Vol. 10 No. 3 May/June 2012
On My Mind:

Supporting the Warfighter

U.S. military partners depend on the National Geospatial-Intelligence 

Agency’s GEOINT products and services to help them carry out 

their mission set, including conducting counter-insurgency and 

counterterrorism operations in Afghanistan, fighting organized 

crime and the illegal narcotics trade in the Western Hemisphere, 

mounting post-conflict reconstruction efforts in Africa and delivering 

humanitarian assistance and disaster relief in the Pacific. The warfighter 

depends on us because we provide them with vital GEOINT when they 

need it, where they need it and how they need it.

Members of the NGA Volunteer Deployment Team, embedded with military commanders and 

operators around the world, provide GEOINT products, information and expertise in real time 

to soldiers on the ground and pilots in the air. Not only do NGA deployers supplement missions 

by providing access to imagery and geospatial holdings, but they also integrate that information 

with multi-intelligence analysis to create customized GEOINT products for target packages, 

route studies, force protection assessments and precision targeting. NGA ensures military units 

are equipped with the tools to better assist in humanitarian efforts, such as by providing critical 

infrastructure assessments. The support NGA provides runs deep. Experts from across the broad 

spectrum of GEOINT tradecrafts at our headquarters locations serve in a reachback capacity for 

our forward-deployed personnel, ultimately increasing GEOINT support to the military customer.

Just as NGA sends analysts and technical experts to military sites, including regional and 

functional combatant commands, the military services send their personnel to NGA. Some 

are assigned to the NGA College as instructors. Some come to the college as students, taking 

GEOINT tradecraft classes with their fellow service members and with NGA GEOINT and 

technical specialists. Others work at NGA locations as analysts alongside their NGA counterparts. 

The synergy that results from this kind of collaboration improves NGA’s ability to support the 

military because the soldier, sailor, airman or Marine sitting at the workstation next to an NGA 

analyst brings a real-world operational perspective to the analytical process. In fact, the service 

member could be working on a GEOINT product to support the very same mission he or she just 

supported during a deployment. 

In this issue of the Pathfinder, you will learn about some of the ways the agency supports the 21st 

century warfighter and how the NGA-military services collaboration enhances both of our abilities 

to more effectively meet the military’s GEOINT requirements and better harness the power of 

GEOINT for mission success.

As I have traveled to Iraq, Afghanistan, the combatant commands and other military sites, I have 

received one consistent message from our mission partners: keep on doing what you’re doing, 

and then do more. NGA’s GEOINT is making a mission-critical difference. That mission-critical 

difference is built on a foundation of close collaboration and mutual respect. NGA is honored to 

support the mission of the U.S. armed forces.

2Pathfinder » May/June 2012

ON MY MIND

Letitia A. Long

Director
3Pathfinder » May/June 2012

CONTENTS

2 On My Mind:

Supporting the Warfighter

» Features

4 Military Support Drives Value, Power of 

GEOINT Into Hands of Mission Partners

6 Experiments, Demonstrations Add 

Value to New, Emerging Capabilities

7 Military Gives Real-World Context to NGA 

Warfighter Support

8 Air Force GEOINT Office Promotes Next 

Generation Intelligence Collaboration

10 NSG Expeditionary Architecture 

Reshapes GEOINT

12 GEOINT a Pivotal Combat Multiplier

in Iraq

14 NGA’s Enduring Presence in Iraq

16 Service NGA Support Teams Serve 

the Line

19 USTRANSCOM Commander Visits NGA 

Campus West

19 AFRICOM Commander Visits NGA 

Campus East

20 Scene Visualization Advancements Great

Boon to Partners

22 InnoVision Rallies Mission Partners, 

Codifies Mobile Application Standards

» History

24 Cuban Missile Crisis Marked Coming 

of Age

26 DMA Retrospective: 40 Years Later

DIRECTOR

Letitia A. Long

DEPUTY DIRECTOR

Lloyd Rowland

OFFICE OF CORPORATE COMMUNICATIONS,

DIRECTOR

Sharon Flowers, Acting

EDITOR

Susan H. Meisner

GRAPHIC ARTIST

Maurice M. Smith

Published by the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency

Office of Corporate Communications

Telephone: (571) 557-5400

DSN 547-5400

E-mail: pathfinder@nga.mil

The Pathfinder is the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency publication 

that promotes awareness and understanding of geospatial intelligence. 

The Pathfinder is an authorized Department of Defense publication for 

members of the Department of Defense. Contents of this publication are 

not necessarily the official view of, or endorsed by, the U.S. government, 

Department of Defense or NGA. Articles in the Pathfinder may be 

reproduced in whole or in part without permission, unless stated otherwise. 

If reproduced, credit the author and the “National Geospatial-Intelligence 

Agency, the Pathfinder magazine.” Any reproduction of graphics, 

photographs and imagery is subject to the original copyright.

On the Cover: In Mirzaka, Afghanistan, Nov. 4, Army Sgt. Sean Haskins 

provides security. As a Department of Defense combat support and 

intelligence community agency, the National Geospatial-Intelligence 

Agency provides geospatial intelligence to the military worldwide, 

supporting both warfighter and civil affairs missions. DOD photo by Air 

Force Sgt. Barry Loo. Cover design by Maurice Smith. 

On the Back Cover: According to a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers 

Baltimore District website, Public Law 99-572 authorized the Korean War 

Veterans Memorial “...to honor members of the U.S. armed forces who 

served in the Korean War, particularly those who were killed in action, 

are still missing in action or were held as prisoners of war.” The site, 

dedicated in 1995, is adjacent to the Lincoln Memorial directly across 

the reflecting pool from the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, 

D.C. The memorial includes statues of 14 soldiers, three Marines, one 

sailor and one airman and a mural wall consisting of 41 panels with 

2,400 images of Army, Navy, Marine Corps, Air Force and Coast Guard 

personnel and their equipment. In NGA photographer Rob Cox’s photo 

the statues reflect in the black granite of the mural wall. Memorial Day, 

observed on May 28 this year, commemorates the men and women who 

died in military service. Back cover design by Maurice Smith.

7 20 2222
4Pathfinder » May/June 2012

MILITARY SUPPORT DRIVES VALUE

Military Support Drives Value, Power of GEOINT Into Hands of Mission Partners

By Navy Rear Adm. Tom Meek

I assumed my responsibilities as 

the Director of Military 

Support in July 2011. 

Reflecting on the past 

year, I continue to be 

impressed with NGA’s 

efforts to support, 

influence, guide and 

shape the geospatial 

intelligence functional 

area with the military 

services while we continue to provide 

world-class GEOINT support at home and 

in various theaters of operation. My goal is 

collaboration across the full spectrum of the 

National System for Geospatial Intelligence 

to optimize NGA’s role as a combat support 

agency and further drive the value and power 

of GEOINT into the hands of our mission 

partners. Accomplishment of this goal requires 

the strongest of commitments to foster 

partnerships and provide GEOINT support 

anytime and anywhere.

Through our engagement at the Pentagon with 

the Joint Requirements Operations Council 

and Defense Acquisition Board, along with our 

established partnership with NGA-assigned 

service GEOINT executives, NGA continues 

to shape and influence the military services 

to improve GEOINT capability and capacity. 

Our overall efforts help the services, their 

architectures, acquisition programs, doctrine, 

training and readiness operations evolve and 

converge with NGA’s vision.

Our service NGA support teams are critical 

points of intersection on matters of functional 

management. Our service support teams assist 

the service GEOINT executives with GEOINT 

policy guidance, requirements development 

and integration of GEOINT related activities 

and functions. We provide or coordinate 

various levels of reach-back support for our 

deployed mission partners. Service support 

team personnel equip soldiers, airmen, sailors 

and Marines with up-to-date information on 

how to access, use and disseminate missionspecific GEOINT. They constantly evolve to 

meet and exceed the expanding GEOINT needs 

of our supported services. This evolution of 

their mission has placed a new emphasis on the 

support teams as strategic components working 

on behalf of the entire agency. 

Events such as 9/11, Hurricane Katrina and 

the Missouri and Mississippi river floods 

ushered in a new era of military response. 

Our nation became more reliant on the 

The view from a Navy 

helicopter captured 

the devastation of 

Hurricane Ike to the 

Biloxi, Miss., coastline 

in September 2008. 

DOD photo

Navy Rear Adm. Tom Meek
Our operational experiences also provide 

critical and timely feedback to better 

understand the services’ current needs and 

emerging requirements. Our involvement with 

the joint requirements boards, joint lessons 

learned and joint exercise programs ensures 

that the most up-to-date GEOINT tactics, 

techniques and procedures are in the hands of 

the warfighter, and that tomorrow’s innovation 

and capabilities are built into future warfare 

systems. Through our experiments and 

demonstrations, we incorporate innovative 

technologies and methodologies into exercises, 

plans and training, enabling us to thoroughly 

evaluate their effectiveness before delivering 

them to the warfighter.

While dedicated to improving our current 

processes, we’ve incorporated a series of 

rigorous checkpoints — joint force readiness 

reviews; biannual combat support agency 

review teams; monthly mission readiness 

briefings; and other feedback and evaluations 

— to constantly assess and enhance the level 

and effectiveness of our support to the services 

and combatant commands. These report cards 

on combat support activity readiness provide 

vital partner input for NGA leadership to 

adjust and determine priorities to improve our 

collective combat readiness.

Our collective effort is breathing life into 

our new vision with increasing demand for 

GEOINT. It has shown NGA and its NSG 

partners the way ahead, changing the current 

business model to greatly enhance access to 

data, richer content and increased self-service 

and contributory operations. 

5Pathfinder » May/June 2012

MILITARY SUPPORT DRIVES VALUE

military element of national power for its 

rapid response and robust logistical support 

capabilities. As expeditionary operations 

at home and abroad increased, so did the 

need for real-time geographic information 

and intelligence. With its feet firmly planted 

in both the intelligence community and the 

Department of Defense, NGA was perfectly 

suited to respond. As these mission sets 

evolved, the level of GEOINT support 

increased to meet requirements.

