousands 

of workstations in ways that have accelerated 

dramatically just in the past several years. The 

ways we have leveraged IT, whether it’s in reduced 

cost of data storage, processing algorithms or the 

collection sensors that we have, have changed the 

way we do business. 

Q: How do you see NGA moving ahead in the next 

five to ten years?

A: I see us continuing to build on the best practices that we have today. Looking forward, I think 

we’ll be able to harness two things in particular—

one, the experience that our people are continuing 

to garner while externally assigned or deployed. 

The second is the shift into the NGA Campus East 

and the continued improvements to our facilities 

in Missouri. Those two important centers of gravity 

will achieve ongoing organizational efficiencies. I 

think it’s going to be a bigger deal than folks appreciate at this point. 

Q: Are there any other insights from your time as 

Director of NGA you would like to share?

A: There are so many things that I could talk about. 

I think one of the biggest challenges that we all 

have is balancing our mission sets, to look after 

the things that we absolutely have to do today. 

And of course the warfighter has been at the top 

of that list along with things like proliferation, 

development of WMD around the world, and destabilization in East Asia and some other parts of the 

world. So that’s a big challenge, which I think all of 

us have had to grapple with over the past four to 

five years. 

The second observation I would make is to emphasize the value of the people, the leadership, and 

the working environment that we have here at NGA, 

which is absolutely spectacular and something 

that we should never take for granted. The way 

that NGA excels at our mission set and the way our 

people treat each other and interact with our counterparts 

is truly remarkable. 

Q: Is there anything you 

would like to add?

A: Yes, just that I’ll never 

be able to thank the 

people at NGA as much as 

I’d like to for all they have 

done during the time 

that I’ve been part 

of this great organization. I’ve 

tried to do that 

as well as I possibly can, but 

it will never be 

sufficient. 
8Pathfinder ›› July/August 2010 

Innovative Graphical Display Improves 

Naval Forces Operations 

By Lee C., Carla R., and Norman S.

A National Geospatial-Intelligence

Agency innovation, the Graphical 

Exploitation and Reporting Tool, or 

GERT, has begun providing direct 

geospatial intelligence support to 

the commander of the U.S. Pacific Command for critical naval 

operations onboard an aircraft 

carrier, a command ship and an 

amphibious assault ship. GERT 

produces the next generation 

of GEOINT exploitation 

products in the form of 

Sailors man the rails aboard the aircraft carrier USS George 

Washington (CVN 73) as the ship pulls into port.

DOD photo

GraphPlots—graphical depictions of what GEOINT 

analysts see on imagery.

“GERT provides a graphical representation of 

our first-phase imagery analysis, which will make 

reporting easier to an audience who may or may 

not be imagery experts with a trained eye,” said an 

imagery analyst during the recent installation 

on the USS George Washington. This same message is heard from operational users and senior 

leadership throughout the Pacific theater as well. 

In lieu of imagery, the visual format makes GEOINT 

easy to understand and convenient for tactical 

users relying on low-bandwidth communications.
9Pathfinder ›› July/August 2010 

GERT is also extremely beneficial to the operations of forward-deployed naval forces, or FDNF, 

the post-Cold War strategic concept of projecting 

naval power to influence events in the littoral 

regions of the world.

According to an imagery analyst onboard an aircraft carrier, “GERT will provide more streamlined 

and rapid reporting.” GERT has already increased 

the efficiency of imagery-based reporting by 50 to 

60 percent. Onboard command ships and assault 

vessels, GERT allows a limited GEOINT analyst work 

force to do more with less. 

The commander of the U.S. Pacific Fleet offered 

high praise, stating that “the GERT software used 

by FDNF to produce GraphPlots is a key component 

of GEOINT FDNF intelligence force success. GERT 

allows for rapid analysis and dissemination of 

first phase imagery using the GraphPlot format 

required by PACOM’s JIOC [Joint Intelligence 

Operations Center].”

During a recent installation, one imagery analyst 

stated, “GERT is by far the most user-friendly and 

capable tool for an imagery analyst. It gives the 

warfighter on the frontlines the same capabilities to pass information as quickly 

and effectively as the warfighter in 

shore Intel centers.”

