Editor’s m

essa

Convergence may well be the best word to describe 

the creation of the National Imagery and Mapping 

Agency, which was renamed National GeospatialIntelligence Agency after a handful of years. The 

agency’s standup on October 1, 1996, represented 

both the joining of complementary tradecrafts and 

the mixing of existing and emerging technologies to 

establish a sophisticated new level of intelligence in 

support of national security. 

Imagery analysis, cartography and intelligence 

techniques, combined with the rapidly expanding 

capabilities of computers, satellites and digital communication technologies, enabled 

the birth of what eventually became known as geospatial intelligence in 2001.

This issue of NGA Pathfinder celebrates 20 years of GEOINT rising. It does 

not attempt to tell the history of the agency or the rich heritage of the tradecrafts 

– cartography, imagery analysis and intelligence – that predate the formation of 

NIMA. Doing that would require a book, and that’s exactly why our NGA historians 

are currently writing a comprehensive history that will be released next year.

Instead, this issue celebrates the outcomes, or what Director Robert Cardillo 

calls the consequence, made possible by the formation of NIMA two decades 

ago. Highlighted are security mission, humanitarian aid and disaster response, 

and tradecraft evolution. Also included are special first-person insights from 

several NGA retirees and statements from all directors about what they consider 

their proudest moments while leading the agency.

Our lead feature presents key examples of how NIMA/NGA has bolstered 

diplomacy and national decision-making. From uncovering war crimes 

in Kosovo to helping America and its coalition partners fight terrorism in 

the Middle East, the agency’s unique GEOINT products and services have 

significantly and permanently changed the national security decision process, 

including during times of military conflict.

A second feature highlights how NIMA/NGA has contributed to the 

improvement of humanitarian aid and disaster relief. By helping its federal agency 

partners respond to crises around the world, the agency has made humanitarian aid 

faster, safer, more effective and less costly. Most importantly, by providing precise 

geopositioning capabilities and imagery analysis directly to first responders in 

stricken areas, NGA has helped save countless lives and facilitated the delivery of 

assistance to exactly where it’s needed most.

The third feature in this issue focuses on how NIMA/NGA has worked to lead, 

most often in a collaborative fashion, the evolution of the GEOINT tradecraft. 

While the topic could no doubt fill several volumes of NGA Pathfinder, this issue 

shines a light on ‘firsts.’ Of significance are the development of activity-based 

intelligence and the creation of NIMA production cells, where the agency created 

unprecedented new intelligence by assigning experts from different disciplines to 

work together on hard national security problems.

It is not the specific topics covered in this issue that are most important to 

remember, however; what we hope you take away from your reading is that 

throughout the 20-year history of NIMA/NGA, real people have done real 

things to make a real difference to our country and its security.

We are proud of our past. Even more, we look forward with hope and 

confidence to serving our nation and its people for the next 20 years and more of 

GEOINT rising.

V/r,

Jeanne Chircop

Editor

We provide GEOINT for 

our Nation's Security.

NGA Pathfinder promotes awareness and 

understanding of geospatial intelligence, and is 

published by National Geospatial-Intelligence 

Agency’s Office of Corporate Communications.

NGA 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 NGA Pathfinder may be reproduced 

in whole or in part without permission, unless 

stated otherwise. If reproduced, credit the 

author and “National Geospatial-Intelligence 

Agency, NGA 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 Caniano

Chief News & Information: Don Kerr

Editor: Jeanne Chircop

Copy Editors: Dale Lehner

Christine Fennema

Designer: Craig Thoburn

Photography: Anthony Boone, Erica Knight

and David Richards

Contact us

Send letters to the editor to 

Pathfinder@nga.mil

Telephone: 571-557-5400

DSN 547-5400

Approved for Public Release, 16-604
FEATURES

14 From maps and images to 

layered intelligence: 

How the creation of NIMA bolste

national security decision makin

24 Helping citizens in distress: 

NGA’s contribution to humanitarian

and disaster relief

30  very different intelligen

producer: 

Hybrid tradecraft has opened

new methodological doo

4 Know the Eart

6 Team NG

10 Viewpoi

22 Show the W

28 Telling Our S

36 In

40 Collaborati

42 Understand th

DEPARTMENTS
4|NGA.MIL 

KNOW 

Corporat

Learning from t

By Carling Uhler, Ctr., Office of Corporate Communications
| Know the earth |

Pathfinde

The word 'history’ often means that 

something stays in the past, sometimes 

even forgotten. 

Not at National Geospatial-Intelligence 

Agency. For NGA’s history team, it’s all 

about helping people understand that 

what happened previously affects both 

the present and possibly the future. For 

them history is not a sideline study; it’s 

all about the mission.

The NGA history program, like many 

things in government, began with an 

email. In 2000, when NGA was still 

known as the National Imagery and 

Mapping Agency, the agency’s director, 

Army Lt. Gen. James C. King, tasked 

James Mohan with developing ‘a 

historian function’ for the agency. 

“When I was given the task to establish 

a history program, I felt there was an 

extremely practical aspect to having an 

agency historian,” said Mohan, who was 

head of NIMA’s public affairs office in St. 

Louis at the time. 

Mohan jumped on the task, believing 

it was critical to document 'corporate 

memory’ of how the agency responded 

to important events. Fresh in his mind 

was the Chinese Embassy bombing in 

Belgrade, which had happened only 

shortly before.

“For me history is not a ‘nice to have’ 

or even a ‘statutory’ responsibility,” he 

said. “There is truly a mission imperative 

to know all that has gone on before – and 

not only to document, but to learn and 

grow from every agency experience.”

Mohan reached out to colleagues and 

experts, including the senior historian 

at the National Security Agency, and 

helped facilitate the hiring of Martin 

Gordon, Ph.D., as NIMA’s first chief 

historian the following year. 

Gordon had received his doctorate 

from George Washington University and 

had begun his career in the history office 

of the U.S. Marine Corps. He then moved 

to the History Office of the U.S. Army 

Corps of Engineers, where he spent more 

than 15 years. He was a natural choice to 

serve as NIMA’s historian.

Gordon, who passed away in 2014, 

spent five years in the role. During his 

tenure he filled out the department 

with archivist Lisa Wagner from the 

historical program at the U.S. Army 

Corps of Engineers and curator 

Marylou Gjernes from the U.S. Army 

Center of Military History, both as 

contracted professionals.

The agency’s history program is now 

led by Chief Historian Gary Weir, Ph.D. 

Rounding out the team are Wagner, 

Gjernes and Mohan, who retired 

and rejoined the agency in 2014 as a 

consultant for the NGA museum in St. 

Louis. Combined, the foursome boasts 

more than 130 years of experience. 

Like Mohan and Gordon before him, 

Weir firmly believes in the 'lessons learned’ 

impact of NGA’s history program. 

“Making people aware of where they 

came from instills pride and provides 

an opportunity to learn,” said Weir. “To 

discover where we’ve been is a starting 

point to understanding where we’re 

going. We never stay the same; we 

always change and evolve over time.” 

Lessons learned from history can 

also advance what people do within 

the agency, said Weir. Both former and 

current leaders have looked to the past 

to evaluate where the agency is going 

or needs to go. 

“The people who are in charge need to 

know where we’ve been and how we got 

to our present circumstance, so they can 

wisely invest in the future,” he said. 

In fact, Weir believes everything 

about an agency’s history program 

should advance the mission. Included 

in 'everything’ is collecting and holding 

onto archival papers, photographs, 

maps and equipment.

The history team does more than 

hold onto artifacts, however; they 

also share them through displays 

and in actual museum settings. NGA 

Campus West in St. Louis has housed a 

robust artifact and museum collection 

since 2005. A new museum at NGA 

Campus East in Springfield, Virginia, 

opens in fall 2016. Both museums will 

offer historical perspectives on NGA 

tradecraft and culture, which although 

relatively young compared with 

some of its military and intelligence 

community counterparts, has grown up 

a lot, according to Gjernes. 

An example of this growth can be 

found in one of Gjernes and Wagner’s 

favorite items in the collection, an 

antique field desk that belonged to U.S. 

Army Col. John James Abert, currently 

displayed at NGA’s Springfield 

facility. Abert served as chief of the 

U.S. Army Corps of Topographical 

Engineers during the 1800s. His field 

desk was used during exploration 

for documenting the U.S. western 

territories and for military, border and 

railroad surveying. 

To Wagner and Gjernes, the field 

desk represents more than just an 

interesting NGA historical artifact. It is 

a representation of where the agency 

and tradecraft has been and how much 

or little that tradecraft has changed.

 “The exciting part – and the hard part 

– is getting our arms around everything 

we [NGA] do,” said Weir. “It’s extremely 

difficult, but it’s also a blast.”

Jacquelyn Karpovich, Ctr., Office of Corporate 

Communications, contributed to this article.

Historian Jim Mohan summarizes the history of GEOINT for a group of high school students visiting the 

NCW museum as part of the agency's ongoing student outreach program. 
Tea

6|NG

By Nancy M. Rapavi,

Office of Corporate Communications

Intelligence Specialist

Christie Ayer

NGA SALUTE:
Know a service member worthy of an 

NGA Salute? Send your suggestion to 

Pathfinder@nga.mil.

| Team NGA 

Pathfinde

Six countries competed this year in the 

international women's armed forces basketball 

championship — the Conseil International du 

Sport Militaire — and Navy Petty Ofc. 2nd 

Class Christie Ayers was there representing the 

United States and the Navy.

Ayers, an intelligence specialist who works 

in the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency 

Analysis directorate, brought home the silver 

medal with her team after a competition with 

teams from Brazil, Canada, China, France and 

Germany. The tournament was held in Camp 

Pendleton, California.

“It was truly a blessing to wear USA on my 

chest and represent the military while playing 

a sport that I love,” said Ayers. “The group of 

ladies that we had on the team was easily the 

most talented group I've ever had the privilege 

of playing with.”

Ayers’ road to the tournament can be traced 

back to her days playing basketball in Hawaii, 

where she grew up with a love of sports. She 

attended Shelton State Community College 

in Alabama on a basketball scholarship before 

receiving a scholarship to play for St. Francis 

University in Pennsylvania.

Hailing from a family of veterans, including her 

parents who retired from the Air Force, Ayers said 

her decision to join the Navy just made sense.

“I wanted to join the Navy to serve my country 

and travel, and be a part of something great,” 

she said. “I come from a family that has actively 

served, so it was an easy decision.”

Her path to joining the Navy in 2014 was also 

furthered by a job Ayers had after college at the 

Transportation Safety Administration where 

she checked boarding passes and bags, and 

screened air passengers.

“I knew it wasn't what I wanted to be doing as a 

career,” she said. “I wanted a drastic change and to 

just take a risk and step out of my comfort zone.”

NGA is Ayers first duty station. Her love 

of sports and basketball followed her to 

Springfield, where she played on the Ft. Belvoir 

base basketball team and competed in various 

military tournaments.

She made the All Navy Women’s Basketball 

team and then was selected to compete in the 

All Armed Forces Tournament this year, where 

she was one of 12 women selected from across 

the armed forces. 'Friendship through basketball’ 

was the tournament’s theme.

“I couldn't have asked for a better experience. 

Meeting new people and making lifelong friends 

is priceless,” she said. “With all of the tension 

and negativity that is going on in the world, it 

was nice to have a friendly competition with 

good sportsmanship with military teams from 

other countries.”

Ayers said she was humbled by 

the opportunity.

“Being able to 

represent the Navy, 

my family and NGA 

on the All Armed 

Forces team was 

truly a blessing and 

an experience I will 

never forget,” she 

said. “I hope to be 

able to participate 

again next year.”

After finishing up 

the tournament in 

July, Ayers returned 

to Virginia and back 

to her off-the-court 

team at NGA, where 

she will be stationed 

for the next year and 

a half. She is currently working on her package 

for Officer Candidate School, with a goal of 

becoming an intelligence officer.

“I love working at NGA,” she said. “I have met 

a lot of wonderful and very helpful people. The 

team I work on is great and very supportive 

of everything. I am learning so much here — 

whether it's by taking classes, or taking in the 

knowledge that all of my coworkers provide 

me. This is a great opportunity to gain a lot of 

knowledge that I can take with me when I get 

out in the fleet.” 

It was truly a

blessing to wear 

USA on my ches

and represent 

the military while 

playing a sport 

that  lov

“

“
EA

8|NG

I m NGA

Johnetta Wil

By Muridith Winder, 

Office of Corporate Communications
| Team NGA 

Pathfinde

There was no fanfare – no confetti raining down, no 

lightshow or banners – for Johnetta Williams when she 

began work 20 years ago, but maybe there should have been. 

Williams was the first person hired by the National Imagery 

and Mapping Agency, later renamed National GeospatialIntelligence Agency.

“When I came on board, I was excited about working as a 

contracting officer in a new agency,” said Williams. “Being 

identified as the first hired is kind of a novelty, but exciting, 

especially considering I had no idea I was the first until recently.”

When the disparate group of organizations combined to 

form NIMA, they blended their teams of experts to form 

the workforce of the newest member of the intelligence 

community. Williams was the first actually hired as a NIMA 

employee to begin work under 

the fledgling agency. 

Two decades later Williams 

still works with the Office 

of Contract Services. She 

is currently in a rotational 

assignment as the career services 

manager for the office.

“I’m responsible for recruiting, 

hiring and professional 

development of the contracting 

careerists,” said Williams. 