Our expeditionary operations augment 

the full spectrum of hard and soft power 

with embedded analytical, logistical and 

digital infrastructure support for combat, 

counterterrorism, reconstruction and 

disaster relief operations around the globe. 

Through the agency’s cadre of more than 

1,000 volunteers, we deploy intelligence and 

geospatial analysts forward. Whether it’s a 

geospatial support team with Combined Joint 

Task Force–Horn of Africa; partnerships with 

Army civil affairs; or teams embedded with 

a brigade combat team in Afghanistan — we 

are positioned to deliver the best support 

possible with the shortest response time. 

NGA’s expeditionary support is on par with 

the domestic support services we provide. 

The agency supports the Federal Emergency 

Management Agency, U.S. Northern 

Command, Department of Homeland Security, 

Department of Justice and others through the 

deployment of the Domestic Mobile Integrated 

Geospatial-Intelligence System — NGA 

services and hardware on a mobile response 

vehicle — providing data directly to first 

responders and recovery experts.

Navy Petty Officer 1st 

Class Michauli Martin 

and Nigerian navy 

Capt. Adejimi Osinowo 

pass out bags of rice to 

Haitian civilians during 

Operation Unified 

Response relief efforts 

for the victims of the 

Haiti earthquake in 

2010.

DOD photo by Petty 

Officer 2nd Class Kelvin 

Edwards
Experimentation fuels the discovery and 

creation of knowledge that leads to the 

development and improvement of products, 

processes, systems and analytical methods. 

Anything available for use today arrived 

through a process of organized experimentation. 

Improved tools, new processes and alternative 

technologies are available because someone 

worked them out in varied, structured ways 

and then tested their effectiveness through 

experiments and demonstrations. 

The National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency’s 

Experiment and Demonstration program 

provides logistical support for NGA-specific, 

limited objective experiments that broaden the 

analytical knowledge and understanding of NGA 

scientists and program managers. 

In February, Geospatial Intelligence Advancement 

Testbed-Southwest personnel asked the program 

to facilitate an experiment utilizing manned and 

unmanned aerial vehicles. Logistical support 

included developing a statement of work and 

evaluation materials; acquiring platform support, 

scheduling range time, locations and access; and 

providing safety and security training. Testing 

confirmed that the GIAT-Southwest’s process was 

highly reliable in identifying key activities on the 

ground and the new process could be developed 

into new tactics, techniques and procedures for 

the warfighter. 

NGA’s program also facilitates the delivery of 

new and emerging GEOINT technologies directly 

to the warfighter; the goal is to resolve critical 

capability gaps. Each of the services and a number 

of government agencies provide venues that 

allow participants from across the Department 

of Defense to test and evaluate new technologies 

that address their specific needs. 

6Pathfinder » May/June 2012

EXPERIMENTS, DEMONSTRATIONS

NGA will be supporting the Trident Spectre 

E&D venue in the spring of 2012. Trident 

Spectre focuses on preparing the environment; 

intelligence surveillance and reconnaissance; 

special operations; and combat support. During 

this event, service personnel will take NGA’s 

handheld technologies out into the field to assess 

their mission capabilities and evaluate their 

effectiveness to work within the operational 

environment. Assessors will let NGA know how 

they think the technology needs to improve and 

if it fills a gap. If it does, NGA will work to make 

it immediately available to the services. 

Effectiveness of Demonstrations

Often a new capability is sent to the troops in 

theater, claiming it will do X, Y and Z. However, 

once the product is fielded, the troops realize 

it can do X and Y, but Z doesn’t work at all. As 

an example, the Army fielded the M4 carbine 

rifle for combat use in Afghanistan. The M4 has 

a reputation for lightness, customizability and, 

compared to its most frequent rival the AK-47, a 

reputation for accuracy. A December 2006 survey, 

which the Center for Naval Analyses Corporation 

conducted on behalf of the Army (Soldiers 

Perspectives on Small Arms in Combat, December 

2006), found that in combat use sand, dirt and 

powder residue clogged the M4 and prevented 

soldiers from firing. New capabilities must do 

exactly what we say they can do and be capable of 

performing in all types of environments.

Experiments and demonstrations have proven 

to be a low-cost way to root out incompatibilities 

and technical glitches before new capabilities 

reach the troops. Service and government agency 

events provide NGA the venue to determine if a 

particular innovation has military utility; generate 

ideas about the best way to deploy the innovation; 

and identify the conditions under which military 

members can use them effectively.

The added benefit of E&D venues is the ability 

to demonstrate these new technologies on nonoperational research and development networks 

without jeopardizing or impacting real-world 

ones. They allow for cross-domain solution testing 

across levels of classification. 

Experiments and demonstrations matter because 

they allow NGA to learn what works and what 

doesn’t work among new product, process, 

system and technology developments.

Experiments, Demonstrations Add Value to New, Emerging Capabilities

By David Barnes, Chief, Experiments and Demonstrations, Military Support Directorate 

NGA photo by 

Charles Wiggins 

Air Force Lt. Col 

Christopher Biegun, 

deputy chief, 

Experiments and 

Demonstrations 

Branch, and Scott 

Miller, Fort Huachuca, 

Ariz., range control 

manager, evaluate 

the range for 

an upcoming 

experiment. 
7Pathfinder » May/June 2012

MILITARY AT NGA

Compared to other combat support agencies, 

NGA has few assigned service members. 

Although Army, Navy, Air Force and Marine 

representatives work at NGA, they total 

only several hundred personnel, of which 

about half are officers and half enlisted. 

Reservists on full-time orders make up about 

one quarter, covering critical specialties or 

active-duty shortfalls. Compared to the entire 

NGA workforce of about 17,000, the military 

provides a small, but critical element — and 

a huge wealth of recent, relevant experience. 

Service members are assigned to most NGA 

directorates, with the majority working in 

the Analysis and Production Directorate as 

intelligence officers or analysts. Some work 

in the Human Development Directorate as 

instructors or staff officers with the NGA 

College’s Military Training Program, while 

others serve in the Source Operations and 

Management Directorate and Office of 

Contract Services.

Meek is NGA’s senior military member. While 

he is the only flag officer assigned to NGA, 

an additional senior officer serves as the 

military executive to the agency director and 

a senior noncommissioned officer serves as 

the agency’s senior enlisted advisor. 

Each service nominates qualified military 

members to fill NGA’s military billets. A 

small force means the need is always greater 

than the number of military members 

available. NGA’s Military Management 

Board, a sub-committee of NGA’s Human 

Capital Management Board, ensures the 

agency places and uses its military personnel 

in the most effective and efficient manner. 

NGA’s military personnel have experienced 

firsthand how critical GEOINT is and, upon 

return to their respective services, serve 

as important advocates of GEOINT and 

NGA — spreading the word on what NGA 

can contribute to the fight. This tie between 

the services and NGA continues to grow 

stronger and pay dividends as evidenced 

by the relevant and timely GEOINT support 

provided to the warfighter.

Military Gives Real-World Context to NGA Warfighter Support

By Chief, Military Force Management

Service members are assigned to the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency 

to ensure the agency meets the needs and 

requirements of the warfighter. They bring 

a sense of urgency and realism to NGA 

analysis. They translate why geospatial 

intelligence products and services are 

important and how they impact and aid the 

front line. 

“Our uniformed military service members 

are a small proportion of the overall NGA 

workforce,” said Rear Adm. Tom Meek, the 

director of Military Support and a member of 

NGA’s command element. “While limited in 

numbers, their impact at NGA is profound. 

Military personnel occupy key leadership 

positions, produce foundation and intelligence 

products and remind all of us that NGA is 

foremost a Department of Defense combat 

support agency. Support to the warfighters is a 

mindset and our military service members are 

visible reminders of that.”

Service members at NGA learn a lot about 

NGA’s mission, capabilities and future vision 

while NGA civilians gain insight, awareness 

and understanding of our service mission 

partners and their requirements. Service 

members provide the operational context for 

why customers need a particular product. 

The military analysts have the opportunity 

to enhance their tradecraft by working 

alongside experienced civilian analysts. This 

exchange of experience, knowledge and ideas 

is vital to the service and NGA and helps the 

agency realize its vision.

NGA photo by Larry Franklin

From left to right, David Lucio, Airman 1st Class Blake Jones and Navy 

Petty Officer 2nd Class Aaron McLaurin view a Wikimapia image.
8Pathfinder » May/June 2012

Modern warfare is tricky; countering a highly mobile and adaptive enemy takes 

a precise and fast response. Anything less could 

be deadly.

America’s warfighters face a rapidly evolving 

environment that requires geospatial intelligence 

products and services that meet these needs. 

A one-dimensional reconnaissance photo or a 

single hard-copy map of an enemy position is 

not enough. Air Force personnel learn through 

ongoing combat operations how to cooperate, 

share and fuse data to enable air superiority.

“One picture may be worth 1,000 words, but 

now we need to integrate multiple new sensor 

readings on top of the picture in near-real 

time,” said Maj. David Ziegler with the Air 

Force Geospatial-Intelligence Office. AFGO, a 

part of the Air Force Intelligence, Surveillance 

and Reconnaissance Agency, serves as the 

on-site Air Force liaison to the National 

Geospatial-Intelligence Agency and its many 

mission partners. 

The Air Force established AFGO in late 2009 to 

advance Air Force GEOINT and synchronize 

the Air Force GEOINT enterprise with the 

NGA strategic vision. AFGO works in concert 

AIR FORCE GEOINT

Air Force GEOINT Office Promotes Next Generation Intelligence Collaboration

By Kathi Ghannam, Contractor, Office of Corporate Communications

with the Air Force deputy chief of staff for 

intelligence and Air Force ISR Agency to 

achieve greater integration within the Air Force.

“One of AFGO’s goals is to realize the next 

generation of GEOINT in consideration of 

U.S. Air Force requirements and needs,” said 

Dr. Eileen Preisser, AFGO director. “NGA and 

the Air Force have common GEOINT aims; 

we are essentially moving in parallel.” AFGO 

is reducing costs by avoiding duplication of 

effort between NGA and the Air Force by 

blending efforts where possible and forming 

stronger partnerships, said Preisser. “To this 

end we want to bring Air Force expertise 

and capabilities to the table to advance the 

community’s vision and effectiveness.