The shipboard GERT–GraphPlot 

production capability introduces enhanced intelligence collaboration, 

while at the same time satisfying 

an agreement between the 

JIOC and PACOM’s Seventh Fleet to establish 

a production 

partnership under the NGA-sponsored Unified 

GEOINT Operations program. Under this program, 

specific Seventh Fleet vessels have accepted 

the responsibility for first phase GEOINT naval 

target exploitation supporting two major PACOM 

operations plans, a task previously assigned to 

the JIOC. This capability allows PACOM to leverage 

shipboard intelligence expertise and frees up JIOC 

analytical manpower for other critical tasks.

The Seventh Fleet identified geospatial reporting 

as critical to their mission, researched tools 

capable of providing GEOINT and determined 

NGA’s GERT application was the best option. 

The Naval Network Warfare Command, which 

operates the U.S. Navy’s information operations network, has stated a requirement that the 

GERT–GraphPlot GEOINT production capability be 

installed and available across the entire Seventh 

Fleet at the earliest opportunity.

NGA’s effort with its military partners has 

resulted in an increase in overall production and 

connectivity for the FDNF. With the standup of 

GERT, GEOINT products validated by shipboard 

intelligence units can now be automatically disseminated into proprietary intelligence systems 

that support visualization of the battlefield.

The widespread use of GERT within the Navy 

and PACOM, the U.S. European Command and 

the U.S. Africa Command are major steps toward 

implementing GERT as the common exploitation 

reporting tool for delivery of first-phase GEOINT to 

users of intelligence products. Its expanding use 

will only increase the Intelligence Community’s 

situational awareness and its ability to respond 

as intelligence indicates. 
10Pathfinder ›› July/August 2010

Exercises Develop Military Readiness

By Marshall Hudson

The National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency

regularly participates in exercises throughout the 

United States and across the world to promote Unified GEOINT Operations and federated production 

with its mission partners.

Coordinated by the Exercise Division of the 

agency’s Military Readiness Directorate, the training helps NGA and other members of the National 

System for Geospatial Intelligence to rehearse 

working together in emergency situations.

A recent example of that training was NGA’s 

support of Key Resolve, an exercise in the Republic 

of Korea during March 2010. Key Resolve is one of 

four exercises conducted annually by U.S. Forces 

Korea and South Korean forces to exercise, evaluate and improve crises action measures and procedures for the defense of that nation.

The NGA participants, in conjunction with 

the NGA Support Team for USFK, supported 

and worked with Korean and U.S. forces during 

the training.

NGA’s Key Resolve exercise lead said that the 

NGA participants were able to engage with their 

Republic of Korea counterparts to improve understanding of how GEOINT can shape the common 

operating picture of the battlespace and that the 

NGA analysts made a significant contribution that 

will last well beyond the exercise.

“The allied forces now better understand how 

NGA’s GEOINT Summaries are available for fusion 

with other intelligence disciplines. This product, 

produced by NGA geospatial analysts, has become 

a signature product in the USFK theater,” said the 

NGA exercise lead.

The exercises are both a way to train NGA 

employees for crisis support operations and 

a way to help other organizations learn from 

NGA employees.

“NGA sending an analyst with North Korea 

ground order of battle experience was ideal,” said 

Chief Warrant Officer 3 Demoria Tucker, imagery 

intelligence officer-in-charge of the 501st Military 

Intelligence Brigade’s GEOINT Cell. “Our soldiers 

gained a wealth of knowledge by working with the 

NGA analysts during the training,” she said.

During the exercise, NGA analysts working with 

the Eighth U.S. Army GEOINT Cell identified several 

inconsistencies in the Eighth Army’s data, and with 

the aid of NGA’s Deployable Interoperable Node for 

GIAT Operations, they were able to correct them.

NGA analysts participate in similar exercises with 

combatant commands, the military services and 

national agencies to prepare to support military 

components worldwide. NGA also supports the 

training of every major command deploying for 

operation Iraqi Freedom or Enduring Freedom at 

their mission rehearsal exercises.