Williams’ odyssey at NGA 

started with a simple meeting 

at Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri, 

with Dell Bowman. Bowman 

had come to Fort Leonard Wood 

from the Defense Mapping 

Agency, one of NIMA/NGA’s 

predecessors, to serve as the 

director of contracting. She 

thought Williams would be a 

good fit with her home agency 

if she ever moved to the 

Washington D.C. area.

“Six months later I found I 

would be moving to this area, so I called her,” said Williams. 

She was interviewed and hired, but had to wait to start 

work because DMA was transitioning into NIMA at the time.

Change has been a part of her routine since the beginning.

“The type of work has changed,” she said. “I remember 

what we were doing when I first got here. We were doing 

manual mapping; everything was manual. There was not a 

lot of automation. The infrastructure was very different, and 

we had fewer resources.”

Now NGA has gone mostly digital, with paper products 

nearly an afterthought.

Williams also notes that NGA has a position, a footprint, in the 

intelligence community, which NIMA lacked at its inception.

“The evolution over the last 20 years, in my mind, has 

been extreme, but it’s been good,” she said. “We’re respected 

within the IC and recognized for our agency’s contributions.”

A St. Louis native, she earned a bachelor’s degree in early 

childhood education and taught kindergarten for a period. 

She started her career as a purchasing agent in Heidelberg, 

Germany. Three years later she became a contracting officer 

at Fort Sheridan, Illinois, while earning masters’ degrees in 

procurement and acquisition and management.

Williams believes it’s unusual in her profession to stay in 

one place for this long.

“People tend to move around every three to four years, 

to different communities in 

the contracting career field,” 

she said. “They move around 

for different opportunities, 

but NGA has provided me an 

abundance of challenges and 

opportunities for professional 

growth. I have had an 

amazing and diverse career 

within the agency.”

She has no regrets about 

relocating to the Washington 

metropolitan area those many 

years ago. 

“Coming here was an 

adjustment, but I wouldn’t want 

to live anywhere else,” she said. 

Part of her attachment to 

the area includes her afterwork activities. A lifetime 

member of Delta Sigma Theta, 

a public service sorority, 

Williams supports community 

activities such as luncheons 

for senior citizens, dress-forsuccess workshops and the 

mentorship of young women.

As far as what the future might hold for NGA, Williams 

believes the agency has progressed well. She believes one of 

the agency’s more positive moves has been the creation of 

the common desktop environment.

“Just being integrated and collaborating with other 

agencies is a big step forward,” she said. “It’s one of the 

major things that I see we’ve been able to accomplish.”

On a personal note, Williams believes NGA evolved from 

its early days into “a pretty good place to work.” She said, 

“That’s why I’ve homesteaded here for 20 years.” 

The evolution over 

the last 20 years, 

in my mind, has 

been extreme, but 

it’s been good,” 

she said. “We’re

respected within the 

IC and recognized

for our agency’s 

contributions

“

“
10|NGA.MIL 

Vi

ewpoin

Editor's note: The views expressed in this article are those of the 

author and do not reflect the official policy or position of the National 

Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, the intelligence community, the 

Department of Defense or the United States Government. 

The ideas in two very old books have been getting reexaminations lately in international strategic circles, with 

worrisome implications. “The Influence of Sea Power 

upon History,” written by American naval strategist Alfred 

Thayer Mahan in 1890, is apparently all the rage in China. 

Meanwhile, the ideas contained in Sir Halford Mackinder’s 

“Democratic Ideals and Reality,” first published in 1919, have 

apparently found new life in Moscow. 

Western strategists would not find the ideas in these 

books particularly interesting or useful, but they ought to 

be a bit concerned about what their potential rivals have 

chosen to spend their time reading and thinking about.

Mahan and Mackinder were early theorists of 

'geopolitics,’ or the study of the interaction between 

geography and strategy. They and their contemporaries 

looked at the globe as if it were a big, spherical game board 

and applied their geographical knowledge to attempt to 

determine the most advantageous parts to control. In the 

game of Monopoly, as most everyone knows, possession of 

Boardwalk and Park Place usually means victory; in Risk, 

the player who dominates Australia has the best chance to 

win. Does Earth contain a similar strategic heartland, one 

that could serve as a launching pad for world domination?

For Mahan, the answer was obvious: The seas were 

Earth’s most important parts. Control of the oceans would 

bring not just secure navigation and commerce but the 

ability to transport troops to any far-flung theater. His 

ideas made Mahan every navy’s favorite thinker, in large 

part because his theories contained no room for size or 

spending limits in maritime affairs. 

A flurry of recent reports indicates that Mahan has 

become popular in China, suggesting that Beijing may be 

beginning to believe that a blue-water navy is a key to its 

future plans. Without one, the country would continue to 

cede global dominance to the United States.

Mackinder disagreed with Mahan’s notion of the world. 

While he viewed the seas as important, Mackinder argued that 

the decisive moments of wars occurred on land. He searched 

his globe for its figurative Boardwalk/Park Place and believed 

that it had to be in Eurasia – which he called the “world island” 

– which contained the majority of Earth’s people and resources. 

The country that controlled Eurasia, he reasoned, had the 

potential to extend its dominance worldwide. 

The most geographically significant, defensible portion 

of Eurasia – what Mackinder called the “heartland” – was 

roughly in its center. Extending over most of Russia, this 

heartland was a natural fortress, surrounded by the Arctic, 

mountains and deserts. He first drew this famous map, which 

referred to the 'pivot area’ instead of the heartland, in 1904:

The only way into Mackinder’s defined heartland was 

from the west, through Eastern Europe. This led Mackinder 

to devise his famous dictum, which is reprinted in every 

work that discusses him:

Who rules East Europe rules the Heartland;

Who rules the Heartland commands the World-Island;

Who rules the World-Island commands the World.

Mackinder’s warnings were clearly on the mind of 

some of the early U.S. architects of containment, since 

the Soviets dominated the heartland. Today, according 

to a few recent reports, geopolitics is a central part of 

the training of Russian strategists. According to Charles 

Clover in Foreign Policy magazine, in Russia Mackinder 

has been “suddenly plucked from obscurity to fame and 

given the status of prophet.” 

The appeal of geopolitics crosses over from elite to popular 

circles, too: Some Russian bookstores have sections devoted 

to the topic, and the Duma has a geopolitics committee. As 

anyone who has written on Mackinder can attest, the subject 

generates a great deal of interest in Moscow. Russia’s inherent 

geographical advantages are crucial to the empire rebuilding 

project of its right wing.

Most in the West have long forgotten Mahan and 

Mackinder, and with good reason. Their advice contains 

one anachronistic idea after another, all of which have been 

overcome by technology, economics and evolving norms 

against imperialism and conquest. Trade at sea no longer 

needs a gigantic navy to defend it, since it has no enemies, 

for example; it is in every country’s interest to keep goods 

flowing. And the notion that there is a heartland that 

provides a jumping-off platform for world domination is 

undermined by the tragic facts of Russian history. If there is 

a geographical heartland, an area that affords its owner with 

Geopoliics

By Christopher J. Fettweis, Tulane University
| VIEWPOINT |

Pathfinder

Christopher J. Fettweis is associate 

professor of political science at Tulane University. 

Before moving to New Orleans, he taught 

strategy at the Naval War College, where 

Mahan is regarded as somewhere between 

genius and demigod. Fettweis can be reached 

for comment at fettweis@tulane.edu.

“My proudest moment as the NIMA direc

really was the same thing over and over 

again, and it was those times when the 

leadership and  recognized that the next

week was going to be a hard week and 

that we were unlikely to get through it well. 

Somehow or other, the workforce would 

sense our concern, and when the week was 

over, it was great . . . [T]he things that the 

people in the organization did are what 

remember with pride.”

immense advantages over all potential rivals, 

it is coterminous with the United States.

It is always difficult to say just how much 

any country is influenced by a particular 

idea. Did Cold War U.S. strategists refer to 

Mackinder because they really worried about 

the geopolitical advantages of the heartland 

power or because they wanted to justify 

a policy of containment they had already 

decided upon? And are we to believe that 

naval strategists would not want more ships 

if they had never read Mahan’s theories?

Still, it is instructive to know what kinds 

of ideas are being discussed by Chinese and 

Russian thought leaders, even if the concepts 

are more rationalizations than inspirations 

for policy. Most importantly, if potential 

rivals of the United States are thinking 

geopolitically, it means they are also thinking 

competitively. Central to geopolitical theory is 

the belief that countries in the international 

system are locked in a perpetual competition 

for dominance.

Geopolitics was born as an aid to imperial 

statecraft, as guidance about how to 

defeat rivals in the pre-world-war era. If 

strategists in China and Russia are consulting 

geopolitical thinkers of the past, it is a sign 

that they anticipate that neo-imperial rivalry 

with the United States will be the central 

feature of their policies for the new century. 

If the Chinese are reading Mahan, it implies 

that they consider future maritime operations 

will be essentially competitive rather than 

cooperative. If right-wingers in Moscow are 

discussing Mackinder, it is because they are 

thinking of the best way to dominate Eurasia, 

rather than integrate into it.

Mahan and Mackinder were hoping to 

help their countries defeat rivals in the battle 

for global domination, the underlying goal 

of all geopolitical writing. It is sometimes the 

case that old books are better left unread.
Viewpoint

12|NGA.MIL 

Editor's note: The views expressed in 

this article are those of the author and do 

not reflect the official policy or position 

of the National Geospatial-Intelligence 

Agency, the intelligence community, the 

Department of Defense or the United 

States Government. 

Combating violent Islamist groups 

in the post-Arab Spring Middle East 

requires a level of skill and nuance in 

analysis and collection that necessitates 

the integration of our Muslim partners. 

The realities of triumphs such as the 

elimination of Osama bin Laden and the 

foiling of the 2010 toner-cartridge bomb 

plot, planned by al-Qaida in the Arabian 

Peninsula, could not have occurred without 

the cooperation and sacrifices of Muslims. 

The collection phase of the bin Laden 

raid provides a good example. Dr. Shakil 

Afridi, the doctor who attempted to 

collect DNA samples unsuccessfully, 

was part of the clandestine team trying 

to confirm who was in the Abbottabad 

compound. This hero continues to 

languish in a Pakistani prison. 

It was also intelligence sharing 

with our Muslim partners that foiled 

Operation Hemorrhage, also known as 

the 2010 toner-cartridge bomb plot. In 

this plot, AQAP’s master bomb-maker, 

Ibrahim al-Asiri, had manufactured three 

toner-cartridge bombs for an alleged 

$4,200. He had successfully inserted 

them into the UPS and FedEx air cargo 

system. If everything had gone according 

to plan, the plot would have crippled 

our air cargo industry, necessitating the 

expenditure of hundreds of millions 

of dollars to secure the industry again. 

According to the plan details that were 

uncovered, AQAP would then have 

moved to target another industry, with 

the United States responding with 

millions to secure that industry, and so 

on. At that rate the American economy 

would hemorrhage, which is the basis for 

the AQAP’s name for this operation.

Post-Islamic St

We are now living in a post-ISIL world 

in which the organization’s targets 

have expanded. The Islamic State in 

Iraq and the Levant now targets not 

only all Muslims that do not share its 

vision and methods, but also all Salafis 

that disagree with them. ISIL leaders 

have even gone so far as to call for the 

death of some of the most senior Saudi 

Wahhabi clergy, including the Grand 

Mufti of Saudi Arabia. 

We have relied on our Muslim 

partners ever since Sept.11. One of the 

most satisfying moments during my 

four-year tenure as director for North 

Africa and Egypt in the Office of the 

Secretary of Defense for Policy, was 

helping to engineer bilateral talks with 

Algeria. Part of the agreement included 

information-sharing, which led directly 

to the undermining of the Salafist Group 

for Propagation and Combat, known by 

the French acronym GSPC, which then 

morphed to al-Qaida in the Land of the 

Islamic Maghreb, or AQIM.

Understanding differenc

So how does one resist the hyperbole 

of the media and focus one’s attention 

on the realities of combating terrorism?

First, it is important to understand 

the complexities and diversity inherent 

in 1.6 billion Muslims. Organizations 

like al-Qaida and ISIL will not tolerate 

the diversity of Muslims, much less 

non-Muslims. That is why we have had 

Muslims in the fight against terrorism 

since Sept. 11. 

ISIL has since taken it to the next 

level by demonizing all Salafis not in 

agreement with their worldview. Of note 

is Abu Muhammad al-Maqdisi, who was 

Abu Musab al-Zarqawi’s spiritual advisor 

when he was in Jordan’s Suweiqah 

prison. Maqdisi spoke out against ISIL 

on television after a Jordanian pilot was 

burned to death in a cage. From a U.S. 

and anti-ISIL perspective, Maqdisi’s 

criticism was a major coup, as many 

consider Zarqawi to be the father of ISIL. 

The event barely made the news cycle 

outside the Middle East, however, and 

even then only for a short time.

Second, it is important to delineate 

among violent Islamists such as AQ and 

ISIL and Islamist political groups such 

as the Turkish AKP and the Tunisian 

Ennahda Party. One group wants to 

bring about an Islamic social order in 

their image, and impose that order on 

Muslims and non-Muslims alike through 

conspiracy to commit violence; the other 

wishes to accomplish the same thing, 

except through the electoral process 

and by legislating their form of Islam 

on Muslims and non-Muslims alike. 