“We are in a global environment — e-based, 

digital demand — with less reaction time and 

more challenges,” said Preisser. “We must 

combine fused intelligence into a timeline so 

military planners and operators can clearly 

understand the ‘so what’ and the ‘what’s next’ 

of the problem set.”

To achieve efficiencies, Preisser’s staff of experts 

is facilitating cooperation between the Air Force 

and NGA on NGA strategic initiatives. 

Ron Deagle (left) 

and Rod Blazvick 

prepare to load 

an optical bar 

camera into a U-2 

high-altitude, 

all-weather 

surveillance and 

reconnaissance 

aircraft March 

13, 2011, at 

Osan Air Base, 

South Korea. The 

U-2 was being 

prepared for a 

humanitarian 

mission to 

capture 

imagery of the 

earthquake- and 

tsunami-affected 

areas of Japan. 

U.S. Air Force 

photo by Senior 

Master Sgt. Paul 

Holcomb
the Distributed Common Ground System. 

Air Force DCGS is the service’s globally 

networked ISR weapon system; it produces 

intelligence information collected from 

unmanned aerial vehicles. 

“We require our AFISRA airmen to have all 

the tools and techniques available to the 

entire intelligence community,” said Preisser. 

“The results from several trips from NGA 

to Air Force sites to deepen the analysts’ 

tradecraft have already made a noticeable 

difference. The support NGA has provided 

through the director of military support 

and Mr. Orrin Mills (director of Military 

Readiness) has been stellar.”

“NGA and the AFGO share a common mission; 

we both want to make sure the Air Force has 

the GEOINT it needs,” said Mills. “We are so 

much stronger when we work together, share 

ideas and resources than if we work as separate 

entities. I believe this relationship is a best 

practice and will only get better as we expand 

the mutual support we provide to each other.”

Another goal for AFGO is engagement with 

international partners, said Presser. 

“In lean economies with restricted resources, 

partnerships become essential to success in 

military operations,” said Preisser. “Limiting 

our use of systems to U.S.-only strategies is no 

longer the best option.” 

The Air Force Eagle Vision commercial imaging 

dissemination program is an example of how 

the Air Force is bringing enhanced capabilities to 

the National System for Geospatial Intelligence 

using the Air Force’s relationships with industry 

and international partners. Eagle Vision allows 

international partners to look at data in a 

common operating picture during a combined 

offensive. This strategic cooperation has been a 

force multiplier for the U.S. during major crises 

and recent overseas coalition operations. 

“Air Force is here,” said Preisser. “We want to 

help. Tell us where we can plug in. Ultimately, 

by leveraging Air Force and NGA strengths 

and using a one-team leadership philosophy, 

we will exercise a sense of jointness from 

within our ranks that will save time, money 

and most importantly, lives.”

9Pathfinder » May/June 2012

AIR FORCE GEOINT

“The NGA initiatives are producing tools 

and apps which will contribute to the next 

generation of storing, tagging and fusing 

GEOINT information,” said Preisser. “The Air 

Force GEOINT Office is participating in all 

initiatives closely. Together we have gained a 

lot of traction in full-spectrum analysis, open IT 

(information technology) and cloud computing 

work, self-service Web interfaces, data 

architecture security and management for units 

forward, and GEOINT acquisition alignment 

opportunities between the Air Force and NGA.”

AFGO spent significant time during 2011 

working with NGA on GEOINT acquisition 

synchronization efforts. 

“The Air Force is hosting NGA visits to 

demonstrate how our innovation comes from 

involving users as well as the traditional 

developers at Air Force research facilities,” said 

Preisser. “Efforts at the National Air and Space 

Intelligence Center are a great example of how 

the Air Force is using fused GEOINT from 

multiple platforms, advanced storage solutions 

and user-generated apps and algorithms to 

answer complex questions quickly for operators 

in the air.” 

Training and certification excellence in GEOINT 

is another goal for the Air Force ISR Agency 

and Air Force GEOINT Office, said Preisser. 

“The 2011 accredited Geospatial Intelligence 

Certificate Program at the U.S. Air Force 

Academy represents growth for the discipline,” 

said Preisser. “Air Force Institute of Technology 

also offers a 10-week advance certification 

course that we opened up to NGA employees. 

“Our efforts in accreditation and certification affirm 

Air Force commitment to the growing importance 

of GEOINT for protecting our national interests,” 

said Preisser. We seek to expand certification into 

our professional ranks in cooperation with the 

NGA College and our own Air Force intelligence 

schools. Geospatial intelligence certificate 

programs will assure Air Force professionals are 

trained to a common standard.”

For on-the-job training, Preisser wants to 

continue partnering with NGA to introduce 

advanced agency tradecraft practices into 

the Air Force’s forward-deployed arenas via 
10Pathfinder » May/June 2012

NEA RESHAPES GEOINT

The rapid explosion of new intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance collection 

capabilities in the last four years has reshaped 

the geospatial-intelligence expectations of 

decision makers, combatant commanders and 

warfighters. Intelligence leaders often call 

this rapid growth of new GEOINT collection 

capabilities a data tsunami. However, unlike a 

tsunami that eventually recedes, there appears 

to be no abatement of appetite in sight for 

these new geospatial capabilities. Challenging 

the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency’s 

existing environment, users expect and demand 

GEOINT data and services to be available ondemand anytime, anywhere.

To address these needs, former NGA Director 

Navy Vice Adm. Robert B. Murrett stood up 

the National System for Geospatial Intelligence 

Expeditionary Architecture Integrated Program 

Office in 2009. He chartered NEA to engineer, 

develop, deploy and sustain GEOINT core 

services for U.S. military, coalition and civilian 

expeditionary and crisis operations. As 

NGA adapted, he directed NEA to broaden 

warfighter access to national intelligence while 

improving the unity of effort between NSG 

community members and increasing GEOINT 

operational effectiveness. 

“Our current model has served us well, but has 

become less agile,” said current NGA Director 

Letitia A. Long in a recent employee forum. 

“Increasingly, we have had to bolt on new 

processes and new structures to do new things. 

Today’s pace is very fast, today’s users —

warfighters, policymakers, first responders and 

intelligence community colleagues — demand 

access to our content and capabilities in ways 

that our existing architecture cannot efficiently 

deliver. We must adapt.”

Focused on improving unity of effort, NEA 

acknowledges that all geospatial data is 

multipurpose. An intelligence agency may 

collect an image over a region of interest to 

meet an immediate need — known as a timedominant information requirement — but other 

organizations may repurpose the image to create 

planning products, generate gridded reference 

NSG Expeditionary Architecture Reshapes GEOINT

By Keith L. Barber, Director, National System for Geospatial Intelligence Expeditionary Architecture Integrated Program Office 

U.S. Sgt. Maj. of 

the Army Ray 

Chandler and 

International 

Security 

Assistance 

Force U.S. Army 

Command Sgt. 

Maj. Thomas 

Capel depart 

from Combat 

Outpost Bari Alai 

on a UH-60 Black 

Hawk helicopter 

near Jalalabad, 

Afghanistan, 

April 3, after 

an awards 

ceremony. The 

National System 

for Geospatial 

Intelligence 

Expeditionary 

Architecture 

Integrated 

Program Office 

supports 

expeditionary 

and crisis 

operations 

around the world.

DOD photo 

by Army Sgt. 

Christopher 

Harper
11Pathfinder » May/June 2012

NEA RESHAPES GEOINT

GEOINT operations, while driving improved 

efficiencies at a lower cost.

NGA and the intelligence community are fostering 

the development of capabilities to assist analysts 

in assessing information, such as activity-based 

intelligence initiatives. ABI is a defined discipline 

of intelligence where the analyst and subsequent 

collection focus on the activity (such as passengers 

exiting a vehicle) and transactions (such as a funds 

transfer) associated with an entity, population 

or area of interest. ABI is interdisciplinary by 

nature, leveraging all the disciplines to produce 

intelligence based on human activity or behavior 

in an environment of interest to the customer. 

Analysts can divide it into categories including 

who they know; who they are; what they do; 

and meta-knowledge such as human terrain and 

social/economic aspects.

NEA delivers and gets results. Within a few 

weeks of standing up a special GEOINT cell in 

Afghanistan under the auspices of an information 

sharing initiative, NGA and coalition analysts 

provided time-sensitive products to special 

operations forces, enabling them to target a key 

improvised explosive device facilitation network 

and capture key members of the cell.

Ever present is the user focus: analysts, warfighters 

and first responders, as well as policy and decision 

makers. Traditionally, the government has strictly 

adhered to its requirements when investing money 

in technology. NEA, however, encourages a more 

flexible and adaptable working environment, 

using NGA’s capabilities to rapidly transition to 

a new user and analytic environment. The idea 

that a cloud-computing environment that enables 

users to access data on the network regardless of 

location can support rapid delivery of capabilities 

and access to data for multiple types of users in an 

affordable manner is not only feasible, it is a reality. 

NEA has made great strides in the last four years 

in bridging the divide between the continental 

U.S. and deployed locations. As NEA continues to 

focus on where it is going, it is equally important 

that NEA continue to anticipate what need is 

coming next. 

graphics for artillery operation and target materials 

for weapons employment. NEA seeks to enable 

broader access and sharing of all GEOINT from 

tactical to national. To accomplish this goal, NEA 

developed both reach-in and reach-back access to 

content and services. 

NEA operates under the principle of “leave data at 

rest.” Simply put, enable user reach-in access and 

discovery capabilities to all GEOINT resources, 

on-site/on-demand processing, and allow rapid 

retrieval of the results. This approach allows for 

greater efficiencies in NGA’s communications and 

infrastructure while ensuring on-demand access 

to all GEOINT holdings from a forward operating 

base to national level agencies around the globe. 

Challenging this concept are the newer intelligence, 

surveillance and reconnaissance quick-reaction 

capabilities the services recently fielded.

To meet warfighters’ critical needs, agencies 

often accelerated acquisition of new imaging 

capabilities faster than their ability to absorb 

them within existing architecture or ensure wide 

user access. To improve access to quick-reaction 

capability sensor data for warfighters and 

partners, the Department of Defense’s Intelligence, 

Surveillance and Reconnaissance Task Force asked 

NEA to develop and engineer solutions to expand 

access to data. 