NGA supports mission rehearsal exercises, as 

well as the mission readiness exercises conducted 

for brigade level units, to familiarize the analysts 

with the systems they will use, the mission and the 

people they will work with.

Replicating the capabilities in a training environment that analysts have overseas, such as the NGA 

deployable workstations and NGA deployable communications suites, helps them prepare to work on 

systems that are different from what they usually 

use and on accounts that may be new to them. It 

also introduces agency mission partners to NGA 

tradecraft and capabilities.

“Integrating NGA capabilities into their tactics, 

techniques and procedures in a non-hostile 

environment before their upcoming deployment 

makes us better able to help produce actionable 

intelligence,” said the NGA lead for rehearsal and 

readiness exercises.

“Educating our mission partners about what we 

bring to the table and allowing them to incorporate 

NGA into their battle rhythm is really important,” 

he said.
11Pathfinder ›› July/August 2010 

The key to this engagement is the use of NGA 

Volunteer Deployment Team personnel at the exercises. Having team members train with the units 

they will deploy with helps the supported units 

discover capabilities they didn’t know about and 

meet the people who will be going with them.

“The realization that NGA is part of their team 

goes a long way with our mission partners. The 

military units love that we support this training,” 

said the rehearsal and readiness exercise lead. 

U.S. Army Lt. Col. John E. Rhodes, right, commander, 

of the United Nations Command Security BattalionJoint Security Area, and his Deputy, Lt. Col. Jung 

Hae-In, from the Republic of Korea (ROK) army, 

discuss an exercise, 2009.

DOD photo
12Pathfinder ›› July/August 2010 

NGA Supports Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill 

Remediation Efforts 

By Katherine S. Whitaker

The National Geospatial-Intelligence

Agency is actively providing intelligence analysis and geospatial intelligence products to the 

U.S. Coast Guard, the lead federal agency in 

the response to the Gulf of Mexico oil spill, the 

worst disaster of its kind in U.S. history. 

Containment efforts and planning to minimize the damage have been on-going since 

the rig sank April 22. An estimated 35,000 to 

60,000 barrels of oil per day have escaped 

from the damaged wellhead, which is located 

more than 4,000 feet underwater. 

“NGA’s support is critical. We are providing essential data that the USCG depends on,” said NGA 

employee Army Maj. Sam Hagadorn.

NGA’s support to the oil spill remediation efforts 

includes providing analysis, unclassified commercial satellite imagery and geospatial products of 

the Mississippi Delta and surrounding Gulf Coast 

areas. The products include three-dimensional 

models of major infrastructure along the Gulf 

Coast, operational planning map atlases and 

graphics depicting the extent of the oil spill. These 

products greatly assist the Coast Guard in leveraging every available resource to respond to the Gulf 

oil spill.

An NGA Crisis Action Team was stood up soon 

after the April 21 explosion of the Deepwater Horizon that rig killed 11 workers onboard. The CAT, 

composed of volunteers from several branches 

throughout the agency, has been working around 

the clock ever since.

“We are providing reachback support for the 

team members on the ground. We help to extract 

the location of the booms using commercial airborne and other sources of imagery, locate gaps 

and areas in need of repair as well as plan future 

boom placement,” said Hagadorn.

The National Incident Commander, Adm. Thad 

Allen, USCG (ret.), requested a model from NGA’s 

3D Model Production Facility in order to obtain 

situational awareness of the affected areas. Models of ships and aircraft were also developed to be 

used with NGA’s 7 feet by 20 feet hydrographic and 

topographic model of the Gulf of Mexico and surrounding areas. 

“These two elements make it possible to easily see how resources are allocated and moving 

around in support of the oil spill,” said the 

program manager of NGA’s 3-D Model Production 

Facility.

The model “dramatizes the depth of water that 

we’re working with here,” said Hagadorn.

The Coast Guard also requested a Domestic 

Mobile Integrated Geospatial-Intelligence System 

to provide assistance with the disaster. DMIGS is a 

self-contained vehicle, custom built on a fire truck 

chassis that allows NGA analysts to drive to a crisis 

location and provide on-the-spot geospatial intelligence analysis and products. 

