Vol. 10 No. 6 November/December 2012

International

Partnerships
2 Pathfinder » November/December 2012

On My Mind:

International Outreach Builds and Sustains 

Effective Partnerships 

“We are bound tightly to our allies and friends now more so than ever 

before,” said Director of National Intelligence James R. Clapper Jr. at the 

recent GEOINT Symposium in Orlando, Fla.

This could not be truer. During the last decade, our allies have seen 

the vital role GEOINT plays in forming the foundation of the strategic 

assessments and synchronized operations that have improved coalition 

warfighting capabilities. Our NATO and International Security Assistance 

Force partners understand how critically important timely, accurate 

GEOINT is to mutual mission success. GEOINT is the foundation that ensures a common operating picture 

for the United States and our foreign partners. In fact, all of our ISAF partners in Afghanistan use NGAprovided geospatial data to synchronize operations and achieve success in their missions.

The value of GEOINT is also recognized across the Department of Defense and the intelligence community. 

The deputy undersecretary of defense for intelligence, Tom Ferguson, recently spoke to NGA senior 

staff and noted the importance of strengthening and building foreign partnerships for the long term 

because of their critical importance to U.S. operations overseas. This includes expanding GEOINT use with 

non-traditional coalition partners, building new partnerships with strategic allies and preparing NGA to 

continue its GEOINT contribution to U.S. national security issues. 

The Office of International Affairs leads NGA efforts to develop and execute strategies that maximize the 

value and contribution of existing global GEOINT resources. Our international affairs program focuses 

on forging and maintaining mutually beneficial relationships with our international partners. This 

includes executing cooperative agreements with countries possessing advanced GEOINT capabilities 

and tradecraft. The goal is clear—to increase the overall GEOINT contribution to U.S. and allied national 

security strategies. We have more than 60 of these agreements worldwide, which provide the foundation 

for tradecraft enhancement and a common baseline for coalition military operations. An estimated 25 

percent of all NGA’s geospatial data and holdings come from international partners.

NGA will continue to work within the context of international policy and process to get out in front of 

potential military operations or crisis activities. We will work to maintain our strategic advantage over our 

adversaries through the power of shared GEOINT. We will collaborate with our foreign partners to assist 

them in developing GEOINT capabilities and tradecraft as GEOINT continues to evolve. Together we will 

maintain GEOINT dominance, ensure the security of our warfighters, protect our nation’s security interests 

and support global stability.

A robust international outreach program that helps build and sustain effective partnerships with the 

worldwide GEOINT community is key to NGA’s vision of putting GEOINT into the hands of our users.

Letitia A. Long

Director

ON MY MIND
3Pathfinder » November/December 2012

DIRECTOR

Letitia A. Long

DEPUTY DIRECTOR

Michael A. Rodrigue

OFFICE OF CORPORATE COMMUNICATIONS,

DIRECTOR

William M. Caniano

EDITOR

Susan H. Meisner

GRAPHIC ARTIST

Jay Conklin

Published by the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency

Office of Corporate Communications

Telephone: (571) 557-5400

DSN 547-5400

E-mail: pathfinder@nga.mil. Visit us on Facebook at 

www.facebook.com/NatlGeoIntAgency or on 

Twitter at https://twitter.com/nga_geoint.

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: The National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency concluded 

Enterprise Challenge 2012, an exercise that allows Department of Defense 

agencies and international partners to demonstrate new and existing 

technologies, Sept. 7, at the Joint Interoperability Test Command, Fort 

Huachuca, Ariz., and additional sites across the U.S. and Canada. Partners 

demonstrated, tested, evaluated and assessed the interoperability of 

technologies such as sensors, systems and networks, on the modern 

battlefield, according to an Army news release. In the cover photo, senior 

leaders from U.S., Australian, British and Canadian defense organizations 

receive a briefing at the ground terminal station of the Distributed 

Common Ground System-Army during the JITC-sponsored distinguished 

visitor day Aug. 29. DOD photo by Army Capt. Ray Ragan. Cover design by 

Jay Conklin.

Inside back cover: Design and photo by Glenn Holloway.

2 On My Mind: International Outreach Builds and Sustains Effective 

Partnerships

» NGA in the News

4 Sharon Parish Conference Room Dedicated

5 NGA Industry Day: GEOINT at our Fingertips

6 UK JARIC Transitions to Defence Geospatial and 

Intelligence Fusion Centre

» Features

7 ‘Tomorrow’s NGA, Today’— Director Outlines Agency 

Progress at GEOINT 2012

8 Photo Interpreters Recall Cuban Missile Crisis During 

50th Anniversary Event

10 Building Partner Capacity Through Foreign Military Sales

12 Agency Uses New Technology to Support 

London Olympics

15 NGA Partner Nations’ Training Furthers Tradecraft Expertise, 

Enhances Collaboration

17 Agency Reflects on Role at 20th Anniversary of 

Hurricane Andrew

19 Special Warning Kept Ships Away at Height of Missile Crisis

» Our Heritage

21 Staying Sharp, Informed, Together: Evidence in Camera, 

World War II

CONTENTS

7

17

12
4 Pathfinder » November/December 2012

Sharon Parish Conference Room Dedicated

By Paul Frommelt, Contractor, Office of Corporate Communications

NGA photo by Tony Boone

Carl Parish, husband of Sharon Parish, points to the heart pin his wife wore in the portrait of her that will be part of the outstanding women display at the National GeospatialIntelligence Agency Campus East in Springfield, Va., and NGA Campus West in St. Louis, Mo. NGA Director Letitia A. Long presented Parish’s family with a copy of the portrait.

The National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency dedicated the Sharon Parish Conference Room at its east campus 

in Springfield, Va., Sept. 20, to celebrate the life and 40-year 

intelligence community career of the NGA pioneer who died in 

a car accident Feb. 9, 2011. 

NGA Director Letitia A. Long, NGA Deputy Director Mike 

Rodrigue, Dan Hinchberger, deputy director, Office of Contract 

Services, members of Parish’s family, and close to 100 attendees 

were on hand to honor the woman whose adage was “mission 

first, people always.” 

“Sharon was a remarkable woman who exemplified leadership 

through her focus on the mission and her understanding that if 

you take care of the people, they will take care of the mission,” 

said Long of Parish earlier this year. 

During the dedication ceremony Long unveiled the plaque that 

will hang outside of the newly christened conference room, 

which resides in the NGA Campus East Visitor Control Center, as 

well as a mockup of the “Sharon R. Parish Outstanding Women 

of NGA Award” showcase, which will highlight Parish’s accomplishments and all the past and future Parish Award honorees. 

In her keynote address, Long said Parish embodied and demonstrated NGA’s core values, both personally and professionally. 

Parish took those values to heart, rearranging NGA’s E.A.R.T.H. 

core values acronym (Excellence, Accountability, Respect, 

Trust and Honesty) into H.E.A.R.T. In the portrait of Parish 

that will be part of the outstanding women display — a copy 

of which was presented to Parish’s husband, Carl — she is 

wearing a heart pin, said Long. 

Parish’s contributions to NGA were paramount. She was instrumental in growing NGA’s commercial remote sensing program 

into a major component of the IC’s satellite imaging strategy. 

She paved the way for the creation of the industry interaction 

program at NGA. She also spearheaded NGA’s small business 

program, said Long. 

“While Sharon had many professional achievements, it was her 

selfless service as a leader, mentor and friend that left a lasting 

mark on us all,” said Hinchberger.