In addition to GEOINT capability growth, NGA is 

also witnessing significant changes in how people 

access and use data and collaborate. The on-going 

revolution of commercial smart phones, tablets 

and associated multimedia applications drive 

the expectations of the NGA user community as 

well. Collaborative applications present content 

seamlessly while connecting the dots and creating 

associations. Under NEA, a GEOINT storefront 

will ensure seamless access, discovery, processing 

and delivery of critical information globally. 

With one of its newest initiatives, NEA delivered 

a data collaboration and processing center to 

warfighters. This collaborative environment 

increased NGA’s ability to move the right data to 

the right people vice people to the raw data, or 

raw data to people at great expense to operations 

and resources. In turn, the data center enhanced 

the NSG communities’ ability to test and evaluate 

new concepts of operations and tactics, techniques 

and procedures critical for improvements to 
One of them is Army Col. Jerry Blixt, the deputy 

director of the Source Operations Group (S3). 

When Blixt arrived in Baghdad as the country 

lead in February 2007, he saw potential for 

providing even more GEOINT, he said. 

“What were the requests for the combat 

commanders? How do we get [military 

commanders] convinced that they need 

NGA support inside of their command 

headquarters?” Blixt asked. 

Late on a Sunday evening in his office, with the 

sounds of rockets and mortars in the distance, 

Blixt scribbled the phrase “GEOINT Support 

Teams” (GSTs) on a small piece of paper. He 

had his answer.

Blixt saw GEOINT as a pivotal combat 

multiplier, delivering accurate information and 

enabling more informed decisions, he said. 

The result was a lot of historical firsts for 

NGA, said Blixt. Among them was a better 

relationship with host country personnel.

“I saw the Iraqis really open up and trust us,” 

said Rob Alberts, the current branch chief of 

the NGA Combat Operations Support Team 

12Pathfinder » May/June 2012

GEOINT A PIVOTAL COMBAT MULTIPLIER

Director General 

Sherdil Al-Hawzei 

accepts a thank 

you letter from 

Dave Briggs at 

the U.S. Embassy 

in July, on behalf 

of NGA Director 

Letitia A. Long, 

for Al-Hawzei’s 

hospitality during 

her visit and for 

the continued 

NGA partnership. 

NGA photo

“We, the military, could not have successfully 

accomplished our mission in Iraq without the 

widespread support from our government 

agencies and our allies across the world,” said 

Vice Chief of Staff of the Army Gen. Lloyd 

J. Austin III at an Iraq Mission Celebration 

Ceremony April 12 at the National GeospatialIntelligence Agency. 

“It was a total team effort and a significant 

amount of credit belongs to you, NGA,” added 

Austin in his keynote address.

The joint NGA East and West ceremony, hosted 

by NGA Director Letitia A. Long, honored Iraq 

deployers, support staff and family members.

In October President Obama announced 

that the U.S. military mission in Iraq would 

conclude in 2011. Nearly nine years after it 

started, the president asked Americans to reflect 

on all America had been through in this war. 

In keeping with that request, NGA also 

reflected on the critical role it played over those 

years. Since the war began, approximately 

1,400 NGA personnel, including government 

civilians, contractors and military members, 

have deployed across Iraq. 

GEOINT a Pivotal Combat Multiplier in Iraq

By Scott Sadler, Contractor, Office of Corporate Communications and OCC Staff
computers worked to support NGA’s customers 

— a critical role because decision makers 

couldn’t get products if the systems went 

down, said Bradley, now a staff officer in the 

Information Technology Services Directorate. 

“It’s gratifying to hear the soldiers actually doing 

the patrols or convoys tell how important the 

products were to their mission,” said Bradley.

As operations in Iraq wind down and the U.S. 

State Department takes on more of a supporting 

role, the roles of future NGA deployers will 

need to broaden, said Dave Briggs, who was on 

his second deployment as NGA country lead 

in Iraq for supporting the U.S. military. He left 

Iraq in November.

NGA personnel will continue to support 

intelligence community partners throughout 

the country, said Briggs. They will also continue 

to be an interface with the Iraqi Imagery and 

Mapping Directorate. 

The agency’s relationship with the Iraqis will 

also have to evolve, said Bill Harmon, deputy 

director of Expeditionary Operations at NGA.

“Do they want us there as advisers to their 

military or in another capacity?” asked Harmon. 

“It’s the Iraqis’ country. We tend to forget that 

when we’ve been in the thick of the conflict.”

Regardless of the future role NGA deployers 

will play in Iraq, the agency’s reputation 

catapulted as a result of the work already done 

there, said Blixt. 

“When people see GSTs today, they know it’s 

NGA, and they expect a professional product 

that’s going to support the mission,” said Blixt. 

“When I look at the result, I think we did well.”

13Pathfinder » May/June 2012

GEOINT A PIVOTAL COMBAT MULTIPLIER

(COST), who served there 27 nonconsecutive 

months from September 2007 to August. For 

seven of those months, he was the site lead 

of the NGA team embedded with the 10th 

Mountain Division. 

NGA and the Iraqi Ministry of Defense signed 

a memorandum of understanding in April 2010 

that created a partnership to share unclassified 

GEOINT data. 

“This was the first time an intelligence 

organization had a formal relationship with the 

Iraqis,” said Alberts.

NGA helped the Iraqi Security Forces develop 

a GEOINT-based targeting process, said 

Alberts. This allowed the Iraqis to use it to 

target insurgent forces attacking Americans and 

Iraqis. The agency also helped create the Iraqi 

Imagery and Mapping Directorate. 

Alberts takes pride in the work he performed 

with his Iraqi partners.

“When else are you going to get this 

opportunity in your life to actually go in and 

build another nation’s intelligence service?” 

he asked. “[The Iraqi people] place a lot of 

value on friendship and honor, and the NGA 

relationship is huge to them.” 

NGA also installed its own satellite 

communication system in 2004, said Austin 

Bradley, who deployed from 2005-6, sometimes 

flying into the International Zone to get 

computers up and running for NGA analysts 

supporting the U.S. military and the U.S. 

Department of State. 

His job, as the lead IT support contractor on 

Camp Victory in Baghdad, was to ensure all 

Cpl. Thomas Human with Company 

K, 3rd Battalion, 8th Marine Regiment 

(Reinforced), mans an overwatch 

position during a patrol with Afghan 

national police through a local bazaar 

in Farah province, Afghanistan, 

Jan. 24. 3/8 is the ground combat 

element of Special Purpose Marine 

Air Ground Task Force - Afghanistan. 

By partnering with Afghan security 

forces, SPMAGTF-A strengthens the 

ability of the government of the 

Afghanistan to protect its people.

DOD Photo by Cpl. Pete Thibodeau
14Pathfinder » May/June 2012

NGA’S ENDURING PRESENCE IN IRAQ

The National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency keeps an eye on the world ... literally. 

Turning its all-seeing eye onto Iraq in 2003, 

NGA quickly responded to the needs of the 

warfighter and provided optimal geospatial 

intelligence support for nearly nine years. 

Operations Iraqi Freedom and New Dawn 

are examples of some of the agency’s greatest 

successes. NGA evolved from a reactive to 

a proactive model of providing GEOINT, 

improved systems and technology, and 

strengthened relationships with NGA’s 

international counterparts — all of which 

contribute to NGA’s enduring presence in Iraq. 

Dec. 15 marked the end of NGA’s embedded 

warfighter support in Iraq. Amidst the 

celebration of returning troops and personnel, a 

big question remained: what would NGA’s role 

be after the drawdown? 

Know the Earth...

As one of the first agencies into Iraq, NGA 

navigated through Iraq’s harsh and unknown 

terrain alongside the 3rd Infantry Division. 

With the mobile integrated geospatial 

intelligence system, or MIGS — a selfsustaining suite of GEOINT equipment, 

life support and transportation — analysts 

supplied the 3rd ID with real-time, actionable 

GEOINT as they moved from Kuwait into 

Baghdad. NGA demonstrated how the right 

combination of personnel, GEOINT expertise 

and technological systems could provide 

military commands with unprecedented, 

tactical level support. NGA’s ability to “know 

NGA’s Enduring Presence in Iraq 

By Sammie Jackson, Director of the Expeditionary Operations Office

the Earth” enabled commands to better 

visualize the battlefield and make decisions 

concerning force protection, battle cadence 

and targeting. 

In January 2007, the Combat Operations 

Support Team formed in response to the 

increasing number of GEOINT requirements 

supporting the surge force of 20,000. The NGA 

footprint in Iraq increased from 20 to 100 

personnel. In all, these military operations and 

humanitarian efforts resulted in the largest 

overseas deployment of NGA personnel ever, 

comprising a total of approximately 1,400 

volunteers from 2003-2011, with 306 of them 

deploying to Iraq more than once. 

Todd Ebron, a four-time NGA deployer said, 

“The troop surge was the watershed event 

of our efforts in Iraq because that is when 

NGA started dedicating serious resources — 

people, money and infrastructure — to the 

expeditionary mission.” 

Show the Way...

NGA deployers were initially responsible for 

filling requests for paper maps and tasked 

to produce customized products for military 

operations. Analysts used baseline imagery 

and basic geospatial coverage garnered from 

a continental U.S.-based repository that had 

limited accessibility from Iraq. As GEOINT 

mission support requirements evolved and 

increased, NGA deployed additional imagery 

and geospatial analysts to answer the call. To 

better anticipate customer needs, these analysts 

expanded their scope of work to include 

attendance at shift change and production 

meetings, as well as commander’s daily 

updates and other forums. Having a seat at 

the table allowed NGA deployers to “show 

the way” to their mission partners, educating 

them on how GEOINT and multi-intelligence 

analyses could help them identify and fulfill 

gaps in operational planning. 

“We spent a lot of time educating mission 

partners on the added value of our tradecraft 

because NGA was a relatively new agency and 

GEOINT was not in their lexicon,” said Ebron. 