The DMIGS has been operating at full capacity 

producing GEOINT that facilitates Coast Guard 

efforts to identify oil-stricken locations in the area 

so the National Guard can efficiently place booms, 

devices that confine oil off the water, in areas 

where they predict the oil will flow. They can also 

ascertain the origin of displaced booms. 

This 3-D model of the Gulf of Mexico, which 

measures 7 feet by 20 feet, is one of many NGA produced for the Coast 

Guard.

DOD photo
13Pathfinder ›› July/August 2010 

“The DMIGS has been providing the common operational picture on 

a daily basis to ensure that all components are on the same page. With 

the data provided by DMIGS, we can see imagery for a given 

day, see where booms are placed and where there might be 

holes. We can see the environments impacted by the oil 

and also project where the oil is headed and plan accordingly,” said Hagadorn.

DMIGS II will continue to be present at the 

Gulf Coast oil spill and rotate analysts every 

two weeks while the Coast Guard needs its assistance. 

Operating throughout the Gulf of 

Mexico, Deepwater 

Horizon, a fifthgeneration deepwater rig leased by 

British Petroleum, 

had been drilling 

45 nautical miles 

southeast of 

Venice, La., since 

January. 

This operational planning 

atlas uses maps and current 

commercial imagery to show 

the U.S. coastline of the Gulf 

of Mexico in detail. 

NGA product

Domestic Mobile Integrated Geospatial-Intelligence System. 

DOD photo

NGA product showing the relief wells being dug by British Petroleum. 

DOD photo
14Pathfinder ›› July/August 2010 

The Foundation of Warfighter Support 

By Joel I.

When boots are going to hit the ground in 

a combat situation, one of the first pieces of 

information soldiers look for is quality maps and 

geospatial information for the area of interest. 

The map of choice for most tactical operations 

and preparation of the battlefield is the Topographic Line Map. 

NGA’s Foundation Based Operations Group is 

charged with producing and maintaining the data 

to make those maps, as well as the hardcopy finishing required to get printed maps into the hands 

of the warfighter. 

TLMs portray the greatest detail of topographic 

and cultural information. Relief is shown by contours and spot elevations and is a true representation of terrain detail. Features are plotted to correct 

orientation and true location. The map depicts 

the level of detail required for infantry and reconnaissance units to navigate in various terrain 

environments. 

Producing a map from scratch requires 

gathering sources, extracting the information, 

compiling the map, finishing and printing the 

final product. It can take a year to produce 

one map. But what if there is no data to 

make the map? Or there is data, but no 

time to compile and print it to military 

specifications? During Operation Urgent 

Fury, the 1983 invasion of Granada, there 

were no TLMs available. The operation 

was planned and executed using whatever was available, including commercially purchased tourist maps.

Twenty years later for the wars in Iraq 

and Afghanistan, the need for quality 

maps and data rose exponentially 

while the timeframe in which they 

were needed was dramatically reduced. NGA had to completely rethink 

how to produce a large volume of 

maps in the shortest time possible. 

Enter the Derived Graphic. DG maps 

were conceived as TLM-like products 

that could be rapidly produced and delivered to 

the warfighter. The key to the DG is using existing 

data, updating it as needed and producing a map 

that may not meet 100 percent military specifications, but gets the warfighter a map that meets 

the mission. To obtain that data, NGA relied on 

relationships with international co-production partners. NGA is the lead agency in an international 

coalition called the Multi-national Geospatial 

Co-production Program. Using data and production 

from the MGCP, the agency began a program to 

produce MGCP Derived Graphics, known as MDGs. 

Working closely with international partners and 

contract co-producers, as well as ramping up inhouse production, NGA met its goal of producing 

100 percent of the required maps for Afghanistan. 

It was a monumental effort, but the job was 

completed on time. The warfighters got what they 

needed. 

U.S. Marine Corps 1st Lt. Samuel Oliver, with 2nd Battalion, 

8th Marine Regiment, uses his radio while the Marines and 

Afghan soldiers establish a patrol base in the Garmsir district 

of Helmand province, Afghanistan, Oct. 9, 2009.

DOD photo
15Pathfinder ›› July/August 2010 

Partnerships

A Long Flight Home 

By Christopher Havern

Last year, National Geospatial-Intelligence

Agency staff began working with the U.S. Coast 

Guard to help three brave servicemen return home 

after many years away. 