Both camps require different forms of 

national security engagement from our 

side, ranging from diplomatic to kinetic, 

with an emphasis on America’s strong 

values of individual liberty. The freedom 

to practice Islam without harassment or 

persecution is a fundamental American 

constitutional value. 

What is common in the debate among 

Muslims themselves is imposing a 

single interpretation of Islam at the 

Combating vi

The absolute need for our Muslim 

By Cmdr. Youssef Aboul-Enein, U.S. Navy

Whoare th

Wahhabism is a fundamentalist form

of Sunni Salafi Islam that advocates

strict interpretation of the Quran 

and the purification of Islam. It wa

founded by Mohammed ibn AbdulWahhab in 1743 and born in t

austere and harsh environment of 

the Najd, or Central Arabia. The

European Parliament has identifie

Wahhabism as the main source of

global terrorism. 
Navy Cmdr. Youssef Aboul-Enein is on 

the faculty of the National Intelligence 

University and is a senior advisor on 

Violent Islamist Groups at DIA’s Defense 

Combating Terrorism Center. He is the 

author of several books, most notably, 

“Militant Islamist Ideology.” (Naval Institute 

Paperback, 2013). 

Have an idea for a GEOINT or 

national security Viewpoint contribution? Send 

your query to Pathfinder@nga.mil. 

| VIEWPOINT |

Pathfinder 2016

expense of all other Islamic expressions. 

If you understand that, you are better 

equipped to understand contentious 

debates from Sunni-Afghans who 

resent being told how to practice Islam 

in the image of an Arab foreign fighter, 

as well as differing views as to why 

the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood 

President Mohammed Morsi failed. The 

burning question involved in imposing 

an Islamic social order will always be: 

whose Islam?

Splinter group

A third consideration in combating 

terrorism is that there are hundreds of 

offshoots that have splintered off the 

main to create their own movements. 

Looking at Salafis only, even Arab 

commentators have to contend 

with hundreds of Salafi groups, of 

which Wahhabism is only one – and 

Wahhabism itself has offshoots. 

Salafism is derived from the Arabic 

term connoting a return to the Salafal-Saliheen, or in English, The Pious 

Founders. There is no agreement 

on which pious founders to follow, 

however; and even if one chooses 

a dozen companions of the Prophet 

Muhammad, there is no agreement 

on how to emulate those dozen in the 

hundreds of Salafi offshoots existing in 

the 21st century. 

That is why a few Arabic 

counterterrorism books, as well as those 

that discuss Islamist politics, speak 

in terms of Salafi-Ilmi (proselytizers), 

Salafi-Ikhwani (political activists) and 

Salafi-Jihadi (direct violent-action 

types). Generally, the proselytizers 

argue that the jihadi ruin their ability to 

proselytize, and the political activists 

argue that the jihadi ruin the political 

space. Understanding these nuances can 

help to cultivate cooperation from two 

groups to turn in Salafi-Jihadi cells in 

their neighborhoods and communities. 

Further, do not confuse Salafi-Ikhwani 

with the Ikhwan al-Muslimeen, which is 

the Muslim Brotherhood. Do that, and 

you miss the Salafi political parties that 

were rivals to the Muslim Brotherhood 

when Morsi was president. Finally, 

alienate Salafis specifically, and Muslims 

generally, and it becomes a harder 

counterterrorism environment in terms 

of cultivating sources and methods. 

Internal combustio

I am of the opinion that only a 

cacophony of various Islamic-based 

counter-narratives can begin to 

undermine ISIL’s narrow narratives. This 

means never missing an opportunity to 

highlight how ISIL wishes to impose its 

manhaj – Islamic interpretation – and 

literally wipe out any other Islamic 

expressions; not only Shiites in its various 

forms, but Sunnis and now even Salafis 

in their various forms.

That is why ISIL in its propaganda 

makes passing references to manhaj and 

speaks of its interpretation as aqeedah, 

or Islamic creed.

In reality aqeedah are the basic things 

one must believe to even begin to call 

themselves Muslim, such as there 

is only one God and Muhammad is 

the messenger of God; after that, the 

human condition creeps in, and there 

are arguments of how to practice the 

faith in daily life.

Christians also have aqeedah, which 

is believing that Jesus is Lord and savior 

and that he died for your sins. After 

that, the arguments begin and develop 

into myriad interpretations, resulting in 

different Christian denominations. 

Islam is no different in that regard. 

Anyone who believes all Muslims 

share the same interpretation of Islam 

will be analytically blind. In 2016 it is 

not enough to say 'Sunni’; we must 

specify what kind of Sunni – to say 

'Salaf,’ without specifying what kind 

of Salafis; or to say 'Shiite’ without 

specifying what kind of Shiite. This 

matters in the human landscape of 

Arabia, Yemen, Iraq and Syria, to name 

a few. This is the kind of intellectual 

rigor needed by our intelligence 

analysts in the post-Arab Spring 

Middle East and in the future.

Diversity of think

Finally, analysts must understand that 

technology and many other disciplines 

demand diversity in thinking and 

intelligence analysis – not just language 

and cultural diversity, but men and 

women versed in the technologies of 

social media and economics, and in 

assessing massive amounts of data in 

algorithms and equations. ISIL is an 

organization raised with technology. As 

such, ISIL is comfortable and innovative 

with social media and the internet, more 

so than al-Qaida. 

I have had the privilege of 

interacting with men and women 

within the intelligence community 

who understand all of these things 

and more. I have also benefited from 

the diversity within the IC that breeds 

alternative analytic thinking. This 

diversity has at times caused me to 

revise my own views and expose 

biases in my critical thinking. 

I have often said that ISIL and AQ are 

threats to non-Muslims and Muslims 

alike. As Americans we can use our 

individual liberties, which tolerate the 

views of all faith groups, to attract more 

diversity into the IC and benefit from the 

fruits of increased knowledge diversity. 

Ultimately, we have the advantage 

over terrorism by being inclusive and 

attracting the diverse talent and partners 

needed to counter these threats.
F

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14|NGA.MIL 

Fro

imag

in

How the cre

of NIMA bolst

national sec

decision-m

By James Mohan, Ctr., NGA History Department
| Feature |

Pathfinder

Behind the scenes and out of the 

spotlight, as President Bill Clinton 

helped to broker an end to the hostilities 

in Bosnia in November 1995, a team of 

more than 50 cartographers and terrain 

visualization specialists worked to assist 

the diplomats in their deliberations. 

The technical team, comprising staff 

of the Defense Mapping Agency and 

the U.S. Army Topographic Engineering 

Center, digitally mapped the disputed 

Balkans areas in near-real time and 

created three-dimensional visual 

imagery to 'walk’ negotiators through 

the disputed terrain as they discussed 

terms. Known as the Dayton Peace 

Accords, the diplomatic event ended 

with Yugoslav President Slobodan 

Milosevic compromising on a key 

area under dispute – a milestone that 

signaled the end, at least temporarily, 

of bloodshed that had cost the lives of 

more than 300,000 Serbs, Croats and 

Muslims in just four years.

The Dayton event predated the 

creation of the National Imagery 

and Mapping Agency, later renamed 

the National Geospatial-Intelligence 

Agency, but it nevertheless 

demonstrated the tremendous power 

of mixing mapping and imagery 

analysis to support diplomacy and 

decision-making at a time when 

the agency’s formation was being 

contemplated. Less than three weeks 

later, Secretary of Defense William 

Perry, Director of Central Intelligence 

John Deutch and Chairman of the 

Joint Chiefs of Staff Army Gen. John 

Shalikashvili wrote a joint letter to 

Congress stating their commitment 

to creating a new agency within the 

Department of Defense – NIMA – to 

“improve the overall effectiveness and 

efficiency of imagery and mapping 

support to both national and military 

customers.” In December, a month 

after the success at Dayton, President 

Clinton added his official endorsement.

While the Dayton negotiations 

demonstrated what could be 

accomplished diplomatically with the 

combined support of mapping and 

imagery, it was not the start of the 

story by any means. More than a year 

of intense study and debate, often 

heated, had preceded the decision to 

create NIMA – and proponents had 

first floated the idea the better part 

of a decade earlier. But the advent 

of the nation’s newest intelligence 

organization on October 1, 1996 

was more than simply rearranging 

intelligence assets under one roof; it 

was a true breakthrough, allowing 

the intelligence community to realize 

a significant step forward in the 

evolution of tradecraft and analysis. 

It led to the emergence of geospatial 

intelligence, or GEOINT, as a powerful 

new analytic discipline critical to our 

nation’s security and leaders in the 

years ahead.

The new agency came about in 

an era of rising complex global 

strategic challenges. This forced the 

nascent organization to immediately 

begin transitioning from the 

traditional missions of its predecessor 

organizations – producing maps and 

static images – to creating layered 

GEOINT to meet both the intelligence 

and operational needs of our nation’s 

decision-makers and military leaders. 

This transition allowed GEOINT to 

become a critical tool for envisioning, 

exposing and combating threats around 

the globe. 

Crimes against humani

Despite the success of the Dayton 

Peace Accords, the situation in the 

Balkans did not resolve. On November 

25, 1998, the North Atlantic Treaty 

Organization ordered Milosevic to stop 

the persecution of Albanians in Kosovo 

or face NATO airstrikes. His lack of 

response led to a nearly three-month 

bombing campaign aimed at stopping 

the conflict that threatened the stability 

of the south Balkans. 

In support of NATO, NIMA 

produced virtual fly-throughs of the 

affected territory to prepare pilots for 

the local terrain and conditions they 

would face while waging the campaign 

against Serbian forces. The agency 

provided near-real time imagery and 
Feature

16|NGA.MIL 

maps at multiple scales, plus near-real 

time imagery and geospatial information 

on laptop computers, which could be 

easily accessed with the click of a mouse 

or downloaded directly into aircraft. 

Dubbed 'NIMA-in-a-Box,’ the device 

provided extensive data displays and also 

was equipped with a printer to generate 

hard-copy products. Almost immediately 

its use helped save the life of a downed 

U.S. Air Force F-16 pilot by allowing 

mission planners to plot a safe course for 

rescue helicopters. 

NIMA’s work also revealed evidence of 

ethnic cleansing in the region. This hard 

evidence assisted the United Nations 

in indicting Milosevic and four of his 

associates for crimes against humanity. 

Operation Enduring Freed

In October 2001, in response to the 

attacks of Sept. 11, American forces 

launched Operation Enduring Freedom. 

OEF became a critical proving ground for 

GEOINT, and within weeks the Taliban 

and al Qaeda were reduced to isolated 

pockets of fighters. 

NIMA expertise proved essential 

to the success of OEF, and conversely, 

OEF forced agency analysts to 

stretch and evolve. The challenging 

operating environment in Afghanistan 

required NIMA analysts to support 

combat operations on a scale unlike 

any previously. They were also 

embedded with warfighters in greater 

numbers, both in theater and in multiintelligence fusion hubs in the National 

Counterterrorism Center and the National 

Counterproliferation Center. 

The operation required new and different 

types of data and analyses. The Afghan 

battlespace was complex and the terrain 

often more urban, which drove the demand 

for higher-fidelity information. Human 

geography and human terrain analysis 

became critical due to the tribal nature 

of the region. To limit civilian casualties 

during airstrikes, U.S. forces required 

precise geospatial data to guide munitions. 

NIMA analysts rose to the occasion. 

They created the Airfield Infrastructure 

Intelligence Model, a three-dimensional 

graphical representation of airfield data 

and intelligence, which was used by 

combat aircrews on military missions and 

Weather and damage as

shortened air

The director of operations, U.S. European Command headquarters

confided to me after successful execution of the Kosovo War that a

R&D space-based capability provided near-real time weather an

battle damage assessment support that significantly shortened the 

air campaign by as much as 20 percent, potentially saving civilian 

and U.S. military lives and aircraft

I was there

— John L. Morris, former director, 

Central MASINT Organization; 

appointed senior technical advisor to 

NGA Director James R. Clapper in 2002
I was there

| Feature |

Pathfinder

for force protection. They also created 

a digital mapping and reconnaissance 

tool for situational awareness and force 

protection. It captured imagery location 

information vital for mission planning, 

safety assessments and security decisions. 

A number of NIMA products, including 

special maps and aeronautical navigation 

data, met force positioning and logistical 

needs. In all, the swift success of combat 

operations during OEF – due in part to 

NIMA’s increasingly valuable support – 

proved that GEOINT had earned its seat at 

the intelligence community table.

Humanitarian crisis in Darf

By the time NIMA was renamed NGA 

with enactment of the National Defense 

Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2004, 

the Darfur region of western Sudan was 

the site of a different kind of battle, one 

of terrible violence, death and cultural 

upheaval. The United Nations has often 

described the area as "the world's worst 

humanitarian crisis." 

Secretary of State Colin Powell delivered 

a formal finding of genocide in Darfur to 

Congress that year. Use of high-resolution 

satellite imagery was critical to the finding, 

which documented undisputable destruction 

of villages in the region. Powell used the 

same images to brief U.N. Secretary General 

Kofi Annan. The imagery was produced 

by NGA and the State Department’s 

Humanitarian Information Unit. 

But NGA involvement in uncovering the 

attacks by the Sudanese Liberation Army 

and Justice and Equality Movement had 

actually begun in early 2003, when an IC 

colleague had requested an NGA analyst 

to develop a baseline of imagery and maps 

to document events in Darfur. Other NGA 

analysts began studying images in the 

area and noticed changes in population 

distribution. By spring 2004 they all began 

to see evidence of the complete destruction 

of several hundred villages.