In time NGA’s expeditionary architecture 

matured into a more comprehensive core 

services suite that included resources for 

analysts in theater such as GEOINT products, 

NGA contractor Keith O’Neill pauses while packing up NGA systems 

for the convoy with V Corps, Camp Virginia, Kuwait, into Baghdad, Iraq, 

soon after the 2003 invasion.

NGA photo 
15Pathfinder » May/June 2012

NGA’S ENDURING PRESENCE IN IRAQ

visualization and communications tools, sameday imagery capabilities and a complete video 

and image library. 

“The approach of pushing data to theater and 

our commitment to showing mission partners 

how GEOINT analysis is integral to operations 

was the biggest, most significant change to how 

NGA does business,” said Ebron. 

Mission partners relied on embedded analysts 

to not only deliver intelligence products but 

also to improve processes and refine their 

tradecraft to bring better and more accurate 

geodata, said Dave Briggs, the last NGA 

country lead in Iraq. “Putting our people to 

work down to the brigade level and sitting 

side-by-side with our mission partners was a 

big win from a combat support perspective.” 

Understand the World

Educating mission partners on the power of 

GEOINT laid the groundwork for what NGA 

hopes to maintain long after the drawdown: 

a lasting ally in Iraq. After establishing the 

GEOINT Support Team-32 at the Multinational 

Security Transition Command-Iraq, NGA 

began a mentoring relationship with the 

GEOINT section of Iraq’s Directorate General of 

Intelligence and Security.

“NGA was proactive in understanding Iraq’s 

needs and provided the tradecraft training 

and unclassified GEOINT data to answer 

those needs,” said Ebron. “Our work was 

recognized as some of the most successful 

amongst IC (intelligence community) agencies 

partnered with the Iraqis. This trust grew into a 

partnership that ultimately led to the formation 

of a sophisticated imagery and geospatial 

capability to support the government of Iraq.”

This capability is known as Iraq’s Imagery and 

Mapping Directorate (IMD). For almost five 

years, NGA provided the directorate with two 

analysts and one linguist for daily GEOINT 

training, mentoring and support.

Enduring Presence: Looking to the Future

In accordance with the status of forces 

agreement with Iraq, the drawdown of troops 

and personnel began during the latter part of 

2011. Several months prior to the final exit in 

December, NGA worked to ensure a successful 

drawdown and transitioned GEOINT 

responsibilities to the Iraqi government. 

As NGA withdrew the bulk of its personnel, 

Iraq retained some NGA support. The 

agency maintains an enduring presence of 

four personnel stationed in Baghdad who 

support the U.S. Embassy-Iraq. They serve the 

Department of State regional security officer 

as well as the Office of Security CooperationIraq. They additionally liaise with Iraq’s 

mapping directorate on behalf of NGA’s Office 

of International Affairs as the relationship 

transitions to a more traditional form.

Military 

and civilian 

personnel board 

a helicopter at 

Camp Liberty in 

Baghdad, Iraq, in 

2007.

NGA photo by 

Todd Ebron
16Pathfinder » May/June 2012

SERVICE NSTS SERVE THE LINE

The military service National GeospatialIntelligence Agency support teams — or 

service NSTs — deliver geospatial intelligence 

support to Army, Navy, Air Force and Marine 

Corps forces in the continental United States and 

at deployed locations. They provide National 

System for Geospatial Intelligence functional 

management support to include training 

and mission-tailored GEOINT production 

support services, and they assist with software 

implementation and policy guidance associated 

with GEOINT operations. A key role of the 

service NSTs is to assist their partners with 

transitioning from a full-service GEOINT 

support model to one more focused on assisted 

and self service — in alignment with NGA’s 

vision. While there are common elements to the 

NSTs’ missions, each tailors its support to the 

individual needs of its supported service.

U. S. Army Support

In Chief of Staff of the Army Gen. Raymond 

T. Odierno’s recently published vision for the 

future Army force, he reflected on the hardwon lessons of the past while highlighting the 

required characteristics to remain “America’s 

force of decisive action.” The characteristics 

of depth and versatility; adaptability and 

innovativeness; flexibility and agility; integrated 

and synchronized operations; and lethality that 

is discriminate mesh well with NGA’s — and the 

Army NST’s — vision for the future.

The Army team is a diverse group of military 

and civilian personnel embedded with units on 

installations across the continental United States. 

The external members serve as representatives 

to NGA’s Army mission partners and assist 

the team chief in fulfilling his role as the 

NGA director’s delegated GEOINT functional 

manager to the Army. The NST’s support 

model centers on assisted GEOINT service to 

all continental U.S. Army corps and division 

headquarters, as well as major Army GEOINT 

training sites. The team’s current focus is on 

the Army’s deployment preparations, with the 

Service NGA Support Teams Serve the Line

By the Service NGA Support Team Chiefs, Military Support Directorate

Marine Corps 

Staff Sgt. 

Kevin O’Kane, 

left, and NGA 

analyst Kimberly 

Pashby, work 

together on 

quality control 

of one sector 

of compound 

maps of 

Afghanistan.

Marine Corps 

Intelligence 

Activity photo 

by Brandon 

Briley
17Pathfinder » May/June 2012

SERVICE NSTS SERVE THE LINE

largest interaction occurring during the ready 

stage as a unit begins it deployment training in 

earnest. NGA personnel at corps and division 

sites provide mentoring, technical assistance and, 

if needed, production support. 

As Army corps and divisions deploy, NGA 

supporting analysts and staff officers deploy 

with them. Since 2009 the Army NST has 

deployed with all three corps and seven of eight 

division headquarters to ensure requested NGA 

continuity for deployed Army forces within 

their theater of operations. In addition to this 

expeditionary support model, the team has a 

range of responsibilities to execute functional 

management guidance for the NGA director. The 

team fulfills these responsibilities in collaboration 

with the Army’s GEOINT Office at NGA 

headquarters. Responsibilities include assessing 

NGA’s ability to support the Army via the 

mission readiness brief process and collaborating 

on GEOINT policy and guidance. 

Keeping GEOINT capabilities current and 

assimilated into all decision making processes is 

vital to the Army. As the nation transitions out 

of Iraq and Afghanistan, the purpose of the U.S. 

Army remains to decisively fight and win wars. 

GEOINT is a key component of ensuring the 

future Army remains ready and the Army NST 

delivers it. 

U.S. Navy Support

The Navy NST team located at NGA 

headquarters in Springfield, Va., advocates for 

NSG requirements through direct interaction 

and collaboration with the Navy Geospatial 

Intelligence Office in Washington, D.C.

The Navy relies on NGA services and support to 

safely navigate on the land, above and below the 

sea and in the air. The Navy primarily focuses its 

production concerns on NGA’s support to safety 

of navigation as the service continues its transition 

to electronic navigation.

Emerging Navy combat systems such as the 

littoral combat ship and future generation CVN 21 

aircraft carrier will require new technical solutions 

to collect, process and disseminate critical 

GEOINT data and products to better support 

navigation, precision strike, maritime domain 

awareness and other warfighter missions.

The Navy NST works closely with the Navy 

to identify and understand its GEOINT data 

requirements and needs and help facilitate 

integration of Navy GEOINT-related activities and 

functions across the NSG. 

Fleet GEOINT Support

The Navy NST implements fleet support through 

its Fleet Support Branch. Branch members serve 

at U.S. Fleet Forces Command and the Naval 

Expeditionary Combat Command in Norfolk, Va.; 

at Third Fleet and the Fleet Intelligence Training 

Center in San Diego, Calif., and at the Naval Strike 

Air Warfare Center in Fallon, Nev.

The Fleet Support Branch provides timely predeployment training as well as GEOINT products 

and services in support of maritime domain 

awareness and crisis management. Training is 

provided at shore training facilities or shipboard, 

either pierside or while under way, at the time 

and place the fleet customer requests. Within the 

maritime operations centers at fleet headquarters, 

Navy NST representatives demonstrate to fleet 

leadership the value GEOINT adds to domain 

awareness and provide daily geospatial data 

access and maritime analysis training and 

assistance to fleet maritime watchstanders.

Support to Navy Combat Systems Development

The Navy NST has a representative at the Naval 

Air Systems Command in Patuxent River, Md. 

The NAVAIR representative works with program 

managers, systems engineers and working groups 

to ensure optimal GEOINT support to naval air 

weapons development.

U.S. Air Force Support

Despite its small footprint, the U.S. Air Force 

NST provides an outsized service. With members 

strategically located at Langley Air Force Base, 

Va; Lackland Air Force Base, Texas; Nellis 

Air Force Base, Nev., and NGA Campus East, 

Springfield, Va., team members support the U.S. 

Air Force in its Title 10 mission to organize, train 

and equip combat ready air forces. The team’s 

embedded subject matter experts serve as the 

mission partner’s conduit to NGA. Working 

primarily through the assisted-service model, 

the team mentors and educates airmen on NGA 

data, services and products to enable airmen to 

discover and use NGA data and services on their 

own, online and on-demand. 

Director’s Representative to the U.S. Air Force

The team works closely with Headquarters, U.S. Air 

Force, the Air Force Intelligence, Surveillance and 

Reconnaissance Agency and the Air Force GEOINT 

Office to ensure Air Force GEOINT requirements 

are articulated and ingested into the NSG needs 

process. As the NGA director’s representative to the 

Air Force, the team works with Air Force GEOINT 

leaders on functional management issues such 

as unified GEOINT operations and adherence to 
18Pathfinder » May/June 2012

SERVICE NSTS SERVE THE LINE

GEOINT standards by Air Force sensors. The NST 

also works with the joint aeronautical safety of 

navigation community on reducing reliance on 

hard-copy media.

Support to Deploying Airmen

The team enhances Air Force mission readiness 

by providing pre-deployment training, 

which emphasizes showing airmen how to 

access NGA knowledge through NGA’s selfservice portals. At Langley, team members 

provide training at the Air Force’s ISR liaison 

course, which prepares commissioned and 

noncommissioned officers deploying in support 

of U.S. Army maneuver units. At Shaw Air 

Force Base, S.C., team members train airmen 

preparing to deploy in support of theater 

air operations centers. The Red Flag live-fly 

exercise at Nellis Air Force Base brings together 

Air Force flying units preparing to deploy as 

part of an air expeditionary force. During the 

exercise, NST personnel provide training to unit 

intelligence personnel on how to access NGA 

knowledge and expose aircrews to the various 

NGA products and services.