It was Nov. 29, 1942, when Lt. John A. Pritchard, 

USCG, accompanied by his radioman, Petty Officer 

1st Class Benjamin A. Bottoms, piloted his amphibious bi-plane, a Grumman J2F-4 Duck, back toward 

the USCG Cutter Northland, anchored in Comanche 

Bay on the southeastern coast of Greenland. 

Engaged in a rescue mission, the pair landed on 

the ice pack in the vicinity of a crashed B-17F Flying 

Fortress that had gone down on Nov. 9, 1942, while 

searching for another missing plane. 

Pritchard picked up Cpl. Loren Howarth, U.S. 

Army Air Forces, a member of 

the B-17’s crew, and attempted 

to return to the Northland as 

bad weather approached. Minutes after takeoff, the aircraft 

radioed the ship requesting a 

line of bearing. The bi-plane, 

however, never made it back to 

Comanche Bay. Five volunteers 

under Ensign Richard L. Fuller, 

USCG, went ashore to locate 

the aircraft, but to no avail. 

On Dec. 6, 1942, USAAF 

search teams flew over the 

wreckage of Pritchard’s aircraft 

and reported a position six to eight miles from 

where it was originally believed to have gone 

down. A Navy PBY Catalina and an Army ground 

party ultimately rescued the remaining B-17 crewmen, but the J2F-4 could not be found. The Coast 

Guard posted Pritchard, Bottoms and Howarth 

as missing in action effective Nov. 29, 1942, and 

declared them dead on Nov. 30, 1943. For their 

actions in the attempt to rescue the B-17 crew, 

Pritchard and Bottoms posthumously received the 

Distinguished Flying Cross. 

For more than six decades, this remained the 

historical narrative for Pritchard and his compatriots. In 2008, however, Cmdr. Joe Deer and Master 

Chief Petty Officer 

John Long of the Coast 

Guard’s Office of Aviation Forces began researching in the USCG 

Historian’s Office and 

the National Archives 

regarding Pritchard’s 

fateful flight. In addition, Dr. William Thiesen, USCG LANTAREA 

Historian, conducted 

research at the archives 

at Maxwell Air Force 

Base, Ala., and uncovered the transcripts of 

LT Pritchard’s J2F prepares for takeoff.

DOD photo

DOD photo

Radioman First Class, Benjamin A. Bottoms

DOD photo

LT John A. Pritchard (left) in flight gear.
16Pathfinder ›› July/August 2010 

the message traffic discussing Pritchard’s Duck 

and USCGC Northland. Coast Guard retirees Harry 

Trice and Captain Don Taub also assisted with the 

research. What began as a modest research project 

has grown into a collective effort of multiple federal 

agencies and private interests. The accrual of 

participants in this joint operation also produced 

a marked upgrade in the operation’s goal. Those 

involved now hope to excavate in order to recover 

the remains and return them for a proper burial in 

the United States.

With the findings from their initial documentary 

research, Deer and Long mapped out a search area 

with the assistance of Wayne Stephenson, the NGA 

Liaison with the Coast Guard. Stephenson had 

NGA create a three-dimensional map of the terrain 

along and adjacent to Pritchard’s flight path. Other 

NGA contributions included the analysis of historic 

imagery dating back to 1942, the acquisition and 

analysis of current NGA and commercial imagery 

and data, and the construction of a model Grumman J2F-4 Duck. 

In August 2008, Deer and Long organized an 

overflight of the search area by an HC-130J from 

Coast Guard Air Station Elizabeth City, N.C. This 

was followed by a November 2008 flight by a Navy 

P-3C Orion. While on a return flight from a reconnaissance mission over Iraq to its base at Naval 

Air Station Patuxent River, Md., the aircraft was 

diverted to fly over the crash site and collect data 

with its sensors. Subsequent analysis by the Essex 

Corporation, a subcontractor for Northrop-Grumman, located an anomaly in the ice pack within 

the search area that may be Pritchard’s Duck. In 

order to assess the situation further, a ground 

team would have to conduct an on-site survey. As 

such an operation was beyond USCG capability, 

the renowned aviation archeologist Gary Larkins 

received a contract to assemble a team to examine 

the anomaly.