Parish joined NGA in October 2002 as the director of acquisition contracts and senior procurement executive and served 

in that position until her selection as the deputy director of 

the acquisition directorate in December 2010. She developed 

acquisition and leadership training curricula that the Senate 

Select Committee on Intelligence lauded as an exemplar for 

the entire IC. 
5Pathfinder » November/December 2012

NGA Industry Day: 

GEOINT at our 

Fingertips

By Paul Frommelt, Contractor, 

Office of Corporate Communications

I

n September, the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency’s 

Online Geospatial Intelligence Services Directorate (OGS) 

welcomed more than 430 people to NGA’s first Industry Day 

for the GEOINT Applications Store. Held in NGA Campus East’s 

William Allder Auditorium in Springfield, Va., the unclassified 

briefing outlined how industry can be a part of NGA’s effort to 

put GEOINT into users’ hands by developing relevant apps and 

widgets for online and mobile use.

“We certainly don’t own all the good ideas, and we don’t want 

to put in place a mechanism that restricts us from enjoying 

the innovation that’s out there,” said OGS Application Services 

(OGSA) Director Mark Riccio to the assembled crowd during his 

opening remarks. “This is a big opportunity for a much broader 

segment of the market to begin working with NGA.”

and quality. The ideal development timeframe from desire to 

desktop would be 60 days, with approval granted two weeks 

from time of submittal.

“We want to provide mission applications in mission timeframes,” explained presenter Brad Biel, OGSA, who provided a 

live demonstration of the GEOINT App Store to attendees.

OGS Director Barry Barlow, who provided the event’s keynote 

address, stated that NGA has already stood up the App Store 

on the unclassified and top secret domains, with launch on the 

secret domain coming soon. 

OGS is working to meet NGA Director Letitia A. Long’s expectation that 75 percent of all applications within the GEOINT App 

Store will come from industry by 2013, according to Riccio. He 

stressed, however, that NGA is not looking to flood the store 

with applications, but rather to build quality applications.

“What makes an app is relevance and content,” Riccio said. “We 

will have apps that matter.”

NGA photo by Rob Cox

Mark Riccio, Director of NGA’s OGS Application Services, discusses plans to open 

the NGA App Store with industry representatives attending NGA’s first Industry Day 

for the GEOINT Applications Store.

“We want to provide 

mission applications in 

mission timeframes.”

—Brad Biel, OGSA

A large portion of the day was dedicated to discussion of NGA’s 

evolving compensation model. Jill O’Connor, compensation 

advisor, Office of General Counsel, and Jonathan Mostowski, 

strategic advisor, Acquisition Contracts, talked through the 

various models NGA is considering for addressing agile application development and compensation. O’Connor summarized 

the possibilities of either a single broker solution managing 

submitted apps or an environment of rolling solicitations with 

the government managing the apps. 

Mostowski discussed implementing the rolling solicitation 

through incremental steps, beginning with use of an existing 

indefinite delivery/indefinite quantity contract with a limited 

pool of vendors and eventually expanding into larger markets. 

NGA would pay a fixed price for each application, plus incentives potentially based on innovation, performance 
6 Pathfinder » November/December 2012

UK JARIC Transitions to Defence 

Geospatial and Intelligence Fusion Centre

By Squadron Leader Paul Hamer, U.K. Liaison Officer to NGA 

The U.K.’s Joint Air Reconnaissance Intelligence Centre disbanded July 13, integrating into the new Defence 

Geospatial and Intelligence Fusion Centre at Royal Air Force 

Wyton, in Huntingdon, Cambridgeshire, England.

“Tonight we are marking a significant moment in the U.K.’s rich 

history of engagement in photoreconnaissance and imagery 

intelligence,” said JARIC Commander Group Captain Steve 

Thornber at the transition ceremony at RAF Wyton. 

JARIC members lowered the RAF Ensign, the official flag, for 

the final time, as Thornber took both the Ensign and the RAF 

Badge and handed them symbolically back to Air Marshal Dick 

Garwood, who accepted them on behalf of the RAF. Thornber 

then gave the final order to stand down the Joint Air Reconnaissance Intelligence Centre. 

National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency Director Letitia A. 

Long; Commander of Joint Forces Command Air Chief Marshal 

Sir Stuart Peach; Lord-Lieutenant of Cambridgeshire Hugh 

Duberly, Esquire, Commander of the Order of the British 

Empire, representing Her Majesty the Queen; Jonathan 

Djanogly, Member of Parliament for the Huntingdon 

Constituency; additional senior members of the British and 

allied intelligence communities; NGA JARIC support team 

members; and JARIC staff attended the ceremony.

JARIC, which supported the U.K. and geospatial intelligence 

community for 72 years, had been located at nearby Brampton, 

Cambridgeshire, since 1955. Born out of allied collaboration, 

JARIC had been a stalwart partner of NGA and its predecessors 

through the years.

“Alongside our colleagues in Britain’s tight-knit security and 

intelligence community, with essential partnership from 

industry and with our closest allies, we sailors, marines, soldiers, 

airmen and civil servants have been a few sentinels, the watchful and penetrating eyes of the nation,” said Thornber.

Although JARIC’s heritage began with World War I reconnaissance work, the formation of the Central Interpretation Unit at 

the beginning of World War II at Royal Air Force Medmenham 

near London marked its true beginning. It transitioned through 

many name changes before becoming part of the DGIFC, a 

multi-intelligence, multi-agency center that will build on the 

excellence of JARIC and its GEOINT mission.

According to a Ministry of Defense news release, the DGIFC will 

provide analysts with the opportunity to work in new collaborative ways. Under the Programme to Rationalise and Integrate 

the Estate, a new state-of-the-art building was constructed to 

house intelligence staff in a completely open plan environment 

at the Cambridgeshire station as part of the Defence Intelligence Modernisation Programme. 

Parade Commander Flight Lieutenant Angela Dickinson marches on the Guard of Honour and Ensign Lowering Party to take position for the sunset ceremony.

Photo courtesy Royal Air Force
7Pathfinder » November/December 2012

National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency Director Letitia A. Long 

outlined the transformation of GEOINT 

under way at the agency during the 

U.S. Geospatial Intelligence Foundation’s GEOINT 2012 Symposium in 

Orlando Oct. 9. 

Long took the stage amid applause 

from thousands of attendees following a good-natured introduction as 

the “goddess of GEOINT” by Joan A. 

Dempsey of USGIF’s board of directors.

“This is a group of folks that [is] 

transforming GEOINT, the talent, the 

capabilities and the diversity that is in 

this room is exactly what we need to 

continue to propel us forward,” Long 

said, adding that NGA is fortunate 

to have a foundation committed to 

furthering the business of GEOINT.

“Given the opportunity, we can do just 

about anything—help bring terrorists 

to justice, support military operations 

and safeguard lives in the aftermath of 

natural disasters,” Long said.

Long focused on NGA’s progress 

toward “creating tomorrow’s NGA, 

today.” She specifically highlighted 

three key areas: easy and intuitive 

access to the agency’s GEOINT products, data and knowledge; creation 

of a three-tiered customer service 

model in an open IT environment; 

and the creation and provision of new 

value through efforts to deepen and 

broaden analysis.

‘Tomorrow’s NGA, Today’—Director 

Outlines Agency Progress at GEOINT 2012

By Ken White, Office of Corporate Communications

“We’ve made tremendous progress 

delivering more robust content, [we] 

have developed the Integrated Analytic 

Environment, [we] are introducing new 

analytic methodologies, and, at the 

end of the day, I think we are delivering 

better GEOINT,” Long said.

Outlining the streamlining effort 

that to date has made 40 percent of 

NGA’s products, data and knowledge 

service-enabled, Long followed up 

with a pledge to have 100 percent of 

the agency’s data service-enabled in 

a smart data framework— cataloged, 

and in accordance with open geospatial 

consortium standards—by July 2013. 

She continued by explaining how that 

effort is a key enabler to the better 

National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency Director Letitia A. Long addressed the GEOINT community on NGA’s progress in implementing its strategy of putting GEOINT in the 

hands of the user during the U.S. Geospatial Intelligence Foundation’s GEOINT 2012 Symposium Oct. 9 in Orlando, Fla.