The NGA analysts created a series of 

maps and graphics that combined data 

about damaged and destroyed villages 

with commercial imagery and displaced 

population information. This GEOINT, 

combined with effective interagency 

collaboration, revealed a humanitarian 

crisis that had been hidden to that point 

from the outside world. 

Director King led fro my 

NIMA Director [Army] Lt. Gen. Jim King was conduc

farewell get-together with NIMA Reston Center personnel

that fateful day in 2001. It was one of several meetings to thank

agency employees prior to his planned retirement the following 

week.  was the senior person onsite at the time, and it fell to me

to escort and introduce Gen. King.

As we were entering the conference room for the meeting, there

was a television in the hallway broadcasting the fire in the World

Trade Center. The newscasters were unclear what had occurred at 

that point, but they thought it was an accidental plane strike on the 

tower. The director paused for a moment to watch, concerned, and 

then proceeded into the conference to give his farewell remarks.

Upon completion of his remarks, we again stopped at the

television, which just then broadcast the second plane’s impact 

on the other WTC tower. Commentators were by then openly

speculating that these were deliberate acts. They were also 

broadcasting rumors of additional attacks in Washington.

Digesting this information, Gen. King decided he needed t

maintain uninterrupted contact with NIMA headquarters, th

located in Bethesda. He felt he would be out of contact if he drov

back to Bethesda immediately, and so he asked to use my office

as a temporary command center.

We watched events unfold on the television in my office at Reston

and additional information started to trickle in, including news of 

the strike on the Pentagon.

The director's first reaction to that news was one of concern for 

the safety of NIMA personnel stationed at the Pentagon. Bec

the folks at the Pentagon belonged to some of my NIMA Custo

Support Teams – in particular, the Joint Staff Team and several 

of the service teams – he ordered me to immediately contact the 

appropriate team chiefs and do a head count to make sure all 

NIMA Pentagon staff were safe and accounted 

Getting confirmation that all of our staff at the Pentagon was

accounted for, the director then asked for the status of all 

deployed NIMA personne. I attempted to obtain this informati

but since we had hundreds of people deployed worldwide, this 

was not really possible. His inability to have immediate status on

all employees was the driver for the deployed personnel database 

implemented shortly after the transition to Director Clapper

— Irv Buck, former deputy director, 

NIMA Plans and Operations
F

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18|NGA.MIL 

In July 2004, after receiving a briefing from NGA analysts, Sen. 

John McCain (R-AZ) took NGA maps and data to the Senate floor 

to bring further attention to the humanitarian crisis. Later that 

month, with U.S. support, the United Nations imposed an openended arms embargo on the Darfur region.

Violence in the Darfur region persists, but NGA-provided 

GEOINT has helped relief workers locate camps for displaced 

refugees, facilitate food distribution, quantify the effects of the 

continuing violence and educate policymakers on the crisis.

Raid on Abbottab

NGA facilitated and supported countless other diplomatic and 

national security decisions as the years passed, but its status as a key 

intelligence provider skyrocketed in 2011. On May 2 that year, President 

Barack Obama announced to the world that the United States had 

conducted a military operation to capture Osama bin Laden, who was 

considered responsible for the horrific acts of Sept. 11. The president 

explained that an elite team of Navy Seals had flown in helicopters 

from Afghanistan to raid the terrorist’s compound in Abbottabad, 

Pakistan, ultimately resulting in bin Laden’s death.

Finding bin Laden had been the United States’ most pressing 

intelligence problem for a decade. Senior government officials 

acknowledged the role NGA had played in pinpointing the location 

where bin Laden was hiding. The agency had applied a wide range 

of GEOINT capabilities including imagery, geospatial and targeting 

analysis. NGA staff reviewed thousands of maps and reams of data 

to identify several possible locations for bin Laden. 

Following identification of the Abbottabad compound as 

bin Laden’s hideout, NGA and other IC specialists worked to 

create a replica of the compound. The model was used in senior 

strategy briefings and assisted the military assault force in 

mapping out its attack.

Letitia Long, director of NGA at the time, watched the mission 

unfold in real time, alongside other national security partners. The 

atmosphere in the situation room was tense, she said. She and the 

others could only wait and wonder if the months of intelligence 

preparation would pay off. In the end, although not perfect, the 

mission was a success. 

The shifting strategic lands

Today’s world is fast paced and full of security threats, many 

as yet unknown. In testimony to a House Armed Services 

Subcommittee, current NGA Director Robert Cardillo stated that 

the evolution of GEOINT has allowed NGA “to provide key insight 

and warning to policymakers and warfighters” to effectively deal 

with myriad crises and challenges. Among them, he said, are “ISIS 

attacks in Iraq and Syria, refugee migration, continued threats 

of aggression from Russia and North Korea, China’s moves in 

the Spratly Islands, cyber attacks from faceless antagonists and 

international criminal networks.” 

NGA stands at the ready. As Cardillo often says, the agency 

exists for one reason: “to enable mission consequence for our 

customers. We are shaping everything we do to ensure that we are 

delivering the optimum potential for their success.” 

I was a fighter pilot stationed in Turkey

in summer 2001, preparing to report 

for what  thought was another flying

position. Instead, after a call from [Army

Lt. Gen. Jim King [then director of th

National Imagery and Mapping Agency

I was suddenly NIMA’s first official sen

military advisor and responsible for the 

agency’s military support.

New to the intel world,  had to get spun

up on a completely new environment. 

It didn’t make it easier that my first

90 days were also King’s last before

handing over the agency’s leadership to 

a new director.

One dayI got a phone call from retire

Air Force Lt. Gen. James Clapper, t

inbound NIMA director. An hour lat

he was in my office sharing his vision for 

a complete agency reorganization and 

asking me to lead it. Clapper’s ‘now, 

next, after-next’ plan would transform 

NIMA into a top-tier intelligence agen

and drive it into the 21st century.

Then came Sept. 11.

Suddenly we were at war, and  was in

charge of securing all NIMA facilitie

Clapper, who was in St. Louis at the

time, began driving back because all 

the flights were grounded, and most of 

the workforce didn’t go home for the 

next 24 hours.

The formal change of command had 

been scheduled for that week, with highranking officials invited to attend. Instead,

King transferred NIMA over to Clap

with a handshake in a Bethesda office.

There wasn’t time for pomp; there was 

work to be done.

One Saturday about a month later,

was putting in a split-rail fence at my 

house when my wife, Julie, called me 

inside to watch televised coverage of 

From

to 
| Feature |

Pathfinder

bombings in Afghanistan.I went straight to work and bega

24/7 operations again.

By November 2001 it was clear that our forward-deployed

personnel didn’t know exactly what they needed in Afghanistan,

but they knew what they didn’t have: good geospatial content. 

Much of the best available imagery was from commercial

sources, and most paper maps of the area were in a warehouse 

in Bahrain. Back at headquarters my team an I were trying 

get to Afghanistan to help but were having no luck

After much discussion with my fellow military officers and the

unexpected personal discovery of a distant – but useful – family 

connection,  was able to take my team downrange to assess

the situation firsthand. 

We quickly learned that everyone was concerned that the

people on the ground didn’t have the maps and imagery they 

needed to adequately support the mission. They were right to 

be worried – our warfighters were working with paper maps 

from the late 1950s!

In spring 2002, as my team andI headed for home from th

deployment,  boarded the plane wondering how we could

solve the problems facing those on the frontlines. Once seated

I noticed Lt. Cmdr. Cal Astrin get out his MP3 player

headphones to settle in for the flight. Moments later, Cal and

I had our heads together, trying to figure out how many maps

the device might hold.

That was how NIMA was brought into the mobile data age

with an idea that began in the back of a C-130 plane on a 

night flight out of Afghanistan

While the MP3 player idea was ultimately abandoned in fav

of portable hard drives, what mattered was that warfighters 

could depend on up-to-date data and imagery while in the field. 

According to George Tenet, who was the dual-hatted director

of central intelligence and the CIA at the time, our action

“revolutionized the intelligence support we provide to our men 

and women in uniform.”

Bandwidth remained a major issue. Clapper spent around

$1 million to create the first geospatial intelligence library: a 

broom closet in the Bahrain map depot, equipped with a T1

line [a dedicated high-speed fiber optic line] to St. Louis for

pushing the digits forward. From there, once we developed a

master, we loaded maps onto six 250-gigabyte Maxtor hard

drives at a time and hand-delivered them to the field. Every few

Providing lif

military supp

By Retired Air Force Brig. Gen. Mike Lee

Retired Air Force Brig. Gen. Mike Lee
F

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20|NG

weeks, classified imagery was brought over from the States via courier 

to Bagram and Kuwait. We were eventually able to load commerci

imagery onto the hard drives as well, giving analysts on the ground a 

second drive to help them correlate what they were seeing on their maps.

This approach worked so well that by December 2002 we were doing

the same thing for personnel heading into Iraq. In April 2003 the fir

five C-17s brought American forces into Baghdad, NIMA perso

integrated among them. By fall we had become the National GeospatialIntelligence Agen

Military support didn’t have the chance to evolve according to a plan. A

global circumstances unfolded NIMA was forced to reinvigorate its comb

support role to quickly help those who were going into harm’s way. 

I sometimes worry that it could be too easy for NGA to forget its root

and why it was created. It’s more than an agency that makes maps

or analyzes imagery; it was built on the backs of people who came 

together, combined their talents and united with common purpose: to 

support and save the lives of warfighters and innocents around the world. 

Often, asI did, our military members trade bullets for data in the fight fo

national security, even if it means trading the left seat in a cockpit for the 

right seat at a desk.

The vision that Clapper shared with me back in 2001 wasn’t fully realized 

on my watch, but  think it’s beginning to happen now, enabled by the

contemporary structuring of the role of NGA director of operations

Air Force Maj. Gen. Linda Urrutia-Varhall, the current NGA direct

operations – known inside headquarters as Gen. UV – faces many of

the same challenges  did, but she is also tackling a different one. Whil

supporting the always-changing needs of warfighters, including providing 

more and different mobile applications, she also has to “codify what her 

predecessors put into place,” as she puts it, and strengthen the foundation 

for those who come next.

Such future-focused work is not easy. Managing more than 6,000 people

across seven internal organizations is a major challenge in itself. These 

organizations aren’t small either; the DO’s office is responsible for th

most essential, mission-focused parts of the agency, as well as the office 

responsible for direct engagement with NGA’s many and varied customers

In addition to all of that, UV is working to move NGA toward a futu

where decisions get made at the lowest possible level.

“I want to turn NGA into a place where ‘what’s mine is ours,’” she said.

want to help all these entities cooperate, coordinate and collaborate on 

the products and services we present.”

That’s the attitude that can change the course of history, the spirit that 

inspires people to do their best work and redefine what’s possible. 

The innovative ideas that will move NGA into the future can happen

anywhere, at any time – even, as  can attest, in the back of an airplane

heading home.

Retired U.S. Air Force Brig. Gen. Mike Lee continues to support the miss

a national security partner at Blue Canopy in Reston, Virginia. Amelia CohenLevy, Ctr., Analysis, also contributed to this art

Air Force Maj. Gen. Linda Urrutia-Varhall
“Our amazing past influences

the present. We should

all be proud to be a part 

of this unbroken tradition 

of professional service, 

devotion to duty and 

excellence in guaranteeing 

the information edge.”

“In looking back...I am proudest of, an

humbled by, the magnificent workforce of 

NGA.I include our government employees

contractors and military members.”  am

also “proud of our progress in defining and 

growing the concept of geospatial intelligence 

as a new intelligence discipline.”

“I think the proudest moments

were working with the leadership 

team and being in St. Louis or

the Washington area or all the

other places we had people 

externally assigned – you know, 

we had more than 2,000 people 

externally assigned after 2009 – 

and being able to work with all 

those people as a team.”
22|NGA.MIL 

Show t

e wa

NEO

Image Date: August 31, 2

Copyright 2016, DigitalGl

NGAd
White

NGA assi

“essent

The 2006 White House report o

the federal response to Katrina

lauded NGA as an invaluable asset

to decision-making and restoration 

of critical infrastructure. By

collecting key infrastructure-related 

data and pre-deploying analysts 

and mobile systems prior to landfall, 

NGA was able to provide the first

comprehensive overview of the 

damage caused by the hurricane 

and flood. By providing hundreds

of intelligence products per day 

immediately following the disaster, 

the agency aided response 

teams in affected areas; aided 

recovery of oil platforms; provided 

navigation information to the U.S.

Navy, Merchant Marine and Coas

Guard; and relayed messages from 

the National Weather Service to

people at sea.

Pathfinder 2016

| Show The Way 

Dear colleagues:

Every agency did what it could to support relief efforts following 

Hurricane Katrina in 2005. Even now Katrina remains the costliest disaster 

in U.S. history. 

NGA supported rescue and relief efforts led by fellow agencies by 

providing graphics of airports, hospitals, police and fire stations, schools 

and roads in affected areas. There was a big push to use commercial 

imagery, even though it was still in its infancy, because folks recognized it 

could be widely released and shared.

I was the program manager for the Commercial Satellite Imagery Library 

at the time and responsible for bringing in commercial imagery from 

vendors and distributing that imagery to requesters. Dissemination was 

not entirely easy, though; it was still essentially limited to CDs and DVDs.