The ground team, consisting of Larkins, his assistant Rafid Tuma, geophysicist Matt Benson who 

operated the ground penetrating radar, a geodetic 

surveyor from NGA and Public Affairs Specialist, 

2nd Class Daniel Bender, USCG, deployed in September 2009. The team, on board an HC-130 out 

of Elizabeth City, flew to Kulusuk, Greenland. From 

there they flew by helicopter to the staging site at 

Tasiilaq, Greenland. Chartered helicopters took the 

team to the survey area. 

For their work, the team carried two key pieces 

of equipment. The first was the NGA-provided 

advanced GPS collection system. The second was a 

rifle as protection from polar bears known to transit 

the area. While the NGA surveyor used the GPS 

to emplace rock ridge survey markers and collect 

data to be used to establish search grids, accurate 

to within 1 centimeter, Larkins, Benson and Tuma 

traversed the ice, almost inch by inch, with ground 

radar. This guaranteed accurate data collection 

and, more importantly, ensured that the team did 

not break through thin surface ice into a crevasse. 

Over five days, two on the ice, the team collected 

and analyzed data, taking the analysis further 

upon their return to the United States.

The results of the team were conclusive enough 

to warrant a return to the site this summer with the 

Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command accompanying them. Headquartered in Honolulu, JPAC works 

to achieve the fullest possible accounting of all 

Americans missing as a result of the nation’s wars. 

The JPAC team will conduct further GPR readings 

along with a survey to determine the safety of the 

site and its potential for excavation operations. 

That effort, if deemed feasible, will probably take 

place during the summer of 2011. Perhaps then, 

after almost seven decades under Greenland’s 

ice, these brave and selfless Americans will finally 

come home. 

Christopher Havern works in the Office of the Historian, 

U.S. Coast Guard.

The team inches their way across the 

treacherous ice scanning for the wreckage.

DOD photo
17Pathfinder ›› July/August 2010 

Our Heritage

Memory: Where is the Real War?

By Dr. Gary E. Weir

Have you ever tried to recall your earliest

personal or professional memories only to wonder 

why certain events, people and circumstances 

came to mind? In our natural rush to address 

NGA’s important mission, we frequently underestimate the value of days long past and the way we 

remember them. Our memories speak not only to 

the particulars of our past, but also to the context 

and the human dynamics that give that experience 

meaning. 

This past spring, I asked my 20 University of 

Maryland students to use memories to find the real 

war. We were studying World War II, and I chose 

as supplemental reading three books based upon 

memory. One came from a German veteran of the 

eastern front and the Battle of Stalingrad. Another 

collected between two covers a series of interviews 

with survivors of the nuclear detonation at Hiroshima. A third book, entitled With the Old Breed at 

Peleliu and Okinawa, came from the very able pen 

of the Marine Corps veteran E.B. Sledge. 

On the surface, my question to them seemed 

easy: where is the real war? Many people studying 

or reflecting on war frequently suggest that the 

real war, the essence of the conflict and its truest 

experience, rests with leaders at the political summit, or strategists and tacticians, or on the home 

front, or with those who must fight on the ground 

and in the air. Which perspective, if any, has merit? 

Studying this conflict and any other requires us 

to look for that real war, on the Russian front, in a 

destroyed city, in a home-front victory garden or on 

an embattled Pacific island. 

Modern American conflicts, from the Great War, 

to World War II, to Korea, to Vietnam, all involving 

NGA and its predecessors, happened too long ago 

for many to remember. As a result, we must look 

for the real war in the documentation generated by 

those involved, in the books written about the conflict and in the memories of those who experienced 

the time in question. 

In my effort to understand NGA in peace and 

war, I regularly use oral history as one of my most 

important tools. Individual recollections provide facts, emotions, the dynamics of human 

relationships and a vivid view of the time and 

place. Early in my tenure at NGA, I spent time 

with an agency veteran who served on the 

Reinvention Task Force commissioned by Air 

Force General Philip W. Nuber, Defense Mapping Agency Director, in 1994. In our conversation, this agency senior leader discussed 

in detail the 

circumstances 

Army Pfc. Angelo B. Reina, 

of Utica, N.Y., Co. A, 391st 

Inf. Regt., guards a lonely 

Oahu beach position, 1945. 