NGA photo by Ken White
8 Pathfinder » November/December 2012

analysis sought under the 2012–2017 

NGA Strategy.

“I will tell you [that] the real benefit for 

the analysts is now, with that enabled 

data, they can overlay different data 

sets, and begin to see those patterns 

and trends that we’re talking about and 

make those observations,” Long said.

Long went on to weave in joint 

NGA/Defense Intelligence Agency 

progress to create the common desktop 

environment that forms part of the 

intelligence community information 

technology enterprise, defense intelligence and joint information enterprises. 

For the common desktop initiative, she 

pledged to have more than 2,000 users 

on this environment by March 2013, and 

more than 60,000 users by March 2014.

“We’ve moved from cooperation to 

coordination to collaboration, and, 

now, we are at integration,” said Long. 

“We recognize we are a lot better if we 

share our information and work in the 

same integrated information technology environment. No more tunneling 

through networks. No more trying to 

find a computer that belongs to your 

own agency.” 

In return for service-enabled content 

and the open IT environment, Long 

served up the challenge to the community that serves to gain from not only 

being consumers but also producers. 

“What I ask in return is when you do 

access it and make enhancements or 

build a product or add to it, that you 

share that back with us,” Long said. “That 

will enable us to learn. That will enable 

us to provide better service in the future. 

And in return, we will host it and serve it 

back out to the entire community.”

Long went on to outline how her establishment of integrated work groups 

comprising functional and regional 

analysts has resulted in never-considered innovative collection strategies 

and new information that is beginning 

to pay dividends in broadened and 

deepened analysis that she maintains is 

at the core of GEOINT transformation. 

She also pointed out the natural 

outgrowth of the new organizational 

construct, where they couldn’t get to 

all the information they needed in one 

place with the tools at hand, and so 

led to the creation of the integrated 

analytic environment, or IAE. 

“The basis of the integrated analytic 

environment is both places and activity,” 

Long said. “So it’s not only the ‘what,’ it’s 

also the ‘what is happening.’ That’s very 

key here, and it’s really quite exciting for 

[the analysts].”

Long concluded her remarks by stating 

that the state of GEOINT is as much a 

testament to the transforming efforts of 

other GEOINT leaders as her own. 

“Admiral Dantone got the agency 

started; General King really brought the 

tribes together; DNI Clapper created 

GEOINT; he brought the imagery and 

the mapping together to what was 

really the purpose of creating National 

Imagery and Mapping Agency to begin 

with; Admiral Murrett, rightly so, put us 

on a wartime footing,” said Long. 

“As I came into the job I knew we were 

in a good place, but I was focused on 

the future,” Long said. “We’ve got to be 

continually pushing ourselves so that we 

do remain at the forefront. We are always 

building the plane as we’re flying it, so 

to say, so we will continue to deliver to 

our varied customer set what they need, 

when they need it, how they need it.” 

Photo Interpreters Recall Cuban Missile 

Crisis During 50th Anniversary Event

By Ken White, Office of Corporate Communications

Fifty years after they discovered Soviet missiles poised to strike the 

U.S. from Cuba, two intelligence officers 

met with hundreds of their current-day 

counterparts to commemorate the 

anniversary of the crisis that nearly 

brought the world to nuclear war.

Dino Brugioni and Vincent DiRenzo 

were part of a small group from 

the CIA’s National Photographic 

Interpretation Center who worked 

for 13 tense days in October 1962 to 

avert disaster. They joined author and 

journalist Michael Dobbs and two 

current analysts in a panel discussion 

at the National Geospatial-Intelligence 

Agency in Springfield, Va., Oct. 15. 

Through reminiscences and presentday observations, the group illustrated 

the significance of the crisis and its 

continued impact on the tradecraft of 

imagery and geospatial analysis.

A photo interpreter, Vincent DiRenzo 

led the NPIC team and formed the initial conclusion about the presence of 

Soviet medium-range ballistic missiles 

in Cuba from analysis of U-2 spy plane 

imagery. He discussed the immediate 

wake of his discovery. 

“Considering the severity of the 

identification, we figured we’d be in for 

a long night,” DiRenzo said. He indicated 

that the initial assessment was not a 

“slam dunk,” as convincing people of 

the true significance of the find was 

difficult—the image did not show 

clearly identifiable missiles, but rather, 

long, canvas-covered objects that, to 

the layman, could be almost anything. 

Charged with preparing materials on 

daily developments for NPIC Director 

Arthur C. Lundahl’s briefs to the executive committee and the White House, 

Brugioni was instrumental in arming 

President John F. Kennedy with intelligence needed to navigate this perilous 

moment in history. 

He recalled with humor how many of 

his briefing boards came back from 

the White House marked up with 

blue crayon from a doodling Caroline 
9Pathfinder » November/December 2012

Panelists participating in the NGA Cuban Missile Crisis commemoration included, from left to right, Julian Doan, NGA GEOINT analyst; Dino Brugioni, former chief of 

information for NPIC; Vincent DiRenzo, NPIC photographic interpreter during the crisis; NGA Historian Gary Weir; Michael Dobbs, author of “One Minute to Midnight”; 

Robert Lundahl, son of Arthur Lundahl, NPIC director; and Walter Trynock, NGA GEOINT analyst. The event was held in NGA’s William Allder auditorium in Springfield, Va., 

Oct. 15, to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Cuban Missile Crisis. 

NGA photo by Ken White

Kennedy. On a more somber note, he 

also relayed the fearful mood of the time.

“Black Saturday, we had gone to 

DEFCON [defense readiness condition] 

2,” Brugioni said. “Fourteen hundred 

bombers were loaded with nuclear 

weapons; 50 B-52s were in the air; 

eight Polaris submarines were at sea; 

125 ICBMs [intercontinental ballistic 

missiles] were ready to fire; there was 

tactical aviation; there was 60 Thor 

missiles in England; 30 Jupiter missiles 

in Italy. That morning we met with Art 

Lundahl and told him that all 24 pads 

were operational, meaning that within 

four to six hours 24 missiles could be 

coming at the United States.

“I remember Lundahl scratching his chin, 

looked at me and said, ‘I don’t want to 

scare the hell out of them, but I want to 

make sure they understand the danger.’”

The son of a career diplomat, Dobbs 

spent his formative years behind the 

Iron Curtain. He became a Cold War 

scholar after covering it as a foreign 

correspondent for the Washington Post. 

He drew a parallel between his work 

and intelligence analysis.

“I feel a kinship with intelligence analysts. We try to start with the evidence 

and proceed from the evidence to the 

conclusions,” Dobbs said. “Our goal is to 

tell truth to power.”

Dobbs went on to laud the efforts of 

the team who identified the missiles, 

and to praise Brugioni for his efforts 

since the crisis to improve public 

understanding of photo analysis. 

“Dino [Brugioni] has done more than 

anyone else to explain the art and 

science of photo interpretation to the 

broader public,” he said. “He’s a great 

educator; he’s very good at explaining 

very complicated matters to laymen.” 

He also discussed how his research of the 

crisis, with the advantage of 50 years of 

hindsight, affirmed both the significance of 

the crisis and the criticality of intelligence 

to policymaking. He also pointed out that 

60–70 percent of the actionable intelligence came from NPIC during the crisis.

 “This was the moment of the photo 

interpreter,” Dobbs said. “They were able 

to tell [the president] when the missiles 

would be ready to fire.”

“It was probably the single biggest intelligence coup of the Cold War,” he added.

Art Lundahl’s son, Robert, shared his late 

father’s connection with the president.

“Above all, my father was certainly a 

technologist, he was a scientist at heart, 

he loved technology,” said the younger 

Lundahl. “It sounded like President Kennedy had an equal interest in technology. There was a bond there.” 

Beyond technology, Lundahl also 

shared what he believes to be the 

key to his father’s effectiveness as an 

intelligence officer— exceptional communication skills. 