The Air Force is a key NSG mission partner. The 

integration of Air Force-supplied airborne data 

and analysis contributes to the advancement of 

GEOINT, while the Air Force NST serves as the 

focal point for Air Force – NGA integration.

U.S. Marine Corps Support

The Marine NST is the focal point for GEOINT 

support to the Marine Corps, enabling and 

improving the full range of GEOINT services 

to the Corps. With an emphasis on assisted 

and self-service support, the team identifies 

GEOINT opportunities and coordinates support 

from across NGA. 

As the focal point for NGA support to the 

Marine Corps, the team is uniquely configured 

as compared to other service teams. At the 

Marines’ request, the service and service 

intelligence center teams merged at the Marine 

Corps Intelligence Activity, Quantico, Va., 

the hub for Marine Corps GEOINT. Today, 

the team operates as a single entity under the 

operational control of NGA’s military readiness 

office. Personnel receive training, tradecraft 

and reintegration support from the Analysis 

and Production Directorate. Team personnel 

are embedded with I Marine Expeditionary 

Force at Camp Pendleton, Calif., II MEF at 

Camp Lejeune, N.C., and MCIA and Marine 

Corps Systems Command at Quantico. They 

provide subject matter expertise, training, data 

access, systems coordination and tradecraft 

development for their mission partners. The 

team provides only limited production support 

because the Marines retain a robust organic 

capability. However, the team often deploys 

in support of its mission partner as part of 

the NGA Volunteer Deployment Program. 

Team members are also on the lookout for 

data, products and tools of value to NGA and 

the NSG, given the recognition that GEOINT 

support flows in both directions.

The NST leadership assists Marine Corps staff 

and leadership with GEOINT strategic planning 

across doctrine, organization, training, material, 

leadership, personnel and facilities. This helps 

ensure the GEOINT visions for NGA and the 

Marine Corps are aligned and supportable. 

In pursuing these objectives, the Marine team 

chief and the Marine GEOINT officer work 

closely together as part of a continuing effort to 

coordinate GEOINT requirements and support, 

now and in the future, for both NGA and the 

U.S. Marine Corps.

The service NSTs deliver timely and relevant 

GEOINT training and tailored production 

support in an operational setting that enhances 

the deployed mission effectiveness of our 

military partners. The knowledge, experience 

and mentoring that service NST analysts, 

GEOINT officers and externally assigned 

liaisons provide to their extensive customer 

base plays an active role in broadening the 

analytical expertise of military GEOINT 

users at the operational and tactical levels. 

Additionally, the embedded support model 

the service NSTs use allows them to affect unit 

level GEOINT training activities and improve 

their understanding of how to access and 

disseminate online, on-demand GEOINT in an 

operational environment. The close relationship 

of the service NSTs with their military partners 

puts them at the tip of the spear in providing 

GEOINT support to the warfighter. 
Army Gen. Carter F. Ham, commander of 

U.S. Africa Command, met with NGA 

Director Letitia A. Long and analysts focused 

on intelligence problems in Africa to learn about 

the role NGA is playing in Africa and to discuss 

priorities for the continent.

Ham, who became commander of the 

Department of Defense’s sixth geographic 

command in March 2011, received briefings from 

NGA analysts that focused on terrorist networks 

in his area of operations. 

“[In Africa], a little effort goes a long way,” 

said Ham, after receiving a briefing about the 

Integrated Work Group-Yemen/Horn of Africa 

from its team lead. “We receive disproportionate 

benefit for moderate [effort].”

Ham, who deemed the region “data poor,” said the 

challenge for his command is “to know what’s out 

there, to know where to look and to set priorities.”

The AFRICOM team lead explained how NGA 

receives Africa priorities from AFRICOM through 

close working relationships with command 

GEOINT officers embedded in the command and 

from input of the joint staff and guidance from 

national intelligence and defense plans.

Since October, the lead and the team working 

Yemen/Horn of Africa issues have been trying to 

overcome the challenge of disparate information 

about the continent.

19Pathfinder » May/June 2012

TRANSCOM/AFRICOM VISITS

West Executive Dr. Bobby Laurine hosted U.S. Transportation Command 

Commander Air Force Gen. William M. Fraser 

III March 12 at NGA West’s 2nd Street (St. 

Louis) location to give the general an overview 

of NGA activities.

The visit was Fraser’s first to NGA since taking 

command of USTRANSCOM in October 2011.

USTRANSCOM relies on NGA products 

to conduct its mission “to synchronize and 

deliver unrivaled, full-spectrum deployment 

and distribution solutions” to the warfighter. 

More than 30 NGA employees support the 

USTRANSCOM team through the NGA support 

team there.

During the visit, Fraser toured the NGA 

Operations Center, the Counterterrorism 

Airborne Analysis Center and the Domestic 

Mobile Integrated Geospatial-Intelligence 

System. Specific items of interest for Fraser were 

briefings on NGA’s aeronautical activities, which 

directly support USTRANSCOM’s component 

command, Air Mobility Command, and the 

latest geospatial products on Afghanistan, 

Pakistan and the northern distribution network.

Laurine also highlighted NGA’s assistance to 

humanitarian aid and domestic response efforts. 

Like NGA, USTRANSCOM supports disaster 

relief following events such as the earthquakes 

in Japan and Haiti. 

At the conclusion of the visit, Fraser commented 

the information received was outstanding, and 

he looks forward to future collaboration.

AFRICOM Commander Visits NGA 

Campus East

By Rosie Heiss, Office of Corporate Communications

USTRANSCOM Commander Visits 

NGA Campus West 

By NGA Campus West Executive Office

Air Force Gen. William M. Fraser III tours the Domestic Mobile Integrated 

Geospatial-Intelligence System with NGA West Executive Bobby Laurine 

March 12 at NGA Campus West.

NGA photo by Marcella Taylor

Army Gen. Carter F. Ham, commander of U.S. Africa Command, met 

March 19 with NGA Director Letitia A. Long and analysts focused on 

intelligence problems in Africa. 

NGA photo by Rob Cox
20Pathfinder » May/June 2012

SCENE VISUALIZATION

From Osama bin Laden’s fortress to the damage caused by the tsunami at 

Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant in Japan, 

scene visualization helps NGA partners obtain 

situational awareness of unfamiliar terrain 

and develop threat analyses in three-and even 

four-dimensional perspectives.

This all happens at NGA’s Office of Integrated 

Analytic Services, where a team of visualization 

specialists uses a variety of modeling and 

geospatial software tools to craft interactive 

scene visualization products. But it took a lot 

of forward thinking and experimentation to 

bring NGA to where it is today. In the late 1980s, 

modeling and geospatial software was still in its 

infancy, and building even a 15-second video of 

a fly-through – a geospatial product that creates 

the illusion of the viewer flying over a target — 

was a painstaking process, according to current 

and former NGA scene visualization specialists. 

Through the mid-1990s, analysts at the Defense 

Mapping Agency and other NGA predecessor 

agencies typically reviewed imagery flats on 

analog light tables. To create three dimensions 

from this imagery, scene visualization 

specialists had to squint through the eyepiece 

of a stereo lens to measure structures and 

topography point-by-point using a room-sized 

stereo comparator, a piece of equipment that 

generated 3-D coordinates. 

The stereo comparator enabled simultaneous 

viewing of two satellite images of the same 

area taken from slightly different viewpoints, 

giving the illusion of a 3-D perspective. To 

achieve the illusion, scene visualization 

specialists placed each film flat of the different 

shots on its own glass stage. They then moved 

the stages remotely with track balls similar 

to the modern computer mouse. To pinpoint 

a ground location, the specialist maneuvered 

each stage independently until a dot of light 

— called a reticule — fused onto the location. 

The comparator generated a focused beam 

of light and projected it onto the images. 

To create a digital elevation model of the 

terrain, the specialist input these points into a 

computer assisted design application. The scene 

visualization specialist then recorded the 3-D 

coordinate and saved these manually measured 

image points to bulky reel-to-reel magnetic 

tapes that were downloaded into a CAD 

application that created the digital elevation 

model and building structures.

Scene Visualization Advancements Great Boon to Partners 

By Jay D. Krasnow, Office of Integrated Analytic Services 

To create three 

dimensions 

from imagery, 

scene 

visualization 

specialists 

had to squint 

through the 

eyepiece of 

a stereo lens 

to measure 

structures and 

topography 

point by point 

using the roomsized stereo 

comparator 

depicted here, 

a piece of 

equipment that 

was used to 

generate 3-D 

coordinates. 

NGA Historical 

Research 

Center photo
21Pathfinder » May/June 2012

SCENE VISUALIZATION

In the late 1990s and early 2000s, the stereo 

comparator gave way to digital imagery 

and stereo workstations. Scene visualization 

specialists could now scan film flats using 

high-resolution scanners and pipe the 

scanned images to stereo-capable UNIX® 

(UNiplexed Information and Computing 

Service) workstations, powerful computers 

that NGA analysts used to review images 

in 3-D. Despite technological advances, the 

specialists still obtained ephemeris data, the 

technical information on how an image was 

taken, through a painstaking manual process. 

Ephemeris data is important because it enables 

precise geopositioning and mensuration. 

(Mensuration is the scientific term for 

measuring the lengths or position of objects 

observed in imagery.) 

In the early 2000s, digital point positioning 

database files — highly refined stereo imagery 

used for precise geopositioning — were only 

available on 8 mm tapes. And digital terrain 

elevation data was only available on CD. 

Analysts had to check out these files from 

agency libraries in Bethesda, Md., or St. Louis. 

Today, analysts no longer need to scan images, 

copy ephemeris data or obtain georeferencing 

data because all GEOINT analyst workstations 

automatically integrate that information into 

their digital light tables.

“What used to take days, now takes minutes,” 

said the branch chief for GEOINT Scene 

Visualization at the Office of Integrated 

Analytic Services.