The night after some of the dams were breached, I received a call at home 

from a colleague in Source. He said, “Ray, I have someone on the phone 

who wants to talk to you,” and I said, “That’s great, bring him on.” It was 

General James Clapper.

Gen. Clapper listened to me for quite a long time talk about how we were 

limited in how we could distribute the information; limited in the copyright 

and licensing of the information and data.

He told me to press on and do anything that I could to help get that 

information out. He explained that people were trying to find out whether 

their houses were still under water. If we could show commercial imagery 

out on the web, people could look there, instead of trying to go back into 

areas that needed to be cordoned off. 

It was also at that point that he gave me his home phone number. He said, 

“If you need anything this weekend coming up, here’s my number. Call me.”

Talk about empowerment! I’ve never used his number, but I still have it.

I spent that weekend and the next 29 days between the Defense 

Intelligence Analysis Center at Joint Base Anacostia-Bolling in Washington, 

D.C., and Bethesda, Maryland, briefing Gen. Clapper every morning.

One of the most important pieces of the experience for me was that 

the day after I talked to Gen. Clapper, I initiated the first-ever ‘open to 

the world’ unclassified teleconference for imagery sharing. Anybody 

who had a problem with commercial imagery could call the number and 

receive assistance. We held it two times a day, and people from all over 

NGA participated. Anyone from a government agency that needed help 

or had issues related to commercial imagery could call, and we answered 

questions and helped anyone on the line.

The open teleconference was a very popular method for everyone to get 

on the same page as to what was going on with unclassified commercial 

imagery. I think a lot of people took lessons learned out of our responses 

in the telecom.

Raymond Bauer

CIO & IT Services directorate
F

eatu

24|NGA.MIL 

Helin

NGA’s contribution to humanitarian aid an

By Marylou Gjernes and Lisa Wagner, Ctrs., NGA History Department
Concept for NGA exert te

The concept of a fielded-expert team was not unique. The 

Aeronautical Chart and Information Center delivered th

original Point Positioning Data Bases to Vietnam w

accompanying experts from St. Louis. Thirty years later that

notion was embedded in the planned execution of the Global 

Geospatial Information and Systems initiative, with teams of

cartographers sited in customer footprints, as part of the 

re-engineering plan. When NIMA's operational concept 

defined, that element was incorporated and has matured into 

today's NGA Support Teams

— Roberta “Bobbi” Lenczowski 

retired from NGA as 

executive director of 

NGA Campus West in St. Louis; 

she also served three years as 

NGA’s technical executive and 

previously was the director of 

operations for NIMA

I was there

| Feature |

Pathfinder

Never let it be mistaken that 

geospatial intelligence is only for 

supporting warfare or locating political 

adversaries. When citizens of the world 

suffer a blow dealt by nature, National 

Geospatial-Intelligence Agency 

products and services help save lives 

by tracking patterns of violent weather 

and the spread of disease, identifying 

physical changes to the earth and 

critical infrastructure, and guiding firstresponder organizations in getting help 

to wherever it is needed, whether at 

home or abroad.

Since its inception as the National 

Imagery and Mapping Agency in 

1996, the subsequently renamed NGA 

has provided pertinent data and 

information to partner organizations 

such as the Federal Emergency 

Management Agency, U.S. Agency 

for International Development, 

the Department of State and the 

Department of Homeland Security. 

The agency is not chartered to provide 

emergency assistance directly, but 

rather it supports these partners when 

requested with GEOINT that enables 

them to perform their missions faster, 

safer and more effectively.

Hurricanes, tornadoes, earthquakes, 

floods and wildfires all require imagerydriven damage assessments and 

means by which to accurately locate 

and assist citizens in distress. Disaster 

responses also require organization; 

if not properly coordinated, goodwill 

and well-intended efforts can prove 

debilitating. Organizing and tracking 

assistance by geographical area helps 

manage humanitarian aid, and that’s 

one way GEOINT can help. By using 

NGA imagery and maps with overlays, 

organizations such as FEMA typically 

divide affected areas into grids and 

assign them to teams of first responders. 

This enables authorities to manage 

more effectively during the aftermath 

of a disaster, but it also helps first 
Feature

26|NGA.MIL 

could be shared with first responders 

via the internet, with fewer analysts 

deployed. The agency’s ‘online, ondemand’ presentation of data directly 

to customers saved time and cost for 

both the end users and a much smaller 

and more efficient deployed NGA team.

NGA relied on the effectiveness of 

a team approach in its headquarters 

support as well. An integrated working 

group of various subject matter experts 

devoted to readiness, response and 

recovery was created at the agency’s 

western campus in Arnold, Missouri. 

Once again NGA analysts and staff 

worked around the clock to help identify 

areas with flood damage or power loss, 

and check the status of airports, harbors 

and oil refineries in the affected areas.

Earthquak

Earthquakes present similar 

challenges that GEOINT helps to resolve. 

In September 2009 a magnitude 8.0 

earthquake struck the Samoan Islands, 

spawning tsunamis with waves up to 

20 feet. After President Obama issued a 

disaster declaration for American Samoa, 

NGA provided FEMA with damage 

assessment data and information to 

support relief efforts. NGA analysts in 

the region, along with a reach-back team 

stateside, also delivered initial damage 

assessments and assisted relief teams 

operating in affected areas in Australia 

and New Zealand. 

NGA’s information and data were 

useful in large part because they 

provided a common operating picture 

for first responders and relief workers, 

which enabled them to do their jobs 

more quickly and effectively. 

NGA also made some images 

available to the general public through 

its crisis response portal, NGA-Earth.

org, a satellite imagery and map viewer. 

Originally established in response to 

Hurricane Katrina, the NGA-Earth site 

uses the internet to provide a single, 

easy-to-use entry point for locating 

GEOINT information in the event of a 

natural disaster or crisis. In addition 

to providing a means to communicate 

critical information to first responders, 

responders focus their efforts and better 

understand how their work contributes 

to the overall effort.

GEOINT has been a vital component 

of the nation’s disaster and recovery 

efforts since Hurricane Andrew ripped 

through Florida in the summer of 

1992, becoming what was at the time 

the most destructive hurricane in U.S. 

history, according to the National 

Weather Service. FEMA requested 

imagery of the destruction from the 

National Photographic Interpretation 

Center, one of several agencies that 

were merged into NIMA when it was 

created in 1996.

“Previously, responders had to make 

their way out to the impacted areas, or 

wait for images to appear on CNN to 

start assessing the damage, with no real 

sense of how to prioritize rescue and 

recovery operations,” said Joe Drummey, 

an NPIC analyst at the time.

After the standup of NIMA, U.S. 

disaster and recovery efforts benefited 

from the new ability to overlay maps 

on imagery to indicate changes 

in roads and infrastructure, and 

support turned global in 1997. In 

the years since, NIMA/NGA has 

deployed teams throughout the 

world to assist local responders and 

authorities dealing with many types 

of natural disasters. These teams are 

assembled for their expertise and 

provide geospatial information for 

identifying usable infrastructure and 

helping to coordinate rescue efforts. 

They are supported by 24-hour 

reach-back capabilities throughout 

the agency, assisting customers 

with everything from analytical 

information to equipment needed 

to perform GEOINT in the field, to 

declassification authorization. 

Hurricanes

NGA closely monitors all hurricanes 

so that the agency is ready to offer 

assistance when requested by FEMA. 

When Hurricane Katrina struck the 

Gulf Coast in the early hours of August 

29, 2005, NGA had been tracking the 

hurricane prior to landfall, and analysts 

deployed with regional FEMA teams 

ahead of the storm’s arrival. 

Before landfall on Friday, August 

26, NGA had forwarded 100 graphics 

depicting the location of key 

infrastructures – hospitals, police 

stations, highways, schools, etc. – for 

the counties in the path of Hurricane 

Katrina, according to retired Air Force 

Lt. Gen. James R. Clapper Jr., who was 

director of NGA at the time.

By comparing this pre-hurricane 

data with post-hurricane data, NGA 

helped to very quickly develop damage 

assessments of the affected region. (See 

related story, page 22.)

NGA expertise proved so helpful 

during the Katrina response that the 

agency developed a Domestic Mobile 

Integrated Geospatial Intelligence 

System in 2006 to provide on-theground support to federal responders 

during a national event such as a 

weather disaster, or even to support 

national security during large 

public events such as presidential 

inaugurations and major sporting events.

The DMIGS fleet consists of two 

44-foot-long vehicles, plus a support 

vehicle, that integrate GEOINT 

hardware and software with a robust 

communication system, enabling 

NGA to deploy analysts in support of 

operational requirements. The DMIGS 

fleet provided support to, among 

other events, the 2008 presidential 

inauguration and a string of violent 

weather events in 2011 – tornadoes 

in the South, flooding in the Midwest 

and Hurricane Irene, which devastated 

large areas of the East Coast as well as 

the Caribbean.

"Embedded analysts are the best way 

NGA can bring all our services forward 

to the customer,” said Hector Montalvo 

from the NGA domestic operating 

environment office. He believes that, 

in addition to assisting citizens, the 

experience offers “the best way we 

have to train our junior analysts.... It 

keeps our skills sharp.”

By the time Hurricane Sandy struck 

the East Coast in 2012, technologies 

had developed to where more data 
| Feature |

Pathfinder

the site allows the public to broadly 

assess property damage without having 

to physically return to the disaster area. 

One year later, when an even more 

ruthless earthquake hit Haiti, NGA 

stood up a Haitian crisis action team 

within a matter of hours, and they 

began round-the-clock GEOINT 

operations. Within 48 hours the 

NGA Support Team at SOUTHCOM 

had deployed, collected, processed, 

analyzed, stored and disseminated vital 

GEOINT products. 

Light detection and ranging, more 

commonly known as LiDAR, proved 

especially useful in this situation. 

Through the use of LiDAR, NGA 

analysts were able to track the location 

and day-to-day growth of internally 

displaced persons camps. Analysis 

confirmed that thousands of the two 

million people displaced by the event 

had self-relocated to areas with a high 

probability of landslides and flash flood 

during the coming rainy season. 

“Unless we did something, we were 

going to have a second wave of deaths,” 

FEMA’s Michael Byrne said in an 

interview after the event. According to 

Byrne, NGA’s work possibly saved as 

many as 37,000 people.

NGA’s work in Haiti was critical for 

another reason as well – the imagery 

provided nonverbal critical information 

to first responders and rescuers from 

many nations, who spoke many 

languages. NGA imagery enabled these 

responders to collaborate immediately 

and at all times without having to 

depend on interpreters.

Diseas

The disaster in Haiti did not end 

with the earthquake. Over a year later 

a cholera epidemic hit the island nation. 

From October 2010 through February 

2011, an estimated 4,500 Haitians died 

from the outbreak. 

NGA’s contribution to the anti-cholera 

campaign involved monitoring, tracing 

and marking the disease's footprint. 

Analysis of the visual representation, 

however, was the agency’s most 

important value-added contribution. 

NGA looked for patterns that would 

indicate how cholera was spreading and 

where it would spread to next.

An examination of this geospatial 

mapping of the cholera outbreak 

area revealed that the outbreak had 

primarily been located outside of 

the densely populated displaced 

persons camps. Knowing this, medical 

and relief personnel were able to 

disseminate information in these 

areas to educate the local population 

about how to protect themselves. 

Continuous tracking indicated that 

these educational efforts were largely 

successful in slowing and eventually 

halting the outbreak.

Nontraditional mission partner

Dealing with the Haitian crisis 

highlighted both the need and the 

benefit of making geospatial information 

available to nontraditional partners 

outside of the defense and intelligence 

communities. NGA’s involvement with 

its mission partners demonstrated the 

growing importance of GEOINT for 

saving lives, easing suffering and halting 

the spread of disease. 

The agency has responded with 

similar innovative solutions when other 

pandemics have threatened global 

health. NGA analysts have integrated 

classified and unclassified, government 

and commercial satellite and airborne 

imagery, to track and combat swine flu 

in 2009 and the Ebola virus in 2014. More 

recently GEOINT has been used to track 

dengue fever, which according to news 

reports, some researchers are beginning 

to believe may be linked to the current 

Zika virus plaguing South America.

All of these examples demonstrate 

that, just as it does for warfighters 

and policymakers, GEOINT provides 

situational awareness and a common 

foundation to guide the efforts of first 

responders in the relief enterprise. 

Commercial imagery, coordinated, used 

and shared by NGA, has been vital 

to creating products that can be used 

in the field to give decision-makers 

the critical information they need for 

response and recovery efforts. 

Did 

kno

Warning ship captains and

individual boaters of pirate threats is 

an important aspect of NGA’s safety

of navigation mission. Twenty-first 

century piracy in the Horn of Afric

and the Gulf of Aden is a symptom

rooted in economic deprivation, lost 

fishing rights and political instability.

Beginning under NGA’s firs

director, Navy Rear Adm. Jac

Dantone, the agency has used its

human geography and safety of 

navigation expertise to provide 

insights that inform counter-piracy 

measures. In 2014 NGA als

became the first intelligence 

agency to provide public apps, 

making ASAM, the Anti-Shipp

Activity Message app, availabl

on iTunes. The app gives mariners 

the geographic locations and 

reported descriptive accounts 

of hostile acts against ships, 

crews and passengers, including 

incidents of piracy, robbery, 

hijacking and kidnapping.
Telling our s

28|NGA.MIL 

One of the great benefits of working at 

National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency 

is continued education. I never dreamed 

that my own experience would lead 

me to discover an interesting piece of 

history relating to NGA – and ultimately 

to authoring a book about it.