“He was born to brief,” Lundahl said. 

Specifically, he noted his father’s ability 

to be credible, while adjusting to the 

knowledge level of his audience and 

using humor to diffuse tension. 

NGA analyst Walter S. Trynock compared and contrasted the world of 1962 

with today’s environment. Communication skills remain critical for analysts, 

but the tools for providing GEOINT are 

markedly different, and today’s leaders 

are bombarded with information.

“The type of information, and the pace 

in which information is received by the 

policymaker, is constant, at all times of 

the day and night,” said Trynock. “So the 

challenge is to bring out the relevancy 

and the ‘so what’ to contribute to their 

decision making.” 

Then and now, though, keen analysis 

has always been key, a point brought 

home by Dobbs.

“Intelligence is like a huge jigsaw puzzle, 

and you only find a few pieces, and there 

are always going to be some missing 

pieces, but from the pieces you do find 

you try to inform policymakers about the 

entire jigsaw puzzle,” he said.
10Pathfinder » November/December 2012

U.K. Royal School of Artillery students and instructors at the RSA Proving Grounds, 

Salisbury, United Kingdom, conduct live-fire training using Precision Strike Suite for 

Special Operations Forces to mensurate target coordinates. A soldier using PSS-SOF 

uses a global positioning system to find his location, and a laser to lase the target so 

he can see it on grid coordinates on a map. PSS-SOF then draws on NGA-provided 

3-D imagery so the soldier can see whether the target he’s about to shoot is correct. If 

the location is wrong, that soldier can drag and drop an icon on his computer screen 

to the correct location so that a precise munition can be called to fire at the target.

Building Partner Capacity Through 

Foreign Military Sales 

By Tim Little, Contractor, Office of Corporate Communications

“We are joining with allies and partners around the world to build their capacity to promote security, 

prosperity and human dignity,” said President Barack Obama 

in his report, “Sustaining U.S. Global Leadership: Priorities for 

21st Century Defense.” 

“And the growing capabilities of allies and partners, as demonstrated in the successful mission to protect the Libyan people, 

create new opportunities for burden-sharing,” said Obama in 

the report.

One key element in helping U.S. allies build their capacity is the 

Foreign Military Sales program. FMS, according to the Defense 

Security Cooperation Agency, which oversees the program, 

is the “government-to-government method for selling U.S. 

defense equipment, services and training.” 

FMS seeks to “build defense relationships that promote specific 

U.S. security interests, [and] develop allied and friendly military 

capabilities for self-defense and multinational operations,” 

according to Department of Defense Instruction 5132.13, “Staffing of Security Cooperation Organizations and the Selection 

and Training of Security Cooperation Personnel,” which governs 

the program. 

The NGA role in FMS is to provide accurate and timely 

geospatial intelligence information to support international 

partners’ military transformation, capacity building and U.S. 

security interests.

As an FMS implementing agency, NGA prepares and executes 

FMS cases in response to the demand for GEOINT data. NGA 

products and services support a wide spectrum of U.S.-

made capabilities, including heavy airlift aircraft, fighter jets, 

helicopters and unmanned vehicles. In other words, NGA’s 

products and services help foreign partners take full advantage 

of the platforms they have procured from the U.S. government, 

thereby furthering U.S. strategic goals of increasing partner 

capacities and improving interoperability of allied forces. 

NGA-provided GEOINT products include Flight Information 

Publications, Digital Aeronautical Flight Information Files and 

hardcopy maps and charts that support safety of navigation. 

Digital products such as Digital Terrain Elevation Data, digital 

maps, vertical obstruction files and Compressed Arc Digitized 

Raster Graphics, are widely used to support mission planning 

requirements. 

Getty Images

NGA photo by Parveen S. Sawhney

NGA provides Flight Information 

Publications to foreign partners 

who purchase F-16 Falcon fighter 

aircraft. Pilots need FLIP 

data to fly and navigate

the aircraft.
11Pathfinder » November/December 2012

“Since fiscal year 2009, the number of requests for GEOINT 

products has rapidly increased in conjunction with the foreign 

military sales of a variety of U.S.-made capabilities to our 

coalition partners,” said Elizabeth Allen, NGA FMS program 

director in the NGA Office of International Affairs. At the end of 

fiscal year 2012, NGA had several dozen FMS-related requests, 

exceeding the total number of requests for the previous year, 

said Allen. 

Requests are not coming from just a small group of countries. 

Over the past two years, NGA has had an increasingly diverse 

customer set. “In 2010, we responded to five countries’ mission 

planning requirements, which support a variety of capabilities,” 

said Allen. “Today, we are supporting over 26 countries.” 

So what has prompted this surge in the number of requests 

and variety of countries submitting them? 

“Transition to a digital world, and advancements in technology and capabilities to support the warfighter, have put an 

increased demand on NGA for GEOINT data,” said Allen. “FMS is 

a vehicle for our partners to obtain the needed capabilities and 

the required GEOINT data to help build their capacity and to 

support coalition operations. While traditional maps and charts 

continue to be in high demand, there has been a rapid increase 

in more customized digital data requirements and services 

needed to support new technologies and capabilities, to 

include unmanned aircraft and enhanced targeting capabilities 

used to support operations in Afghanistan.” 

The drawdown of U.S. forces in Afghanistan and lessons 

learned from the Libyan conflict have strengthened the need 

to build up U.S. partner capacity, said Allen. As the United 

States reduces its presence, its allies are helping to fill in the 

gaps where needed. As they do so, they require the systems, 

data and support to accomplish those missions. 

NGA’s role in FMS and security cooperation not only benefits 

the U.S. militarily, but diplomatically as well. While NGA 

establishes GEOINT exchange and cooperation agreements to 

lay the groundwork for future cooperation and GEOINT sharing, 

FMS provides an alternative mechanism to provide data in support of larger FMS cases when no exchange agreement exists 

or it is out of scope of the original agreement. 

NGA has active geospatial agreements with more than 60 

countries. These agreements help facilitate FMS requirements 

and provide more favorable terms to participants.

As the DSCA website states, the goal of the program goes 

beyond selling equipment and services. It strengthens 

“bilateral defense relations, supporting coalition building and 

enhancing interoperability between U.S. forces and militaries of 

friends and allies.”

Foreign military sales involving GEOINT strengthen the 

capabilities of U.S. allies. NGA puts the power of GEOINT into 

the hands of our allies through FMS and other exchange agreements, providing the needed data to support their capabilities. 

As NGA Director Letitia A. Long said in a recent employee 

forum, “Working together, we will maintain NGA as the premier 

producer of actionable, sharable and integrated geospatial 

intelligence for our customers and allies around the world.”

Foreign partners who purchase Apache Longbow

attack helicopters use NGA-provided flight and navigation data. 

Getty Images
12Pathfinder » November/December 2012

Agency Uses New Technology to Support 

London Olympics

By Kathi Ghannam, Contractor, 

Office of Corporate Communications

This summer the world turned its attention to London as the United 

Kingdom hosted the 2012 Summer 

Olympic Games, which was one of the 

largest and most complex security 

operations ever undertaken. The 

National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency 

was right in the middle of the action. 

In collaboration with its domestic and 

international counterparts, NGA supplied products and services that helped 

British officials conduct a safe, event-free 

environment for attendees and athletes 

alike. In addition to advanced tradecraft, 

NGA brought three new technologies to 

the effort, which proved to be excellent 

tools in the hands of those responsible 

for keeping the Olympics safe.

In early 2011 NGA’s Olympic Support Team called on the InnoVision 

Directorate, the agency’s research and 

development arm, to develop and share 

technology to help protect the games. 

Collaborating with the technical lead 

for the Olympics’ support mission in 

NGA’s then-Analysis and Production 

Directorate (now the Directorate of 

Analysis), InnoVision delivered a set of 

simple yet versatile tools. 