Extracting the measurements and entering this 

data into a computer weren’t the only parts of 

building scene visualizations that were timeintensive. Rendering the data, that is, building 

an executable file, could take hours

In fact, in the mid-1990s it took two to three 

minutes to render just one frame of a fly-through 

and it took 24 frames to compose one second 

of video. The process took so long, explained 

a former chief photogrammetrist at NGA, that 

visualization specialists would “press a button 

and let the file render overnight.” 

“Immense computer power and highly 

specialized software was required to render, 

frame by frame, short movie clips, which 

today appear as ancient relics because 

modern computers have made them 

obsolete,” said the branch chief. “Only a 

select few people had computers with the 

processing power and knowledge to create 

scene visualization products.”

In the early days, analysts had to carry the 

data to its recipients. No one had heard of 

the Internet and email was still in its infancy. 

Indeed, few computer networks existed 

in the mid-1990s. A project scientist in the 

Industry Outreach Division of InnoVision, an 

NGA directorate, remembered the obstacles 

they faced. “Due to feeble or no network 

connectivity, we had to build in time for the 

delivery of products on external media by 

hand or by mail,” he said. “We also had to be 

concerned with troubleshooting hardware and 

software issues on the customer’s end.”

“Nowadays, thanks to modern network 

communications and the proliferation of 

visualization software, these issues are pretty 

much gone,” added the branch chief.

The genesis of network communications in 

scene visualization dates to the early 2000s, 

when NGA invested $667,500 in Keyhole, 

Inc., a Mountain View, Calif.-based software 

development firm that specialized in 

geospatial data visualization applications. 

NGA and its intelligence community partners 

— including CIA — eventually invested $2.15 

million in Keyhole. Google bought Keyhole 

in 2004 and re-released its flagship product 

one year later as Google EarthTM, a striking 

example of how funding for government 

research in new technologies spurred 

innovation in the private sector.

As the new technology, including GoogleEarth, 

improved the NGA scene visualization 

team’s ability to create products quickly and 

efficiently, the demand for scene visualization 

products grew, especially for fly-throughs.

A steady stream of military, intelligence and 

policymaker customers solicited the team to 

help them prepare for military operations and 

major events like the 19th FIFA (International 

Federation of Association Football) World Cup 

in South Africa.

“It is amazing how far scene visualization has 

come in the last five years,” said the team lead 

for scene visualization. “Nowadays, specially 

built high-end computers aren’t necessary to 

view detailed 3-D visualization products, and 

soon this technology will be commonplace on 

many mobile platforms.”
22Pathfinder » May/June 2012

INNOVISION RALLIES

I

f you think it’s tough meeting the needs of 

the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency’s 

geospatial intelligence customers inside the 

strict confines of the intelligence community, 

try meeting the needs of a multitude of federal 

agencies and vendors who are scrambling 

to develop and field viable applications for 

commercial mobile device users despite 

a perfect storm of hurdles posed by rapid 

technology advancement, lack of a common 

data standard, onerous public licensing and 

government security considerations. 

Enter a team of visionaries from InnoVision, 

who recently gathered experts from across the 

Department of Defense, intelligence community, 

federal government and key industry partners 

in Chantilly, Va., for the 2nd Annual Mobile 

Application Summit to confront these issues 

and close the gap on a common framework 

that all government entities can apply to the 

development process for mobile apps.

InnoVision Rallies Mission Partners, Codifies Mobile Application Standards 

By Ken White, Office of Corporate Communications

NGA’s leading role for the conference wasn’t 

about credit or accolades but to increase 

awareness of best practices among diverse 

agencies, and moreover, to push toward 

common standards and approaches that should 

govern app development across government, 

with the ultimate goal being to reduce 

duplication of effort and benefit end users of 

mobile apps. 

“The whole idea behind our mobile apps is 

putting GEOINT in the hands of the user, 

and though we have made a lot of progress 

technically we still need to address the 

standards, policy and legal issues to move 

forward,” said Bert Beaulieu, director of 

InnoVision. 

“One of our big focuses right now is developing 

apps able to work in a disconnected or 

intermittently connected environment because 

the last thing we want is to put something 

InnoVision’s 

Hicham Laoudi 

(center) 

demonstrates 

NGA’s AntiShipping 

Activity 

Messages 

application 

for the iPad to 

Master Gunnery 

Sgt. Daniel 

Schaller (left), 

senior enlisted 

advisor to the 

director of 

Marine Corps 

Intelligence, 

while 

InnoVision’s 

Benjamin Tuttle 

looks on during 

the NGAhosted Mobile 

Application 

Summit 

recently.

NGA photo by 

Larry Franklin
mobile devices also poses challenges to fielding 

viable apps. Given security complexities and 

lack of standards across agencies, “there are a 

lot of people who still aren’t really sure how to 

do it,” Tuttle said. 

While commercial mobile devices offer great 

convenience and flexibility to end users, 

they are also capable of being monitored 

down to the individual keystroke, posing 

a potential risk to unsecured data at rest, 

particularly when running an app that accesses 

government-owned data from a firewalled 

government server during a real-world mission 

where life, health and safety may hang in the 

balance, according to Bowers. 

“Is the data used on the device protected? Is 

the use of the application properly limited 

to the authorized users? Is it data accurate, 

and how does the desired app degrade the 

network, the device and battery life? All of 

these things are critical considerations in the 

development of an app,” said Bowers.

Licensing of apps, given strict commercial 

legal controls and attendant usage fees, is 

yet another hurdle standing in the way of 

quick deployment, and while a factor easy to 

overlook in the lab during development, it can 

just as easily relegate that app to a shelf instead 

of a user’s hands, said Bowers. 

“It’s all about getting the data you want in an 

app, and that can be expensive,” said Bowers. 

“It’s not as simple as just saying, ‘I’ll just 

connect in. I know what the data looks like, 

and I’ll display it.’” 

As for the quick wins, according to Tuttle, “for 

the foreseeable future our biggest winners 

in all of this will be first responders, folks 

responding to natural disasters and crises of 

that sort. Part of that comes down to the fact 

that security requirements for those users are 

not quite as significant as some of the other 

potential customers, so they are an easier 

group to deploy capabilities to quickly.” 

“As we work out the security issues, we expect 

to evolve to mobile apps for military and 

security forces in the field, providing the forces 

with a capability that is of benefit without 

putting them at risk,” said Tuttle.

23Pathfinder » May/June 2012

INNOVISION RALLIES

in the hands of the user that the user has to 

babysit, which detracts from their mission,” 

said InnoVision’s Ben Tuttle, who planned the 

conference. “This is all about future capabilities 

that will enable apps to be quickly developed 

and fielded that above all are accessible, secure 

and available on multiple devices at speeds that 

customers demand for their missions.” 

Though the development of government 

apps in a lab setting has been relatively easy, 

the process of negotiating the legalities and 

assurance levels to get those same apps fully 

operational and into the hands of a GEOINT 

user has largely been uncharted territory for 

the intelligence community, according to Tuttle. 

This factor has slowed app deployment.

InnoVision, through the help of these summits, 

seeks to create a road map for agencies to 

follow when fielding an app from cradle to 

grave, to include government-wide standards 

for federal government developers to use to 

baseline their apps. 

“We’re looking for all federal app developers 

to synchronize onto common data standards 

so that all the apps can read from a singular 

downloaded data set regardless of what 

agency was responsible for building that app,” 

Tuttle said. 

To that end, a group led by Nathan Frantz 

of the Army Geospatial Center is making 

great progress on developing consensus on a 

common data standard. 

“Applying lessons learned in the development 

of the Army’s GeoPackage — a baseline data 

packaging service that supports the Army’s key 

geospatial data and analysis program — Frantz 

has not only pulled together the community 

and other government agencies but also the 

vendors because there is no point coming up 

with a standard if the vendors aren’t willing to 

support it,” said Tuttle.

NGA’s success depends upon the ability to 

move quickly to lay out a road map to deliver 

U.S. government-accredited mobile apps to an 

increasingly impatient government customer 

base that has high expectations as active 

consumers of commercially available apps for 

their own private devices, according to Tuttle. 

According to the Naval Research Laboratory’s 

Rachel Bowers, app security on commercial 
24Pathfinder » May/June 2012

CUBAN MISSILE CRISIS

I

ntelligence professionals may feel very 

familiar with the events that contributed to 

the Cuban missile crisis, a benchmark event 

in American intelligence history. Intelligence 

community members celebrate President John 

F. Kennedy’s success in that confrontation and 

the essential role of the community, as well 

as the flexibility and capability of American 

leadership, diplomacy and military potential. 

However, in 2012 has the community truly 

learned all that it can from the events of 

October 1962? 

Has the community ever looked at the Cuban 

missile crisis as a declaration by photo 

interpreters that their tradecraft had truly 

matured into a critical strategic intelligence 

asset? Do National Geospatial-Intelligence 

Agency members realize that the role played 

by photo interpretation in 1962 brought this 

type of intelligence to the attention of national 

policymakers as never before? Furthermore, 

can NGA say that this crisis began the process 

of blurring the distinction between photo 

interpreter and analyst? 

Cuban Missile Crisis Marked Coming of Age

Dr. Gary E. Weir, Chief Historian, Office of Corporate Communications

The Soviet Union and Cuba jointly announced 

Sept. 2, 1962, that the former would send military 

aid to Fidel Castro’s Caribbean island. The 

Soviet leaders felt this action would provide 

the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics with 

multiple benefits. It would cause the United 

States to pause before opposing the USSR on 

the international stage while politically and 

economically nurturing a communist regime in 

Latin America. 

The Kennedy administration paid close 

attention to the Castro regime in Cuba. Could 

this buildup suggest that the Soviets intended 

to use Cuba as a springboard for revolution in 

Latin America? Did the Russians pay sufficient 

attention to Kennedy’s warning that the Soviet 

Union should not introduce offensive weaponry 

into Cuba, especially medium (MRBM) and 

intermediate (IRBM) range ballistic missiles 

capable of carrying nuclear warheads? Kennedy 

also pointed out that the U.S. could not tolerate a 

submarine base in Cuba. The president began to 

craft a policy of toleration, with very clear limits 

and predictable consequences.