A few years ago I had the 

opportunity to take part in the 20/20 

Vector program, a wonderful initiative 

in which employees spend half their 

workweek at the office and use the 

other half – fully paid – to pursue 

a master’s degree in a related field 

through the National Intelligence 

University. After selection into the 

program through a competitive 

process, I pursued a degree in 

strategic intelligence. 

The degree required an in-depth 

thesis. For mine I chose to research the 

U.S. intelligence community’s warning 

posture of a possible Syrian attack on 

Israel in the early 1970s – an attempt to 

reclaim Israeli-occupied territories in the 

Sinai Peninsula and the Golan Heights. 

Much of the intelligence community’s 

posture on this issue was based on the 

joint Egyptian-Syrian attack on Israel in 

1973, which caught both U.S. and Israeli 

intelligence by surprise. 

Some of what I discovered in my 

research came as a surprise. 

Several of the most useful documents 

for explaining what happened 

in ’73 were issued by an NGA 

predecessor, the National Photographic 

Interpretation Center. That was not 

particularly surprising to me; what 

I did not expect was that NPIC’s 

warnings were largely dismissed.

NPIC analysts had observed a 

massive buildup along Israel’s 

borders and had warned both U.S. 

and Israeli officials of the possibility 

of war. Israeli officials were already 

aware of the presence of forces, but 

they had discounted the possibility of 

war. They believed that the Egyptians 

and Syrians would not risk an attack 

due to their inferior air force and 

armored corps.

This assumption was incorrect. War 

erupted, and it had major consequences 

not just for Israel but also for U.S. policy. 

With the Soviet Union backing Egypt 

and Syria, and the United States backing 

Israel during the six-year conflict that 

ensued, the superpowers moved closer 

to nuclear war than at any point since 

the Cuban Missile Crisis.

I found the story not only fascinating, 

but I couldn’t help but think it was a 

cautionary tale for national decisionmakers. I felt that it might interest 

audiences outside of the intelligence 

community as well. 

The end result was “Return to 

Zion: The History of Modern Israel.” I 

based the book in large part on my 

master’s thesis, and it was published 

by the University of Nebraska Press in 

September 2015.

 Some information in the book had 

never been seen outside the intelligence 

community. With NGA’s full approval, I 

was able to add this new material to the 

greater body of knowledge, and the book 

drew praise from several historians.

All of this was made possible by 

NGA’s commitment to the continued 

education of its workforce. I’m 

pleased that I was able to take 

advantage of the 20/20 Vector 

opportunity provided by NGA. It led 

down a road I had never envisioned. 

20/20 Vec

Looking to my own f

helped me to see an inter

By Eric Gartman, Analysis
Telling our s

| Telling Our S

Pathfinder

Tell us your personal, unclassified version of the work you or your office does for 

NGA for possible inclusion in the next Pathfinder. Send your 600 word or less 

account to Pathfinder@nga.mil. Submissions may be edited for clarity and length.

What’s your story?

An organization working together 

as one team is instep and strives 

toward commonly held goals. To 

get the team synchronized, effective 

leadership is essential. 

At National Geospatial-Intelligence 

Agency, the Supervisory Council 

works to help leaders at all levels 

develop the values and skills needed 

for long-term success – both their 

own and the workforce's. The council 

focuses in large measure on the 

concept of servant leadership.

Servant leadership is not just the 

latest fad of various leadership styles; 

it actually dates back more than 

four decades. Robert K. Greenleaf 

established the foundation for it 

in his 1970 essay “The Servant as 

Leader.” According to Greenleaf, “It 

begins with the natural feeling that 

one wants to serve. Then conscious 

choice brings one to aspire to lead. 

The best test is: do those served grow 

as persons...?”

Greenleaf and his followers 

identified several overarching themes 

of servant leadership. They are: 

•	 Valuing people. Servant 

leaders believe people should be 

appreciated; they are not simply a 

resource to be used for the benefit 

of the leader. 

•	 Developing people. Servant 

leaders believe others should be 

nurtured and assisted in their 

personal and professional growth. 

They provide a safe environment 

that promotes learning and 

rewards risk taking.

•	 Building community. Servant 

leaders believe in the power of 

the team. They believe the team’s 

strength comes from its members 

working together and supporting 

one another. 

•	 Displaying authenticity.

Servant leaders hold themselves 

accountable to all, in an accepting 

and trusting environment. If 

they make mistakes they readily 

assume responsibility for them. 

•	 Providing leadership. Servant 

leaders believe in action and 

taking on initiatives, while also 

influencing others to do the same. 

They are oriented to the future; 

they envision what can be and 

should be. 

•	 Sharing leadership. Servant 

leaders promote the ability to 

brainstorm solutions, make 

decisions, and develop and 

implement plans. They create and 

use performance metrics to ensure 

results are achieved. 

Greenleaf and his followers also 

identified several major attributes 

necessary for servant leaders. They are: 

•	 Listening – being in tune to both 

verbal and nonverbal signals, 

as well as having the ability to 

understand the message.

•	 Empathy – building compassion 

by understanding others’ thoughts, 

behaviors and emotions. 

•	 Healing – working to enable 

others to overcome situations, 

issues and problems that limit 

their ability to maximize their 

performance.

•	 Awareness – being able to view 

and understand the situations, 

issues and problems facing an 

organization.

•	 Persuasion – leading not from a 

position of authority but rather 

from encouraging, coaxing, 

influencing and convincing others 

about what they should do. 

•	 Conceptualization – seeing 

situations, issues and problems 

abstractly; thinking beyond the 

current day and imagining what 

can be tomorrow.

•	 Foresight – leveraging 

understanding of the past and 

combining it with knowledge of 

the present, then applying this 

information to make decisions for 

the future. 

•	 Stewardship – stressing the use of 

persuasion and consensus rather 

than control and a position of 

authority. 

•	 Commitment to the growth

of people – encouraging their 

followers to be active participants 

in their future. 

•	 Building community – actively 

pursuing the development of 

teamwork to create a sense of 

belonging. 

The bottom line is that servant leaders 

are people centered. By promoting 

servant leadership at NGA, the 

Supervisory Council believes a greater 

number of leaders will bring about its 

benefits for the team at NGA.

Lead

Taking charge by taki

By Simmie A. Adams, Ph.D., Ctr., Human Development
Feature

30|NGA.MIL 

odu

Hybrid

trad

cra

t h

s op

ned

new m

thodol

gical do

By Gary E. Weir, Ph.D., NGA Historian
Integratio crea

The full integration of our imagery and geospatial analysts in 

2001, driven by then-Director Clapper, created synergies that

resulted in the emergence of a new tradecraft known today as 

GEOINT. — Steve Wallac

former NGA technical executive; 

director, Analysis and Production 

and NGA West executive

I was there

| Feature |

Pathfinder

On the eve of the National Imagery and 

Mapping Agency’s standup, the two leaders 

of the steering committee structuring the new 

agency fully realized the long-term consequences 

of their recommendations. If successful their 

effort would, over time, truly change the nature 

of intelligence. 

Navy Adm. William Owens, vice chair of the 

Joint Chiefs of Staff, and Keith Hall, JCS executive 

director for intelligence community affairs, 

realized that placing the tradecraft traditions 

– the cartography of the Defense Mapping 

Agency and the imagery analysis of the National 

Photographic Interpretation Agency – into the 

same agency would certainly result in interesting 

hybrid changes. They realized this possibility 

would unnerve many who would move into 

NIMA from those two agencies. 

Nonetheless, Owens and Hall embraced the 

very possibility that most at NPIC and many at 

DMA reportedly feared: that NIMA’s character 

would be “beyond a classical intelligence 

organization,” as they wrote in a September 1995 

memorandum to Director of Central Intelligence 

John Deutch. 

Owens and Hall realized that the new NIMA 

would cause a measure of cultural awkwardness, 

but they also understood the tradecraft chemistry 

involved; breaking barriers and combining two 

elements in a new way would set NIMA on an 

experimental course. If the combination worked, 

intelligence could well change – dramatically. 

It work

A mere three years later, NIMA received the Joint 

Meritorious Unit Award from the Department of 

Defense in recognition of the agency’s outstanding 

service since its birth, October 1, 1996. During its 

first years NIMA supported operations in Bosnia, 

Iraq, Afghanistan, Sudan, Kosovo and Serbia. 

Under its first two directors – Navy Rear Adm. 

Jack Dantone and Army Lt. Gen. James King – the 

agency simultaneously provided imagery and 

geospatial information to military customers 

abroad and to federal authorities at home working 

toward national security objectives.

 All the while NIMA wrestled with its diverse 

origins. It was exactly that diversity of tradecraft, 

however, that set NIMA on its way to becoming 

both the National Geospatial-Intelligence 

Agency in 2003 and a very different kind of 

intelligence producer. 

Not without challe

The events of Sept. 11 affected NIMA more than 

any other agency in the intelligence community. 

Just 10 days into his new role as NGA director, 

retired Air Force Lt. Gen. James R. Clapper Jr., 

moved swiftly to adapt to the new threats. Very 

quickly, many at the agency began to realize 

the potential of a multiple-intelligence identity 

wrapped in a geospatial consciousness. The 

new director also initiated major organizational 

and mission changes designed to strengthen 

warfighter support from home and to project the 

agency forward into the fight. 

Given the specter of 9/11, most of the workforce 

seemed willing to take a chance with the changes. 

Sometimes, however, it became difficult to know 

how to best combine skills or how to ask the best 

questions of tradecrafts appearing together in the 

workplace for the first time. 
F

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32|NGA.MIL 

“We were setting up [production] 

cells of cartographers within imagery 

analysis footprints to do maps for 

them, but also to do things that we 

never thought they could do, because 

we didn’t know enough to ask,” said 

former senior leader Peter Usowski 

in an oral history interview. “But we 

had a cell at the Navy Yard. We had a 

cell at Langley of, you know, five, six, 

seven cartographers, and even more 

sophisticated geospatial analysts, that 

were actually working intel issues and 

bringing that type of discipline onto the 

intel problems.”

Members of the production cell would 

initially take the intel information and 

integrate it with available imagery 

analysis. Over time they became more 

confident that what they were doing 

was actually answering intelligence 

questions, according to Usowski.

Recognizing possibilit

Those working within the production 

cell began to appreciate more fully both 

the cultural divide between the world 

of maps and imagery, and the promise 

of integration. The conflict in Chechnya 

presented one such promising opportunity. 

Wracked by civil war between 1999 

and 2003, Chechnya fell under the 

watch of NIMA’s Eurasia Branch, led 

by Earl Chidester. Chidester turned 

potential into practice in 2000 by 

inviting a Bethesda-based cartographer 

to join the Eurasia group to merge his 

talent with their imagery analysis. 

The Eurasia branch newcomer 

had come into NIMA from DMA, 

which had hired him from the map 

publishing company Rand McNally. He 

brought to the group a specific talent 

for displaying information within 

a thematic context. He soon built a 

reputation for weaving geospatial 

information into a graphic story that 

was easy to understand.

With the successful integration of 

this geospatial professional, the Eurasia 

group managed to set aside cultural 

barriers. They began to listen to each 

other, share ideas and issue new hybrid 

intelligence products that had their 

customers frequently describing the 

output as phenomenal. By providing 

intellectual insight into a crisis situation 

through a tight, complementary 

symphony of image and idea, they 

quickly set the standard for this new 

type of intelligence. 

This pioneering group arrayed 

their early products on a display 

surface at the Navy Yard that quickly 

became known as the 'Wall of Fame.’ 

Collaborations like this gave birth to 

modern geospatial intelligence, or 

GEOINT. The experimental nature of the 

NIMA publication cells made it possible.

Further evolutio

The chemistry that Owens and Hall 

understood was possible when they 

recommended combining multiple 

tradecrafts into NIMA allowed for 

much more creative approaches 

to addressing the nation’s hard 

intelligence challenges. None were 

more difficult than Sept. 11.

Activity-based intelligence, or ABI, 

was created at NIMA shortly after Sept. 

11 and quickly emerged as a powerful 

tradecraft. It began as a joint effort with 

allies to address the operation of an 

Al-Qaida cell in the Kurdish region of 

northern Iraq. 

Due to increasing interest in terrorist 

operations, a NIMA imagery analyst 

who had a background in geography 

initiated collaboration with another 

analyst to explore ways of illuminating 

the nature and activity of these groups. 

With the advice and consent of allies, they 

formed a production cell with the express 

purpose of combining raw intelligence 

of all types into a single geospatially 

presented analytical product. 

The hybrid production cell grew 

from these modest beginnings into 

a group of roughly nine members 

after the beginning of Operation Iraqi 

Freedom in 2003. It included IAs, 

SIGINT analysts from the military 

and civilian communities, geospatial 

specialists and all-source analysts. 

Cultural experts and linguists rounded 

out the group.

At roughly the same time, National 

Security Agency developed a 

way of intercepting select terrorist 

transmissions. SIGINT contacts 

provided the NIMA cell with certain 

conversations between parties, keeping 

the linguists constantly busy; conversely, 

NIMA provided a very informative 

spatial and temporal component to 

those exploiting the contacts. 

The SIGINT community began 

linking the transmissions to one 

another, and the GEOINT community 

began exploring relationships 

among the locations from which the 

conversations emerged. This new 

activity-based approach contrasted to 

the traditional target-based approach 

and opened a number of new 

methodological doors.