Hermes is a mobile and Web application 

package that allowed field agents to 

share their geographic positions and 

geo-tagged text and photos with other 

agents and their command post, which 

enhanced security officials’ ability to 

assess potential security threats and 

respond to incidents as they arose. 

“The Department of State liked Hermes 

because it allowed them to visualize where all their agents were,” said 

InnoVision’s lead Geospatial Intelligence 

Advancement Testbed (GIAT) developer 

for Hermes. “They really appreciated the 

increased degree of situational awareness that came with using Hermes.”

Building on earlier prototypes, the GIAT 

developer team enhanced the user 

interface for both the mobile and Web 

applications, and added features to 

ensure basic functionality if an incident 

knocked mobile networks offline. 

NGA and Ordnance Survey product

International partners created this GEOINT product depicting London’s Olympic route network and venue access 

points at Olympic Park. 

A second tool gave Olympic support 

personnel a Web mapping application 

with integrated geospatial tools. This 

allowed them to view basemaps, imagery and operational layers, plan routes 

to and from events and venues, customize and notate maps and observe the 

status of the various Olympic venues 

over time, said the GIAT developer. 
13Pathfinder » November/December 2012

To achieve this, the GIS London 

development team had to overcome 

two big challenges: They had to create 

a country-wide basemap cache using 

data provided by the United Kingdom, 

and develop accurate locators and 

geocoding services for all of the address 

data they received, said another 

member of the GIAT. 

“The U.K.’s addressing system is very 

different from what we use in the U.S.,” 

said the GIAT team member. “Not every 

building is numbered. In some cases, 

building names or organizational 

names are used instead of, or in addition to, building numbers. Also, their 

address information came to us in the 

form of about 30 million separate data 

points. By working hand in hand with 

our colleagues in NGA’s Eurasia-Africa 

Regional Operations group, however, 

we solved this along with making 

several other refinements along the 

way,” said the GIAT team member.

The third tool provided a virtual 

environment in which users could walk 

and fly through the Olympic venues 

and surrounding areas and perform 

basic analytics. 

Another GIAT team member said this 

was achieved by integrating spatial and 

temporal analysis tools developed in 

the GIAT with a commercial software 

package for creating 3-D video games 

and other interactive content. 

“By combining virtual environments with 

tools such as line-of-sight analysis and 

visualization of time-sensitive data, such 

as bus and train schedules and Olympic 

event times, users could assess venues 

and ongoing events as if they were there,” 

said the second GIAT team member.

 “This tool can be used to collaborate 

online or offline, whether on a standalone computer or as part of a network,” 

said this second team member. “Probably more important to London’s security 

officials was the fact that we designed 

the system so that you do not have to 

be a GIS expert to use it. The London 

Metropolitan Police, for example, could 

easily use this technology to enhance 

their situational awareness.”

Providing support to the Olympics was 

just part of the mission for the InnoVision team, said the technical lead.

“We purposefully designed these tools 

for future reuse with a goal of building 

new processes and tools that could 

be used not only for the Olympics, but 

could also be integrated into our daily 

production processes, which is in fact 

happening,” said the technical lead.

The Human Factor

Ten NGA analysts created at least 370 

GEOINT products in support of the 

Olympics. Working around the clock 

for 28 straight days, NGA analysts were 

embedded alongside colleagues from 

CIA, FBI, Department of Homeland 

Security, National Security Agency, 

the Office of the Director of National 

Intelligence’s National Counterterrorism 

Center, the Departments of Defense 

and State, the U.S. Secret Service and 

the Open Source Center, said NGA’s 

Olympic support lead.

The Olympic support lead, who had 

also worked the 2004 Olympics in 

The graphic depicts the Hermes Web application as would be pulled up in a browser on an operations center workstation. The blue diamonds on the map background indicate the 

positions of agents in the field running Hermes on their mobile devices. The map background can be from OpenStreetMaps, as in the image above, or use event specific data, such 

as from the U.K.’s Ordnance Survey. OpenStreetMap is an online, volunteer community effort that provides first responders and others worldwide foundation data.
14Pathfinder » November/December 2012

Athens, attributed this year’s Olympics’ overall security success 

to the great teamwork on the part of domestic and international partners.

“We definitely couldn’t have done this alone,” said NGA’s 

Olympic support lead. “The NGA team and our intelligence 

community and international partners did everything from 

VIP route analysis to tracking and reporting on planned 

protests and demonstrations. Gratefully, we witnessed an 

‘uneventful’ event.

“We received profuse appreciation from our British counterparts, particularly from the Production Coordination Group,” 

she said.

The United Kingdom established the Production Coordination Group to coordinate the geospatial efforts of London’s 

municipalities and national transportation entities.

“The products we created together helped British officials 

ensure the safety of athletes, guests and dignitaries from all 

over the world during the 14-day event,” said the Olympic 

support lead.

“NGA invested nearly two years of advance planning, and the 

talents of more than 150 NGA employees, in the run up to the 

2012 Olympic Games,” she said. “During those 24 months, the 

International NGA Support Team, Europe, located in the United 

Kingdom, set the stage for the event. They got us where we 

needed to be in terms of relationship and data sharing. They 

also helped save a lot of money for the agency. Not only did 

they save us a lot of TDY [temporary duty] money, the relationships that they have built with our British partners brought 

about considerable cost sharing.”

Institutionalizing Lessons Learned

Though the Olympics have ended for this year, the event has 

helped NGA improve its processes.

“Building on lessons learned from each successive Olympic 

game since the 2002 Salt Lake City games, NGA’s product line 

development and the tradecraft evolution have been remarkable,” said the Olympic support lead.

She points out the need to institutionalize some of the best 

practices developed during the Olympics so that they can be 

applied to future events. 

“With more than 150 NGA employees having touched the planning process somehow, we now have many seasoned professionals who’ve participated in the games,” said the Olympic support 

lead. “It would be helpful if we could capitalize on their knowledge and put together a core group of folks dedicated to doing 

special events. We are now doing just that, looking at the ways we 

might possibly leverage this information across the agency and 

across the international and intelligence communities.” 

U.K. Operation Olympics

While the U.S. intelligence community was focused primarily 

on protecting its own athletes and VIPs, London’s Metropolitan 

Police and British civilian security services were responsible for 

the overall safety and security of the games. The British Ministry 

of Defense coordinated the GEOINT support efforts involving 

all members of the community, said British Army Maj. Neil 

Chapman, GEOINT Plans, Joint Forces Intelligence Group. 

Under the auspices of the Olympic Support Group, Headquarters Joint Forces Intelligence Group led the efforts, which 

oversaw all human, measurement and signatures, geospatial 

and signals intelligence analysis and production activities. The 

British Joint Forces Intelligence Group supplied several dozen 

full-time analysts to support the Olympics and employed 

countless others who furnished indirect support. 

“We established an international team to develop a common 

collection plan and parsed out elements of the plan to the 

members, which was hugely successful,” said Chapman. “The 

collaboration between the team members, who possess differing types of expertise, and the ability to share that information 

via real-time chats and collaboration sites, really are at the root 

of that success.” 

Additionally, the U.K.’s Defence Geospatial-Intelligence 

Centre provided a powerful and flexible multi-intelligence 

environment in support of the Olympics, and the U.K. Defence 

provided air and maritime security plans, explosive ordnance 

disposal and high assurance search capabilities to supplement 

existing police and home office resources. 

“With all of these assets in place, we expected the games to 

go well,” said Chapman. “All of the advanced planning and 

coordination that occurred made it an even better event than 

we’d hoped, and as a result, we experienced no significant 

disruptions.”

Nineteen-year-old George Livingstone-Thompson, center, an Olympic torchbearer from Maisemore, Gloucestershire, England, poses for a photo with members of the Guard of 

Honour May 24, 2012, in Gloucester, England. The Guard of Honour was comprised of members of the Headquarters Allied Rapid Reaction Corps (HQ ARRC) and represented 

the 16 nations that make up the HQ ARRC.