DOD photo
18Pathfinder ›› July/August 2010 

surrounding the effort to dismantle the geographic 

and tradecraft stovepipes then plaguing DMA. Not 

only did Nuber commit himself personally to implement the task force recommendations, but this 

interviewee helped the general lead the reinvented 

DMA into the Dayton Peace Talks in 1995. When 

I asked him to recall his on-site judgment of how 

the new DMA performed as the talks progressed, 

he recalled thinking, “My God, it works!” This oral 

history placed me in a position to witness vicariously one of the most significant first steps toward 

GEOINT and its role in arresting conflict.

In another NGA oral history, one of our veteran 

analysts brought me back with him via memory to 

Vietnam and his experience as an enlisted photo 

interpreter with the Air Force. In those days, he did 

not have permission to analyze the photographs 

before him. He could only “read” them and report 

on their contents. His determination to remove 

those frustrating boundaries eventually brought 

him to the National Photographic Interpretation 

Center, an NGA predecessor. Many of our senior 

analysts walked that same road. 

In a recent discussion among 

those in the Intelligence 

Community’s Oral History Association, we 

wondered if a series 

of oral histories 

with some remaining World War II 

veterans across 

the Intelligence 

Community 

might permit us 

to understand 

better the shared 

origins of our agencies and predecessors. We 

shall continue that conversation because of the 

creative ways in which many in the federal government have used oral histories to discover a past 

that speaks fluently to our present. In a lessonslearned study I am currently preparing for NGA and 

the Director of National Intelligence, a half-hour 

documentary film on the evolution of a significant 

technology, complete with video oral history clips, 

will accompany my history of the technology’s evolution into an NGA analytical tool supporting the 

current war effort. The immediacy of oral history 

testimony and its synergy with other sources brings 

our history alive, puts us in the picture and makes 

historical analysis more potent. 

In my class, the students discovered that the 

real war emerges only when many perspectives, 

including memory, combine to permit a deeper and 

broader understanding. One of those students, 

who needed some extra time on his paper, serves 

on board an aircraft carrier in the Indian Ocean. 

His reflections on the real war spilled over into the 

e-mail he sent with his essay attached. He spoke 

about injuries, casualties, families, commitment, an often ill-defined enemy, 

changing attitudes in the region and a 

desire to serve, but a strong attachment to home. His exploration of 

the real World War II did not waste 

any time in informing his present. 

When you take time to reflect on 

your personal past and your time at 

NGA, cherish those early memories. 

They hold more answers than you 

might think. 

Dr. Gary E. Weir is the NGA historian. He is 

also a professor of History at the University 

of Maryland University College in College Park.

Army T/3 James Ellis, Ehrenfeld, 

Pa., laying out the photographs 

to check their sequence, 1943. 

DOD photo
17Pathfinder ›› July/August 2010 

An NGA product showing Rutgers University Sea Glider operations in the Gulf 

of Mexico. Many data sets that are not collected by NGA sensors can be made 

more understandable when presented as a geospatial product. 

Underwater cameras at the Unified Area Command capture a pollution containment 

chamber being lowered into the Gulf of Mexico in an attempt to contain the oil 

spill. NGA personnel have been embedded at the Unified Area Command, Incident 

Command Posts and Air Coordination Center providing GEOINT support.

National Incident Commander, Adm. Thad Allen, USCG (ret.), briefs Secretary of 

the Navy the Honorable Ray Mabus during a tour of the Unified Area Command 

Center. NGA provided 3-D models of the Gulf to the Coast Guard.
www.nga.mil

NGA Core Values

Excellence - Be first rate in all that you do. 

Accountability - Answer for your conduct, 

even when no one is looking. 

Respect - Leverage diversity and creativity 

to perform as one NGA team.

Teamwork - Work together to achieve 

a common goal. 

Honesty - Be truthful at all times. 

Know the Earth...Show the Way