 ABI has evolved to become one of 

the most potent tactical tools in the fight 

against terrorism. It places people and 

changing locations within an emerging 

network of deep geospatial knowledge, 

which enables the exposure of adversaries 

who previously would have been able to 

blend into their surroundings. 

If the emergence and success of ABI 

came as a surprise to some, it would 

not have been to Owens or Hall. It 

was thanks to their leadership of the 

steering committee that structured 

NIMA at its outset that DMA was 

included in the agency; the original 

concept called simply for a national 

imagery agency. But Owens and Hall 

understood that the cartographers 

at DMA could well bring an added 

dimension to imagery-based 

intelligence products. Considering 

the many innovative developments 

that have emerged under the aegis of 

GEOINT, the hybrid experiment that 

began two decades ago continues to 

work today. 
| Feature |

Pathfinder

The term ‘geospatial intelligence’ was officially coined 

in 2001. That same year six of the field’s visionaries 

became the first inductees into the NIMA Hall of F

a predecessor of today’s Geospatial Intelligence Hal

of Fame. There are now 58 members, and five more

individuals will be inducted in 2016.

This year the agency will also induct legacy World

WarII civilian women cartographers from t

Army Map Service, who were critical in advancin

geospatial intelligence, and photo interpreters with 

the Women Army Corps stationed at Medmenha

England, who were instrumental to the nascent

tradecraft of that era.

The Geospatial Intelligence Hall of Fame honors m

and women who have made a significant impact 

on the development and delivery of GEOINT, eith

by directly contributing to the evolution of processes 

or production, or by serving as a leader to those 

practicing the tradecraft. Membership includes several

inductees who worked with NGA’s predecessor

agencies, and even a few who sacrificed their 

lives for the sake of the mission and were inducted 

posthumously. 

The Hall of Fame expanded beyond the confine

of NGA in 2015 to allow induction of persons

employed outside the agency or its heritage agencies. 

Commonwealth partners and other non-U.S. citizens

also became eligible for the first time, in recognition of 

the global and collaborative nature of GEOI

Induction into the Hall of Fame is competitiv

Nominees must have made a profound impact on 

the GEOINT tradecraft and made their marks on t

industry in unique ways. Nominations are reviewed 

each summer for induction in the fall.

The Hall of Fame exhibit resides at NGA headquarte

in Springfield, Virginia. To learn more about NGA’s

history, including its Hall of Fame inductees, visi

http://www.nga.mil

Hall

honors 

le

ac
Feature

34|NGA.MIL 

Published weekly beginning in 1869, the U.S. Notice to Marine

contained time-sensitive update information for all U.S. government

charts and publications to ensure safe navigation around the world. 

National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency began publishing th

notice in digital format in 1999. The agency published the last 

hard-copy notice in December 2004, ending what had been to that

point the oldest continuous U.S. government publication

But by ending the paper publication, NGA began a new era o

more robust service to mariners, providing the most comprehensive 

navigational information in history to NGA’s military and civilian

customers around the world.

“NGA has used technology to transform the way our maritime

customers receive mission-critical maritime safety information,” 

said NGA’s director at the time, retired Air Force Lt. Gen. Jame

Clapper Jr., in announcing the change. “Most importantly this has

reduced the time for mariners to access time-sensitive information 

and has also eliminated associated government costs to print and 

distribute data.”

Prior to the transition to digital format, NGA had printed an

distributed on average 10,000 copies of the publication each week to 

customers around the globe. If stacked in a column, the annual volume

of U.S. Notice to Mariners would have measured roughly the height o

40 Washington Monument

A ne

The new Digital Nautical Chart© became the world’s first and

only worldwide digital nautical chart. Twelve layers of data, each 

representing a different type of information, make up each chart. 

Originally created for the Navy, it provides combat support,

situational awareness and marine navigation superior to that of 

any traditional paper charts. 

The Navy first used the DNC on the U.S.S. Cape St. George i

2005. Deputy Navigator of the Navy at the time, Capt. Zdenka

Willis, said the use of the DNC was as revolutionary a

“going from sails to steam.”

The DNC also supports the electronic chart display systems of the

U.S. Coast Guard and other government vessels, and is offered to

the public for use by commercial vessels in U.S. waters

Through continuous updating of the DNC, NGA supports missio

planning, execution of military operations and safe navigation around 

the world on a daily basis. Above all, web-based access to maritime

safety information supports navigational safety for all mariners, 

whether government or civilian, whole fleet or individual craft.

Information for this article was also drawn from “A New Era 

Dawns for Maritime Navigation,” published in the May/June 

2005 issue of NGA Pathfinder.

Goin

How NGA chang

135-year-old nautical tra

By Howard Cohen, Maritime Safety Office
F

eatu

| Feature |

Pathfinder

It was January 1999. The Mars Polar Lander, 

of NASA’s small planetary explorer spacecraft

was programmed to enter the Martian atmosphere,

perform a soft landing and conduct a 90-day 

science mission about 800 kilometers from the 

planet’s south pole. The craft shot through space 

for nearly the whole year to reach its destination, 

entered the Martian atmosphere – and was never

heard from again.

Because theMPL did not have a teleme

transmission capability during atmospheric entry, 

no radio signals were sent back to Earth that

might have revealed to investigators what went 

wrong. NASA obtained overhead search imager

of the intended PL landing site from its M

Orbiter Camera system onboard the Mars Globa

Surveyor spacecraft, which had been orbiting the 

planet since 1997. The MOC system operator

and analysts at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory als

conducted imagery searches.

Then NIMA offered assistance. NIMA’s work

could support NASA’s efforts with unique imager

exploitation skills and techniques useful for 

locating and identifying small manmade objects in 

terrestrial imagery.

NASA provided its imagery to the team o

NIMA imagery scientists and imagery analyst

who began a detailed search of the primary 

landing area. The team ultimately identified three 

candidate sites that had pixel returns appearing to 

match the expected signatures of the lander and its 

associated landing hardware. 

The NIMA team employed a number of scientif

and analytic techniques to review the three sites. 

Methodologies included comparisons of imagery,

examination of signatures and pixel intensity 

values, analysis of surface impressions, and 

creation of simulated signatures and 3-D models.

The team used trace models to determine if the 

signatures observed in the images could have 

been created by the PL configurati

On the basis of its analysis, the NIMA t

concluded in 2001 that the second and most 

central of the three possible sites had characteristics 

that resembled the expected PL configuratio

sitting upright on the surface at the intended 

azimuth orientation angle, with its solar panels in 

the deployed position. The team believed the craft’s 

heat shield was most likely at the third location, and 

its backshell – similar to a parachute – was likely 

at the first site. Imagery signatures at the two outer

sites suggested the presence of protective hardware 

associated with atmospheric entry.

Unsolv

The NASA investigation board eventually conclude

that the PL likely crashed because its desce

rocket engine quit firing due to a software error, 

causing the craft to fall to the surface from a height 

equivalent to about 50 feet on Earth. The fallen

spacecraft has never been definitively located, 

however; the harsh conditions of the Mars polar

region have a tendency to erase normal crash site 

observations and make it difficult to accurately 

distinguish true signals among false noise signatures. 

While it remains unclear exactly what happened

to the PL in 1999, NASA deemed its orig

mission worthy of additional pursuit. In 2008 the

Phoenix lander arrived on Mars and complete

what the PL set out to do all those years befo

To learn the technical details of how NIMA helped 

NASA search for the MPL, read the original article, 

“An Imagery Search for NASA’s Missing Mars 

Polar Lander: Lost and Found?” as it was published 

in Geospatial Intelligence Review, December 

2002, available on the NGA website under the 

Pathfinder tab. Visit http://www.nga.mil

Thescien

NIMA experts analyze Mar

for lost spac

Adapted from a 2002 article by James Salacain and the late Ivar Svendsen 
INSIGHT

36|NGA.MIL 

April 3, 1996 should have marked the 

launch of a three-day U.S. Department 

of Commerce tour to help build trade 

and repair the economy in the wartorn expanses of the Balkans. Instead, 

the day ended in tragic loss of life and 

mission failure. 

The U.S. Air Force CT-43A, a 

modified Boeing 737, carrying 

the delegation on that rainy day 

veered off course while attempting 

to land in Dubrovnik, Croatia, 

and crashed into a neighboring 

mountain. The crash claimed the 

lives of all 35 passengers and crew 

on board, including U.S. Secretary 

of Commerce Ronald H. Brown.

The 76th Airlift Squadron had 

been tasked to provide mission and 

airlift support to Secretary Brown 

and his delegation. After close 

scrutiny and investigation, the U.S. 

Air Force Accident Review Board 

spotlighted the use of an improperly 

designed instrument approach 

procedure – IAP – as a key factor 

that led to the deadly terrain impact 

that occurred. A command-level 

decision to use the IAP without first 

validating it also contributed.

This tragedy shook the nation. It 

also sparked an institutional shift 

within Department of Defense policy 

and reinforced what would become 

the National Geospatial-Intelligence 

Agency aeronautical navigation 

office’s core mission – to ensure that 

only accurate and validated data is 

provided to military aircrews.

The DOD policy memos issued as 

a result of the 1996 mishap are still 

in effect today. To meet the DOD 

requirements, NGA aeronautical 

analysts validate aeronautical 

information and data from over 260 

military and civil source authorities 

worldwide. NGA provides updated 

information to DOD aircrews in a 

standardized format in more than 

1,536 publications every year. This 

data is available to NGA customers 

24/7 via legacy products, various 

NGA webpages and through 

mobile application technology. 

Why it matter

The Dubrovnik tragedy is an 

unfortunate example of why 

improper design of an IAP can 

lead to disaster. 

An IAP is a product containing 

strict guidelines for routing, 

altitude, obstacle clearance and set 

maneuvers needed to transition 

from the en-route airspace to 

the runway. When operating 

in adverse weather or limited 

visibility, an IAP is the aircrew’s 

only lifeline for a safe landing.

The Dubrovnik tragedy occurred 

six months prior to the standup 

of the National Imagery and 

Mapping Agency, which became 

NGA five years later. While NGA’s 

aeronautical navigation office is 

now the go-to source for validating 

worldwide aeronautical data, the 

Dubrovnik IAP was published 

by a commercial company who 

levied a product disclaimer on 

the customer, saying it “does not 

review or approve the adequacy, 

reliability, accuracy or safety of 

any procedure.” 

At the time of the crash, 

USAF policy required 

prior authorization to use 

nonvalidated IAPs to ensure 

safety of flight. Wing 

leaders disregarded 

that provision, 

however, and 

sanctioned 

use of 

Validation matters:

By Melanie Pittaluga, Aeronautical Navigation Office
| INSIGHT |

Pathfinder 2016

the commercial IAP, wrongly 

believing that the nonreviewed 

procedure was safe. 

Tragically, the approach 

procedure included a Minimum 

Altitude, a height intended to 

ensure obstacle and terrain 

clearance, which did not adhere 

to international safety standards. 

Coupled with an aircrew 

navigational error, the MDA was 

set below the summit of the 

mountain, which resulted in the 

fatal crash. Had this procedure 

been properly validated, as is done 

today by aeronautical navigation 

specialists at NGA, the error would 

have been caught and corrected, 

ultimately saving 35 lives. 

Direct to the cockp

The aviation industry has 

evolved over the past 20 years into 

a completely digital environment. 

NGA-validated aeronautical data 

is now ingested directly into flight 

management systems, where the 

data literally flies the aircraft. With 

this expanded reliance on NGA 

data, it should be apparent why 

the agency’s aeronautical analysts 

strive to ensure quality, timeliness 

and accuracy every day to provide 

the highest margin of safety for 

DOD aviators. By ensuring fully 

validated information and data, 

NGA’s aeronautical navigation office 

reduces both risk and workload on 

DOD aircrews and planners, thereby 

enabling combat power projection 

and increasing focus on warfighting 

mission success. 

An old aviation adage says, “Learn 

from the mistakes of others; you 

won’t live long enough to make them 

all yourself.” The 20th anniversary 

of the tragedy at Dubrovnik serves as 

a poignant reminder of the criticality 

of reliable, validated information 

and data in aeronautical safety of 

navigation then, now and well into 

aviation’s future.
INSIGHT

38|NGA.MIL 

understanding of the associated ethics 

and conflict-of-interest guidance, the 

program and mission requirements, 

and the processing of security 

clearances. And that is what eNGAge 

does; it assembles the organizational 

resources to meet those needs in a kind 

of one-stop shop.

Those hoping to join Team NGA are 

required to have a top secret security 

clearance with sensitive compartment 

information before their exchange can 

start. Those without a TS/SCI clearance 

will use Standard Form 86 for National 

Security Positions, available on the 

OPM.gov site, to begin the process in 

consultation with the NGA point of contact. 

All participants must be U.S. citizens. 

Agency candidates chosen to 

participate externally must be 

permanent NGA employees, with 

successful performance evaluations 

of record, and they must meet all 

requirements agreed to by NGA and the 

host academic institution or company 

regarding expertise and band levels. 

That doesn’t mean all employees 

won’t benefit from the eNGAge 

program. According to Ardrey, 

participating employees would return to 

the same positions they had prior to the 

exchange, but they would take on the 

additional role of 'eNGAge ambassador.’

“We hope the experience that 

employees bring back will be shared to 

enable others,” said Ardrey. 