National 

Photographic 

Interpretation 

Center interpreters 

who made the 

startling find of 

offensive missiles 

in Cuba included 

Army Lt. Richard 

Rininger, Navy 

civilian Joseph L. 

Sullivan, Air Force 

civilian James P. 

Holmes and CIA 

civilian Vincent N. 

DiRenzo.

NGA Historical 

Research Center 

photo
Nikita S. Khrushchev, appeals from the armed 

forces on both sides for military action, and 

the daily brinksmanship of missile sites in 

Cuba under accelerated construction. Those 

old enough to remember the events recall the 

confrontation between U.S. Ambassador Adlai 

Stevenson and Soviet Ambassador Valerian 

Zorin at the United Nations and the briefing 

boards that revealed the truth of Kennedy’s 

assertions in imagery. 

An informal pledge to remove antiquated 

American Jupiter missiles from Turkey along 

with a guarantee that the United States would 

not invade Cuba led the Soviet leadership 

to submit completely to Kennedy’s demand 

that they remove their missiles and offensive 

weaponry under a U.N. verification regime. 

As Secretary of State Dean Rusk noted, “We 

were eyeball to eyeball and I think the other 

fellow blinked.” 

The Cuban missile crisis became a landmark 

event for aerial photographic collection and 

photo interpretation. Kennedy developed a 

special relationship with Lundahl and came 

to depend on the excellence of the photos 

and the regular insights provided by the 

interpreters. The evidence they could provide 

offered a high degree of insight into unfolding 

events. In addition, the interpreters could 

now go beyond merely reading the imagery to 

offer analyses based upon the situations they 

discovered in the photos. 

The Cuban missile crisis marked both 

a coming of age and the beginning of a 

process. The analysis of aerial imagery had 

become more important and more essential 

than ever in a tense nuclear world in which 

Armageddon could be unleashed without 

recall. The national command authority 

could no longer do without it. In addition, 

those who became most familiar with the 

technology, the imagery, the situation on the 

ground and the national need now found 

themselves called upon to provide informed 

analysis. This significantly advanced the 

process of evolution that would finally turn 

the photo interpreter into an imagery analyst.

25Pathfinder » May/June 2012

CUBAN MISSILE CRISIS

As long as the weapons remained defensive, 

the administration would tolerate the 

deliveries. If that changed, a very serious 

situation would arise. 

Kennedy discovered a dangerous Russian 

deception Oct. 16. The surface to air missile 

sites discovered via photo interpretation days 

earlier now emerged as merely defensive 

components of MRBM (1,100 nautical mile 

range) and IRBM (2,200 nautical mile range) 

installations under construction in Cuba. 

Analysis quickly demonstrated that the 

missiles involved, the SS-4 and SS-5, could 

reach with nuclear warheads all of the 

continental U.S. save for the Pacific Northwest. 

These were not defensive weapons. 

Once the photo interpreters at the National 

Photographic Interpretation Center (an NGA 

predecessor agency) discovered the missiles, 

the president and the executive committee 

he assembled to work on the crisis had to 

decide on a strategy. Cold warriors like Gen. 

Curtis LeMay, chief of staff of the Air Force, 

and Dean Acheson, former secretary of state, 

recommended air strikes and invasion. Others 

like Attorney General Robert Kennedy could 

not condone massive military action against 

Cuba and became an early proponent of his 

brother’s favored alternative, a quarantine of 

the island and removal of the missiles under 

supervision by the United Nations. 

By Oct. 21 the president had decided on 

quarantine and planned a televised address 

to the nation on Oct. 23. After arranging a 

full briefing via NPIC Director Art Lundahl 

for former President Dwight D. Eisenhower, 

Kennedy sent senior representatives to major 

allies to brief them on the situation and his 

intentions. As the Army and Marines prepared 

at the president’s behest for possible invasion 

if the primary plan failed, Kennedy turned to 

Chief of Naval Operations Adm. George W. 

Anderson to enact the quarantine. 

The story of just how the opposing forces 

resolved the Cuban missile crisis includes 

backroom diplomacy, the loss of a brave U-2 

pilot, erratic messages from Soviet Premier 

NGA Historical Research Center background photo
26Pathfinder » May/June 2012

DMA Retrospective: 40 Years Later

The opinions expressed in this article are the authors’ and do not 

necessarily reflect the views of the National Geospatial-Intelligence 

Agency or the U.S. Department of Defense. 

The spring of 1972 found a start-up staff of 40 people diligently working to launch a new 

defense agency, the Defense Mapping Agency, on 

July 1. The agency’s establishment had seemed 

unlikely as recently as six months earlier. All of 

the services, as well as the Joint Chief of Staff, had 

non-concurred in a study, initiated by an Office of 

Management and Budget budget examiner and 

conducted by the Defense Intelligence Agency 

Mapping and Charting Directorate (DIAMC). 

The study proposed that the mapping, charting 

and geodesy (MC&G) activities of the Defense 

Department be combined into a new defense 

agency. But in the fall of 1971, the OMB budget 

examiner, who believed great economies could be 

realized by consolidation, was able to insert the 

consolidation into a presidential decision paper 

dealing with the intelligence community.

It is important to understand the basis for the 

earlier unanimous non-concurrences. Almost 

from the beginning of the Vietnam War, there had 

been an on-going conflict between the services 

and DIAMC, which had DOD-level oversight of 

MC&G activities. The services, attuned to reports 

from the command on the need for specialized 

products to deal with the special nature of the 

environment and the conflict, wanted to develop 

and rapidly field new types of products and 

services. DIAMC believed that, since standard 

map and chart coverage was available, the 

services should stay primarily focused on 

meeting the remaining global requirements for 

standard products. Thus, given that the DIAMC 

consolidation rationale was based on potential 

economies that might be achieved and not on any 

perceived or reported deficiency in the support 

being provided to the commands, their Vietnam 

War experience led the services to conclude 

that a potential for economies was not worth 

relinquishing control to a new defense agency.

Given this recent and ongoing experience, 

the services had been strongly opposed to 

relinquishing control of their MC&G capabilities 

to a defense agency. Now the problem was how 

to implement President Richard M. Nixon’s 

decision while at the same time staying focused 

on user needs. That was exactly the charge the 

newly designated DMA director, Army Lt. Gen. 

Howard Penney, gave to his nine-man organizing 

committee when it convened at the Brookmont 

facility in Bethesda, Md., on Feb. 22, 1972. 

The resultant organization that became 

operational on July 1, 1972, was a decentralized 

structure (9,000 strong with a 100-member 

headquarters staff) with strong emphasis on 

interaction with users from national authority 

level on down to tactical levels. The leadership 

went to great lengths to assure and demonstrate to 

the services and commands that DMA would be 

attuned and responsive to their needs. 

At the same time, incremental improvements in 

processes were made, documenting a productivity 

improvement of about 12 percent in the first three 

years — with the administration and Congress 

agreeing to allow DMA to retain the savings for 

priority production. Program sharing between 

production centers (aerospace, topographic and 

hydrographic) did not begin until full-fledged 

digital data production geared up in the mid-1970s, 

and it was not without its turbulence, as some 

elements had to be reequipped and learn new, more 

stringent production procedures. Meanwhile, as new 

weapons systems’ (e.g., cruise missile) demands 

were introduced, the workforce was increasing to 

10,000 with more contracting of selected production 

activities. Our article “Geospatial-intelligence Impact 

on the Cold War” in the December 2011 Cold War 

Times (www.coldwar.org) provides a fuller account 

of these challenges.

The defense agency concept, which the services 

had feared would lead to less responsiveness, was 

proving to be not only more responsive to current 

needs but also capable of meeting the challenges 

associated with the impending loss of film-based 

reconnaissance systems, the attendant digital 

production system revolution, and the challenges 

of new products and media to support emerging 

weapons systems. The well-tested organization 

was ready, in the 1990s, for the next important step 

into the National Imagery and Mapping Agency/

NGA era.

NOTE: Al Anderson served on the nine-man DMA organizing 

committee, then in various DMA positions, finally as deputy director for 

programs, production and operations. Larry Ayers served on the DMA 

start-up staff, then in various DMA positions, finally as deputy director, 

management and technology. 

The Pathfinder makes space available for NGA alumni groups to provide 

content that may be of interest to the current NGA workforce. NGA does 

not endorse any particular alumni group or any other outside organization.

DMA Retrospective: 40 Years Later

By Al Anderson and Larry Ayers, National Geospatial-Intelligence Alumni Association
Photo Interpretation

The U.S. has played a role in the development of photo 

interpretation since manned flight began. 

Activities with balloons during the Civil War tested 

the ability of an individual to observe an enemy from 

points aloft. World War I – the Great War of 1914-1918 – 

demonstrated the effectiveness and potency of cameras 

taking pictures over combat areas, a capability now 

available due to the newly developed airplane.

With the end of World War I, personnel left the U.S. 

armed services, taking with them much of the talent and 

knowledge that enabled the photo interpretive process. 

Upon entering World War II, the U.S. Army formed a 

photo interpretive unit led by Lt. Col. Elliot Roosevelt, the 

president’s son. The unit resided with British experts at 

Danesfield House at Medmenham in the U.K. to redevelop 

much of the interpretive art lost with demobilization in 

1919. This formed the foundation for Cold War photo 

interpretation and nurtured an intense desire within the 

community of photo interpreters not only to describe 

the content of an image, but also to understand the 

circumstances revealed by that image.

Soldiers prepare the 

balloon, Intrepid, 

for observation 

duties during the 

Battle of Seven 

Pines in Henrico 

County, Va.

In 1895, Lt. Hugh D. 

Wise experimented 

with photo kites at 

Madison Barracks, N.Y. 

He built a kite 18 feet 

high and attached a box 

camera to it with string. 

Triggered by a timing 

device, the camera took 

photos from an altitude 

of 600 feet.

Aerial photos 

show the 

effect of 

bombardment 

on Allied 

trenching 

during World 

War I.

The bridges over the 

River Kwai include 

the destroyed steel 

bridge replaced by 

the famous prisonerof-war built wooden 

trestle. The POW 

camp is located at 

the upper left.

NGA Historical Research Center photos
Memorial Day

2012