British Armed Forces photo byWarrant Officer Class 2 Stu Mckenzie
15Pathfinder » November/December 2012

NGA Partner Nations’ Training Furthers 

Tradecraft Expertise, Enhances Collaboration

By Kathi Ghannam, Contractor, Office of Corporate Communications 

The NGA’s Office of International Affairs (OIA) and the National 

Geospatial-Intelligence College (NGC) 

are working in tandem with their international mission partners to enhance 

tradecraft expertise and further 

geospatial intelligence collaboration.

“We recognize that in today’s 

dynamic environment we must be 

able to support the varied learning 

needs across the Allied System for 

Geospatial Intelligence (ASG) and 

amongst our other international 

partners, so we continue to grow and 

morph to meet those needs,” said 

Danita Dempsey, OIA’s international 

training program manager. 

The ASG is an integrated, collaborative 

community of GEOINT professionals 

working together to meet collective 

warfighting and intelligence needs, 

providing one another with global, 

regional and civil GEOINT support. 

The ASG Operations Forum assesses, 

aligns and guides GEOINT analysis and 

production across the allied nations—

maximizing production and resource 

efficiencies to include training across 

the ASG, said Dempsey. 

Because its training programs are key 

tools in strengthening international 

partnerships, NGC is working with 

NGA’s Analysis and Source Operations and Management Directorates 

to expand knowledge sharing and 

enhance learning opportunities across 

a robust learning architecture.

“The architecture behind NGA’s 

international training program includes 

traditional residential training, partnerships with academic institutions, 

Web-based training, webinars, informal 

seminars, technical analytical exchange, 

guest speaker series and mobile training delivery,” said Dempsey.

Though not offered as frequently as the 

NGC-based courses, NGA’s mobile training reaches broader audiences in our 

partners’ nations as students will come 

from all corners of the host country to 

attend NGC’s training, said Dempsey. 

For example, in the next two quarters 

of fiscal year 2013, NGA will be teaching 

Australian Army Lieutenants Thomas Pollett, Ben Moroney and Martin De Meter, from left to right, pose with NGA 

College Deputy Director Will Hopkins and staff member Barbara McArthur upon the lieutenants’ completion of the 

fundamentals of geographic information systems course.

NGA photo by Tim Miller

three mobile training courses with 

roughly 24 trainees attending each 

session, said Dempsey.

NGA and its predecessor organizations 

have offered courses to international 

partners since the early 1970s. To date, 

representatives from several countries, 

including Germany, Italy, Chile and 

Australia, have attended in-residence 

training courses at NGA’s headquarters 

in Springfield, Va., since the facility 

opened in September 2011. The college 

trains an average of 50 international 

students in residence per year.

Those partners with whom NGA has 

GEOINT exchanges can enroll in NGC’s 

courses, to include its Commonwealth 

partners Australia, Canada, New 

Zealand and the United Kingdom. 

“There are many mutual benefits to 

this arrangement,” said Ben Cumbo, 

chief of GEOINT training integration. 

“By offering this training, NGA is 

standardizing tradecraft across the 

partnership, improving interoperability and increasing opportunities 

for GEOINT mission sharing all while 

building confidence in tradecraft 

expertise.” 

NGA hopes to achieve two near-term 

outcomes from its international 

engagement: standardization of crisis 

response activities across the ASG 

and imparting tradecraft standards 

to Basic Exchange and Cooperative 

Agreement (BECA) partner students. 

A BECA provides the legal and 

technical foundation upon which two 

governments or two national agencies 

can exchange geospatial data and 

pursue co-production projects. It is 

also what authorizes NGA to provide 

training in the area of geographic 

information systems. 
16Pathfinder » November/December 2012

Currently, NGA offers the following inresidence courses to its BECA partners: 

•	 Fundamentals of geographic

information systems 

•	 FalconView

•	 Intermediate GIS for analysis

•	 Advanced GIS using models

Maj. Maurizio Monteleone and Warrant Officer Aldo Nolli are members of 

the Italian Air Force who support the 

Multinational Geospatial Co-production 

Program, a 28-nation strong GEOINT 

effort designed to co-produce highresolution vector data over regions of 

the world where large-scale data does 

not exist or to improve existing data of 

questionable quality. 

They foresee using all of the information they acquired during the one-week 

intermediate GIS course they attended 

in late August.

“The course gave us all the information 

we need to do what we are already 

doing in our agency, but better,” 

said Monteleone, as he completed 

his fourth NGC course. “The courses 

just keep getting better and help 

us improve our skills as well as our 

interactions with the international 

intelligence community.”

Several other initiatives are under way 

to increase NGA’s international training 

activities. For instance, OIA is in the 

process of developing a residential international training space to host partner 

analytic exchanges, specialized projects 

and tailored training events at NGA 

headquarters. Also, NGC is assessing new 

training development requirements to 

address partner tradecraft knowledge 

gaps. Additionally, it is working to create 

more Web-based learning opportunities, 

such as video instruction on how to use 

new applications on networks that serve 

up data that is more discoverable on 

partner-accessible networks. 

That is good news to Australian 

Army officer Lt. Ben Moroney, who 

recently completed the fundamentals 

of GIS course. 

“The information that we learned here 

is very applicable to our jobs back in 

the 1st Topographic Squadron,” said 

Moroney upon completion of the 

course. “We work with the GIS system 

back in Australia. Though we were 

familiar with about 20 percent of the 

content presented in the course, the 

overall foundational knowledge we 

gained will help us with the general 

challenges that go with the day-to-day 

operations of the system.” 

Italian Air Force Major Maurizio Monteleone and Italian Air Force Warrant Officer Aldo Nolli pose with National Geospatial-Intelligence College Director Barbara Salvatore and 

Deputy Director Will Hopkins (pictured from left to right) upon the officers’ completion of the fundamentals of geographic information systems course. 

NGA photo by Rob Cox

A fellow Australian Army officer echoed 

Moroney’s sentiment. 

Australian Army Maj. Kieran Vidal, an 

operational planning officer currently 

stationed at NGA Campus East, has 

completed four courses through this 

program, including introduction to light 

detection and ranging and introduction to photogrammetry, which were 

essentially refresher courses for an 

officer who earned a master’s degree 

in geospatial intelligence and airborne 

multispectral thermal imagery.

“The training I have received so far 

has been great, but there are several 

more courses that I’d like to take, like 

full-motion video and multispectral, 

for which I will receive professional 

development credits,” said Vidal. 

“Through NGA’s international training 

program, we are able to build additional 

partner capacity for collaborative analysis, research, warfighter support and 

co-production, facilitating a common 

operating picture across our partnerships,” said Dempsey. “NGA partners 

interested in training should work with 

their organizations and units to formally 

submit requests through their security 

assistance offices or office of defense 

cooperation.” 
17Pathfinder » November/December 2012

Agency Reflects on Role at 

20th Anniversary of Hurricane Andrew

By Kathi Ghannam, Contractor, Office of Corporate Communications

The image above is a compilation of data acquired by the GOES-7 satellite that shows Hurricane Andrew’s progression over the course of three days. After making landfall, 

Andrew tracked west across the Florida peninsula and entered the Gulf of Mexico. By Aug. 25, the storm shifted gradually northward and headed for the central Louisiana coast, 

which it struck on Aug. 26 as a Category 3 hurricane.

The Birth of a New Tradecraft

The National Geospatial-Intelligence 

Agency’s involvement in supporting 

the Federal Emergency Management 

Agency during Hurricane Andrew in 

the summer of 1992 represented its 

first foray into providing civil support 

during natural disasters.

Hurricane Andrew made landfall 

Aug. 23 at Elliott Key, Fla., and Aug. 

24 at Homestead, Fla., and was the 

costliest hurricane in U.S. history at 

the time, according to the National 

Weather Service.