In the ongoing relationship between 

the public and private sectors, a new 

program is working to bring together 

subject matter experts from both 

sides to share ideas, state-of-the-art 

information and best practices. 

Known as eNGAge, the professional 

exchange program facilitates the 

inflow of external talent to enhance 

organizational capabilities within 

the National Geospatial-Intelligence 

Agency and the outflow of NGA 

employees to experience firsthand how 

the private sector thinks and operates.

“As the GEOINT revolution unfolds, 

we see a daily proliferation of new 

commercial GEOINT technologies 

and data sources,” said NGA Director 

Robert Cardillo. “Our eNGAge 

program is a way for us to integrate our 

people with those new capabilities.”

Cardillo launched eNGAge at the 

GEOINT 2016 Symposium, where he 

knew that he’d be speaking in a targetrich environment during his keynote 

address. Seated in front of him were 

leaders of industry and academia -- the 

perfect candidates for NGA’s newest 

professional exchange program. 

“We’re looking for people who can 

help us enhance our perspectives 

and improve our problem-solving 

capabilities,” said Ellen Ardrey, director, 

NGA Human Development directorate. 

“We want to bring in people who can 

help us bridge the distance between 

what is happening in the commercial 

world and what is happening inside the 

intelligence community.” 

As for those within NGA who are 

looking for external opportunities, 

assignments can last anywhere from six 

months to a year or more. Team NGA’s 

SMEs can work externally in myriad 

areas, including research, information 

technology and even human resources. 

After the program’s launch at the 

GEOINT Symposium, NGA began 

implementing a full-scale informational 

campaign to solicit unique immersive 

experiences for NGA team members, 

as well as to welcome outside talent 

into the agency. Program managers 

are reaching out to industry and 

academia through social media, trade 

publications and word-of-mouth efforts 

by NGA leadership. In this inaugural 

year – May 2016 to May 2017 – the 

program hopes to boast at least 25 

enrollees, be they incoming, outgoing 

or some combination of both.

Right now eNGAge is targeting SMEs 

whose skill sets include commercial 

cloud services, mobility, cybersecurity, 

big data analytics, enterprise 

architecture and network services, 

among others. A full and evolving list 

can be found on the eNGAge website, 

accessed through NGA’s public site, 

http://www.nga.mil.

 “We will work wherever opportunity 

presents itself,” says Program Manager 

Elizabeth Hoag. “The goal of eNGAge 

is to create a truly collaborative 

GEOINT environment.... This is about 

collecting a broad scope of experiences.”

 Hoag stressed this is not a traditional 

one-for-one exchange, however; 

companies do not have to host an NGA 

employee in order to send someone to 

the agency, nor does NGA have to send 

someone out to get someone in. 

The new program leverages existing 

workplace interchange and development 

vehicles such as training with industry 

and intergovernmental personnel 

agreements, according to Hoag. 

“We wanted to expand what we are 

already doing to create a strong and 

sustainable exchange program 

that fosters partnerships and 

innovation with industry and 

academia," said Hoag.

That’s no easy task 

for an intelligence 

agency. Facilitating the 

geospatial exchange 

requires a thorough 

‘eNGAge’:

Matching people to learning experiences 

By Johanne Davis, Ctr., Human Development
| INSIGHT |

Pathfinder 2016

“I was especially proud when

I would travel and get the

feedback that  got. Everyon

loves NGA. Everyone love

what they are provided. 

Everyone loves the NGA etho

– the way all of the employees 

have that can-do attitude.”

“One accomplishment that I’m quit

proud of is the process we put into 

place to select our new campus in 

St. Louis – very deliberative, very

collaborative, very inclusive, in 

some cases a very difficult decision 

process that we went through 

. . .  could not be more proud

of how we accommodated all 

issues, all concerns – serious, open, 

transparent deliberation – and were 

able to come to a decision that will 

ground this agency and our future 

in St. Louis through the rest of the

century. We’re now at the exciting

part of actually designing a worldclass, interactive, collaborative, 

open campus that will serve today’s 

customers and tomorrow’s mission.”
Collaboration

40|NGA.MIL 

The legendary samurai Miyamoto 

Musashi inspired his fellow warriors 

by writing, ‘You can only fight the way 

you practice.’ Though written in 1645 in 

Japan, his words still echo throughout 

modern U.S. military strategy.

Like Musashi, U.S. and European 

warfighters understand that the first step 

toward operating effectively together 

on the battlefield is to train together 

using a standardized curriculum. Unlike 

the sword training of Musashi’s day, 

however, contemporary training is far 

from simple. For starters, it involves 

studying moving targets through video 

analysis. It also includes participants 

from many different nations and systems 

that aren’t always compatible.

The solution? Developing a standard 

curriculum that teaches Department of 

Defense and international analysts to 

systematically analyze collection and 

then develop and share intelligence 

products in support of common 

objectives, especially in global hot spots. 

The catch? Such standard 

curriculums do not currently exist 

within DOD or in Europe.

Mobile trainin

Responding to a SHAPE/J-3 training 

request, a mobile training team from 

the National Geospatial-Intelligence 

College – NGC – traveled to the Warrior 

Preparation Center in Einsiedlerhof, 

Germany, in spring 2016 to provide 

moving target indicator instruction to 

four separate European-based military 

organizations. MTI as a phenomenology 

is experiencing heightened growth in 

DOD and among international partners. 

Relative to other forms of geospatial 

intelligence, such as full-motion 

video, or FMV, current MTI training 

curriculums reflect greater degrees 

of commonality. As MTI platforms 

begin to proliferate, however, these 

commonalities have the potential to 

separate and diverge into the dissimilar 

forms of training that characterize FMV. 

The most negative outcome of such 

divergence is that training programs for 

specific services, collection platforms 

or organizations are not interoperable 

between joint or combined partners. 

Lack of standardization can hinder 

efforts to federate exploitation, which 

could led to enterprisewide inefficiencies. 

Another avoidable pitfall is the wasted 

expenditure of finite, valuable resources 

to arrive at an unfavorable outcome. 

The NGC Community GeospatialIntelligence Training Council, known 

as the CGTC, viewed the European 

training request as an opportunity 

to start identifying best practices 

and establishing a common MTI 

curriculum standard that can mitigate 

the emergence of redundant and 

stove-piped systems of training. 

Concurrent development of DOD MTI 

standards, alongside similar efforts 

with international partners, presents an 

opportunity to enhance interoperability, 

with the aim of achieving economies of 

scale where able.

The fact that the training in Germany 

was conducted on BICES, the secure 

information-sharing network America’s 

European partners routinely employ, 

added to the utility of the training.

Broader collaboratio

CGTC used the spring 2016 Motion 

GEOINT Community of Practice – MG 

CoP – gathering at NGA Campus East as 

an opportunity to reconstitute a working 

group of MTI subject matter experts to 

identify common MTI curriculum skills. 

Working with the Joint Staff, the CGTC 

issued a data call for MTI curriculums 

currently used by the services. These 

were analyzed for commonalities in 

training subjects and compared with a 

list of approximately 150 GEOINT skills 

applicable to MTI analysis, which the 

MG CoP had compiled in a similar effort 

circa 2011.

Multiservice subject matter experts 

from six organizations honed the original 

list to four general training categories, 

15 common topic areas and 60 specific 

MTI skills that can be used as learning 

objectives for a curriculum standard. This 

list is currently under consideration by 

the USDI chief learning officer as the 

DOD standard for a fundamental MTI 

curriculum.

The NGC mobile training team is 

also gathering input from NGA’s allied 

partners in Europe as it continues MTI 

instructional efforts overseas. Among 

eager collaborators is the NATO Alliance 

Ground Surveillance Program, which 

recently acquired the Block 40 Global 

Hawk and a stand-alone exploitation 

capability. These international partners 

will richly influence the development 

of DOD MTI instruction, as they will 

be positioned to return insights and 

experiences in global areas where the 

United States may not have access or a 

collection history. 

Collaboration with international 

partners also offers cost-effective 

opportunities to advance the MTI 

art. Lucrative technologies such as 

video game-based training are tailormade for this arena. To overcome the 

tyrannies of distance, time zones and 

scheduling, GBT can be made remotely 

accessible on demand via a portal or 

tablet. Training can also be configured so 

that international students can receive 

technical instruction in their native 

language or any other language of choice. 

Once finalized, the MTI curriculum 

standard and style guide will serve as 

both a library and a conduit, where 

lessons learned and best practices are 

accessible to all. Most importantly, a 

jointly developed standard is the first 

step toward ensuring that partners will 

fight like they train – together. 

On he

standardizing allied tar

By Lt. Col. Thomas A. Macias, National Geospatial-Intelligence College
Collaborati

| Collabor

Pathfinder

NGA’s support team at U.S. Pacific 

Command on Oahu, Hawaii, provides 

humanitarian assistance and disaster response 

training, or HADR, to international and local 

partners to prepare for natural disasters unique 

to their individual climates.

“Our goal for the training is two-fold,” 

said Adam Pittson, NGA Support Team 

PACOM HADR training lead. “We want 

to set a geospatial intelligence assessment 

standard for HADR operations, and we want 

to establish and maintain relationships with 

new and existing international partners.”

The one-week course uses commercial 

imagery and is targeted toward international 

partners, but it is also available to the 

Department of Defense and civilians. The 

course has had 43 students on site in 2016, 

but trainers have also taken the show on the 

road, offering two- to five-day courses in 

Mexico, Japan and Thailand. 

Since the first iteration of the course in 

2009, NGA has trained analysts from a 

variety of countries, mostly in the Pacific 

region. Among them have been Australia, 

New Zealand, Chile, Mexico, Germany, 

India, Malaysia, Thailand, Taiwan, 

Singapore, Japan and Korea. 

Experts are brought in from both military 

and civilian organizations to lead the classes. 

Staffers from the U.S. Navy’s Joint Typhoon 

Warning Center teach the class about storm 

events across the Pacific region. Personnel 

from the U.S. Geological Survey discuss 

volcanoes and earthquakes. Advisors from 

the National Weather Service’s Pacific 

Tsunami Warning Center cover earthquakes 

and tsunamis. Additional groups are 

brought in as needed to discuss relevant 

national disasters, depending on the 

trainees’ geographical location.

“The first part of the course is a lot of 

disaster anatomy,” said Pittson. “The 

HADR GEOINT mission is not your normal 

account, where you’re monitoring static 

target. Every disaster is different, and you 

have to understand how all these different 

disasters occur and how they impact 

different regions – which goes into your 

collection planning, and that feeds into your 

analysis and products.”

Following the disaster anatomy portion of 

the course, the discussion turns to how NGA 

and PACOM disseminate products. NGA 

and PACOM provide participants with All 

Partners Access Network, or APAN, accounts 

to allow them access to unclassified products 

when disaster strikes. 

“Learning more about HADR operations is 

what I liked most,” said U.S. Marine Corps 

Lance Cpl. Michael Harris, an intelligence 

analyst with the Marine III Intelligence 

battalion. “I found the briefings on damage 

classification and the different types of 

imagery and websites and tools for HADR 

operations beneficial.”

Pittson and team solicit feedback from 

each trainee and incorporate new, tailored 

information into every course.

“One of the biggest takeaways for the 

analysts is when we showcase and highlight 

all the open-source websites for disaster 

events,” said Pittson. “Highlighting a lot of 

these different websites is one of the biggest 

things people appreciate; they just weren’t 

aware that a lot of these were open source. 

Everyone can access them wherever they are.” 

To Pittson, working the training mission 

is about more than just serving the DOD or 

intelligence community.

“To me it’s about putting GEOINT into 

the hands of our international partners, and 

enabling them, so they can go back and use 

what we teach them,” said Pittson. 

The benefits don’t stop there. In addition 

to teaching analysts from a variety of 

partner countries to prepare for disasters 

and respond effectively, the training also 

aids the intelligence community and NGA 

to engage with nontraditional U.S. partners, 

according to Pittson.

“We’re building and maintaining 

relationships with our international 

partners, which usually leads to other 

avenues of engagement,” said Pittson. “It’s 

a foot in the door.” 

Quick response: Training facilita

builds international pa

By Sam Wilson, Office of Corporate Communications
Un

erstand t

e wo

d

42|NGA.MIL 
| Understand the

Pathfinder
Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant approximately 3 minutes af

an explosion at the No. 3 reactor building

Copyright 2016, DigitalGlob

Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant approximately 1 minute bef

an explosion at the No. 3 reactor building. 

Copyright 2016, DigitalGlob

Imager 

timelook at d

Pointing agility enabled commercial-imagery 

provider and NGA partner DigitalGlobe to 

capture these images of Fukushima Reactor 3 

immediately before and after its tragic explosion 

on March 14, 2011. WorldView-1 imaged the 

plant at a 34.5-degree, off-nadir angle one 

minute before the event. WorldView-2 shot the 

same scene four minutes later at a 32.7-degree, 

off-nadir angle.

The ability to access and disseminate accurate 

and near real-time overhead imagery speeds 

responses to emergencies whether natural or 

manmade. Such imagery is often the first look 

responders have of a damaged area, and the 

ability to quickly assess conditions supports 

both humanitarian assistance and disaster 

containment. The ease with which commercial 

data can be shared with international partners 

also contributes to the increased success of 

collaborative response efforts.

To learn more about how NGA supports 

humanitarian assistance and disaster response, 

visit http://www.nga.mil