The current chief of the Pakistan Weapons of Mass Destruction Analysis Cell 

worked for the National Photographic 

Interpretation Center (an NGA predecessor agency) at the time as an imagery 

analyst in a branch formed six months 

earlier to handle non-traditional issues. 

That branch was the forerunner to NGA’s 

current Integrated Work Group for Readiness, Response and Recovery (IWG-R3).

“At the time, NPIC wanted to explore 

new business areas, so we looked 

for things with untapped GEOINT 

NASA Earth Observatory image, using Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite-7 data from the GOES project. Image originally 

prepared by Fritz Hasler, Marit Jentoft-Nilsen, Hal Pierce, Kannappan Palaniappan and Michael Manyin. Caption by Adam Voiland.

[geospatial intelligence] potential,” said 

the chief.

“We were looking at using national 

imagery systems to examine things like 

deforestation in the Amazon, desertification in Africa and vegetation analysis 

in the Caribbean,” said the chief.

Joe Drummey, now director of NGA’s 

Office of International Affairs, was an 

analyst during that era.

Having just finished a developmental 

leadership assignment, Drummey asked 
18Pathfinder » November/December 2012

to do something different than the 

missile analysis he had been doing.

“There had been some discussion about 

using NPIC’s assets for disaster response 

but we were hit straight in the face with 

the issue when Andrew hit,” said Drummey. “We were immediately asked to try 

to do something to help. I reported to 

the team the day Hurricane Andrew hit. 

In fact I was pulled off vacation to join 

the team.”

FEMA requested NPIC’s support, asking 

them to provide an initial report within 

24 hours to help first responders triage 

their response based on level of damage and population concentrations, 

said the chief.

“Previously, responders had to 

make their way out to the impacted 

areas, or wait for images to appear on 

CNN to start assessing the damage, 

with no real sense of how to prioritize 

rescue and recovery operations,” said 

the chief.

“With no other tools or tradecraft at 

their disposal, our analysts began by 

using the search methodologies used 

in analyzing traditional imagery,” said 

Drummey. “We had a team of very 

talented analysts to address this issue. 

They were creative and good at coming 

up with new approaches. That handselected team included the right mix of 

people and skill sets.”

Until they developed more sophisticated systems, analysts would line up 

the imagery flats and search for the 

hardest hit areas, said the chief. They 

had to create a structure to help categorize the imagery they were seeing. Back 

then, they didn’t even know how to 

describe the various levels of damage.

“Obviously, this was very crude 

compared to what we do today, but 

it at least was a starting point for 

conducting this new mission,” said the 

chief. “But, we got immediate, effusive 

feedback from FEMA and other federal 

entities on our products’ utility.”

“The imagery activities of NGA were 

essential to the restoration of critical 

infrastructure by providing the first 

comprehensive overview of the damage resulting from the hurricane and 

flood by merging imagery with other 

information and creating hundreds 

of intelligence products per day that 

could be used and applied by response 

professionals to aid in decision making,” 

according to the Federal Geographic 

Data Committee.

NGA analysts addressed issues including recovery planning and operations, 

transportation infrastructure, critical 

and catastrophic damage, dike stability 

and breaches, industry damage and 

hazard spills, according to the committee. The agency’s World Wide 

Navigational Warning Service provided 

the Navy, Merchant Marine and Coast 

Guard with navigation information, 

relayed messages from the National 

Weather Service to people at sea, and 

aided in the location and recovery of oil 

platforms.

“The newly formed branch had to 

work closely with the agency’s Office 

of General Counsel to determine what, 

of the information collected, analysts 

could use because there were more 

restrictions on the use of national 

and foreign collection resources for 

domestic issues,” said the chief.

Once these policy issues were resolved, 

the agency developed an engagement 

strategy to let the intelligence and the 

domestic communities know about 

this evolving capability and to get their 

inputs on their specific requirements.

At that point, analysts started wearing 

pagers so that FEMA could reach out 

24 hours a day to support disasters, 

said Drummey.

The North Ridge, Calif., earthquake 

in 1994 spurred the agency to take a 

major step to facilitate post-event damage imagery assessments, said Drummey. It started building specific directed 

search area outlines to capture before 

shots of vulnerable areas in California 

for use in future disaster analysis.

“For me it was a transformational 

analytic experience because I had been 

brought up doing very traditional work 

on military force disposition and suddenly we were given the freedom to do 

something different, which made me 

a better analyst and leader of GEOINT 

issues,” said Drummey.

Current Capabilities

Since Hurricane Andrew, NGA has 

continued to increase its capacity to 

support natural and manmade disasters 

from Hurricane Katrina to the Deep 

Water Horizon oil spill, said Stephen 

Jackson with NGA’s IWG-R3.

Since that era, the agency has saved 

lives and prevented additional harm 

by providing the data, analysis and 

products that are so critical to our 

emergency preparedness, response 

and recovery mission partners, 

said Jackson.

Hurricane Andrew did extensive damage to homes in Miami, including at the Silver Palm mobile home park.

FEMA photo by Bob Epstein
19Pathfinder » November/December 2012

Special Warning Kept Ships Away 

at Height of Missile Crisis

By Howard Cohen, Branch Chief, Tactical Ocean Data Branch, Maritime Safety Office

Millions of people in this country and throughout the world received news of the Cuban Missile Crisis by watching 

television, listening to the radio or reading a 

newspaper 50 years ago. But suppose you 

were at sea, in the middle of the ocean, or 

perhaps transiting Cuba during those 13 

critical days in October. How would you 

know there was a naval blockade —a 

quarantine? 

Special Warning Number 30 

would have told you. 

The National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency’s Maritime Safety 

Office, Maritime Watch, responsible for disseminating official 

U.S. government proclamations 

affecting navigation and 

political or military threats to 

the safety of U.S. mariners, 

disseminates these special 

warnings. The Department 

of State approves this 

limited series of messages, 

which convey urgency. 

“Ships at sea are not the only ones to receive a special warning; 

the messages go to the White House National Security Council 

and the White House Situation Room,” said Peter Doherty, 

deputy director of the NGA Maritime Safety Office. “Top government officials, including the Secretary of Defense, 

Secretary of State and the Joint Chiefs of 

Staff, also receive them.” 

Special Warning 30 informed ships at sea that the president of the 

United States proclaimed a quarantine of offensive military equipment under 

shipment to Cuba.
20Pathfinder » November/December 2012

Dated Oct. 23, 1962, Special Warning Number 30 stated 

that the president of the United States proclaimed a 

quarantine of military equipment under shipment to Cuba 

and defined which areas around the coastline were either 

dangerous or safe. 

President John F. Kennedy used the term quarantine, rather 

than blockade, because other nations, including the Soviet 

Union, could have interpreted the latter term as an act of 

war. The proposed interdiction was aimed solely at offensive 

weapons and the president did not intend it to be warlike.

That evening Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara made 

the following statement at a press conference about the 

quarantine and the retention of naval personnel on active 

duty: “The president, 30 minutes ago, at 7 p.m., signed the 

proclamation ordering the interdiction of offensive weapons 

moving into Cuba, and under the terms of that proclamation, 

I have taken the necessary steps to deploy our forces to be in 

a position to make effective the quarantine at 2 p.m., tomorrow, Greenwich Time. That will be the equivalent of 10 a.m., 

Eastern Daylight Time.”

McNamara was talking about Special Warning 30, issued by 

an element of the U.S. Naval Oceanographic Office that is 

now part of NGA. Special Warnings 31, 32 and 33 followed, 

each revealing quarantine specifics. And finally, Special 

Warning Number 34, dated Nov. 20, marked the end of the 

quarantine.

The Maritime Watch still issues special warnings today, such 

as the March 2010 Special Warning 120 for Yemen that stated, 

“The Department of State warns U.S. citizens of the high 

security threat level in Yemen due to terrorist activities and 

recommends postponing non-essential travel to Yemen.” 

“The Maritime Safety Office’s Maritime Watch plays an 

integral role within our mission of providing global maritime 

geospatial intelligence in support of national security objectives including safety of navigation, international obligations, 

and joint military intelligence,” said Doherty. 

The watch maintains 24-hour operations and is the only 

means of reaching all U.S. flagged ships, military and civilian, 

with maritime safety information, including 

threat notification.

“The Maritime Watch responsibilities also include providing 

time-sensitive warnings on hazards to navigation that might 

negatively affect shipping and the safety of life at sea, including icebergs, vessels in distress, hazardous closure areas, 

uncharted shoals, survey operations, tsunamis, inoperable 

aids to navigation, acts of piracy, military operations, dangerous objects adrift and port closures,” said Doherty. 

The U.S. Air Force kept this Soviet ship under observation.

NGA Historical Research Center
21Pathfinder » November/December 2012

Staying Sharp, Informed, Together: 

Evidence in Camera, World War II

By Dr. Gary E. Weir, NGA Historian, Office of Corporate Communications

I

n the uncertain days of October 1962, when President 

John F. Kennedy wrestled with the threat of Soviet nuclear 

ballistic missiles in Cuba, he regularly commented on the 

amazing ability of the photo interpreters from Arthur Lundahl’s 

National Photographic Interpretation Center to find in complex 

aerial photography those things that presented a threat to 

the United States. This skill still forms an integral part of the 

national intelligence process and now belongs primarily to the 

National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency. 

Those who first combined the camera with all manner of 

aircraft made this possible. The British and French raised photo 

interpretation to a fine art during the Great War of 1914–1918 

(World War I), and American wartime pioneers in photo interpretation, like the master of American art photography Edward 

Steichen, learned the craft from their European colleagues 

while fighting Germany and the Austro-Hungarian Empire on 

the Western Front. When demobilization in 1919 deprived the 

United States of much of its interpretative talent and knowledge, the country found itself a generation later learning once 

again from our allies a skill that NGA has continued to refine to 

the present day. 

During World War II the British war effort depended heavily 

on the talent of photo interpreters like Constance Babbington 

Smith, Peter Riddell and Sarah Churchill to understand the 

effect of the air war, to plan aerial campaigns and to follow 

enemy activity on the ground. Proper training and regular 

information on the latest and most difficult targets became 

essential to keep skills sharp and the warfighters equipped 

with the best information available. The U.S. Army benefitted 

from this effort and from the expertise and training regimen of 

the wartime British armed forces. 

With World War II well under way and the Americans involved 

in the conflict for barely one year, the new allies worked 

together to develop ways of training newcomers, enhancing 

skills and sharing insights. The U.S. Army’s Western Air Command had a photoreconnaissance unit, the 3rd Photo Group, 

commanded by Army Lt. Col. Elliot Roosevelt, the son of President Franklin D. Roosevelt. This unit joined the British photo 

interpreters (PIs) resident at Danesfield House in Medmenham, 

Buckinghamshire, England, primarily to work on photoreconnaissance aimed at German activity on land and sea.

Early in October 1942, the British Air Ministry began producing 

Evidence in Camera, a classic publication in the world of 

photo interpretation. To advance training and collaboration 

at Medmenham, Evidence in Camera carried page after page 

of state-of-the-art images that helped the PIs and pilots 

more clearly recognize strategically or tactically significant 

geography, formations and phenomena. 

Each weekly issue of this magazine-format publication, designed 

for official use, opened with a humorous cartoon stressing the 

need to keep secrets out of casual conversation. One issue had a 

man suffering terribly in a dentist’s chair with the doctor’s hand 

in his mouth. The caption suggested that in all other cases the 

patient, obviously in uniform, should keep his mouth shut. 

The opening pages of Evidence in Camera also included a 

mystery photo. This image offered particularly complex or 

unusual scenes for analysis to see if the PIs could handle the 

most difficult photography available. In one 1943 case the 

publication identified a bizarre pattern that appeared on 

the mystery photograph as a series of channels cut by water 

draining across the beach at low tide into the main stream of 

the Ems River (in northwestern Germany and northeastern 

Netherlands). With each mystery photograph PIs would have to 

wait a week to see if their identification proved correct. 

The British Air Ministry used graphics of high quality in imitation of popular 

periodical publications to draw the attention of photo interpreters and pilots to the 

serious content of Evidence in Camera.

NGA Historical Research Center 

image from Evidence in Camera 

Vol. 1, No. 9, as enhanced 

by Lili Tuggle-Weir, 

Underground Images
22Pathfinder » November/December 2012

Classification markings higher than for official use only did not 

appear on Evidence in Camera to permit wider distribution 

among those who might benefit from the publication. However, commanding officers knew that this learning tool should 

remain within a restricted audience. Within that readership 

the publication became very popular. Aware from the beginning that Evidence in Camera needed to have an appealing 

composition and appearance to attract regular attention like 

other magazines, the Air Ministry filled the otherwise plain blue 

cover with attractive, professionally rendered graphics and 

art. Its appearance, composition and content quickly made it 

an appealing and useful device for training and information. 

In her book, “Air Spy,” Constance Babbington Smith noted that 

Royal Air Force Wing Commander Peter Stewart, the future 

commanding officer at Medmenham, “... brought into being 

an official picture magazine called Evidence in Camera, which 

many [reconnaissance] pilots maintain was the only official 

publication they ever looked at.”

Beyond the mystery photo this publication provided dozens 

of aerial images of all sorts of intelligence targets. One issue 

published in January 1943 included bomb damage assessment photographs of a rubber plant in Cologne, Germany; 

railways in the same city; aircraft attacks on U-boats in various stages of submerging; an ice-bound merchant convoy off 

Kiel, Germany; the U-boat pens at St. Nazaire, France; natural 

morning mist giving the valley of the Seine River in France 

the appearance of a coastline; and German camouflage 

treatments for aircraft and heavy guns. Each issue asked 

PIs, both British and American, to refine their tradecraft and 

bring their best skills to examining the photographs. The 

publication also asked pilots to expand their awareness of 

challenging natural or man-made phenomena.

Some of these techniques remain in use at NGA, although 

they now appear on computers and in many cases the 

images originate with satellites. During World War II, tools like 

Evidence in Camera both helped train photo interpreters in 

analysis and brought together British and American professionals. It made the enemy more vulnerable, and victory seem 

closer at hand. 

During a British bombing raid in Cherbourg, France in 1942, a stick of bombs 

falling across the whale-oil factory ship Solglimt includes at least two direct hits 

on the vessel.

In this picture, bombs burst on the E and R boat pens during a 1942 daylight attack 

on LeHavre, France, by U.S. Army Air Corps A-20C attack aircraft, one of which is 

seen over the target.

A photograph taken after the attack noted in the picture at left shows the whale-oil 

factory ship Solglimt severely damaged and partially submerged. 

A Coastal Command Whitley aircraft attacks a 500-ton U-boat off the coast of 

occupied France in 1942.

NGA Historical Research Center image from Evidence in Camera Vol. 1, No. 2 NGA Historical Research Center image from Evidence in Camera Vol. 1, No. 3NGA Historical Research Center image from Evidence in Camera Vol. 1, No. 2 NGA Historical Research Center image from Evidence in Camera Vol. 1, No. 9
NGA

National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency

am

I

Sergio “Jo-jo” Lareza is chief of the Security 

and Financial Disclosure 

Branch at the National 

Geospatial-Intelligence 

Agency. The world traveler, 

23-year military veteran 

and Ph.D. candidate joined 

the NGA team in 2004, and 

now lends his vast military 

and educational experience 

to the diverse workforce of 

NGA. “I enjoy the challenges 

of building new relationships 

and taking on new projects.”

nga.mil | FB: NatlGEOINTAgency | @NGA_GEOINT
www.nga.mil