Many
elements of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration (NOAA) and its commissioned officer service,
the NOAA Corps, are direct descendants of the U. S. Coast and Geodetic
Survey (USC&GS), the oldest scientific agency in the U.S. Federal
Government. NOAA and the NOAA Corps can trace their lineage to 1807
when President Thomas Jefferson, among the most scientific of our Presidents,
signed a bill for the "Survey of the Coast." The first Superintendent
of the Coast Survey was Ferdinand Rudolph Hassler, a Swiss immigrant
whose scientific skill, strength of character, and indomitable nature
guided this first science agency through many difficult times until
his death in 1843. Hassler left a thriving organization imbued with
principles of accuracy, scientific standards, and integrity as his gift
to the American people.
During
the period before the Civil War, the work force of the Survey was
made up of a nucleus of civilians working hand-in-hand with Army and
Naval officers. These men and women (the Coast Survey was the first
Federal agency to hire female professionals) worked at charting the
nation's waterways, producing topographic maps of our shorelines,
and conducting the triangulation that was the backbone of all precise
mapping efforts. Their efforts made our marine highways among the
best charted in the world. Many outstanding military and Naval officers
served with the Survey during these years, including Andrew Humphreys,
Edwin O.C. Ord, Isaac Ingalls Stevens, Joseph Johnston, Ambrose P.
Hill, David Dixon Porter, Charles H. Davis, James Alden, Samuel P.
Lee, and John Maffitt.
With
the outbreak of the Civil War, all Army officers were withdrawn from
the Survey and never returned; all Naval officers but two were withdrawn
from Survey duty. Consequently, the civilian officers of the Survey
were called upon to serve in the field and provide mapping, hydrographic,
and engineering expertise for Union forces for the duration of the
war. Civilian Coast Surveyors, the professional ancestors of today's
NOAA Corps, served in virtually all theaters of the war including
the defenses of Washington, on the Peninsula with McClellan, with
the Union blockading forces, with Farragut and Porter on the Mississippi
and Red Rivers, with Grant at Chattanooga and in Virginia, and with
Sherman in Georgia and the Carolinas. They were often in the front
lines or in advance of the front lines conducting their mapping duties.
For its part, the Coast Survey officer force produced many of the
coastal charts and interior maps used by Union forces throughout the
war.
After
the Civil War, the Coast Survey resumed its work of making the shores
of our Nation safe for commerce. The area of responsibility continued
to grow with the acquisition of Alaska in 1867 and the 1871 law requiring
the Coast Survey to carry geodetic surveys into the interior of the
country. Naval officers returned to hydrographic duty on the Survey
and remained until the Spanish-American War when all were withdrawn
permanently. With the acquisition of the Philippines and Puerto Rico,
the Coast and Geodetic Survey (C&GS) realm of responsibility increased
again. Initial surveys in the Philippines were in support of defense
needs as Naval vessels and Army transports grounded on uncharted shoals
with distressing frequency.
During
the years before the First World War, all C&GS work was conducted
by civilians even though shipboard personnel wore uniforms that were
virtually indistinguishable from Naval uniforms. With the entry of
the United States into the war in 1917, the commissioned service of
the C&GS was formed in order to eliminate the anomalous condition
that arose during the Civil War, which placed civilian assistants
accompanying armed forces in jeopardy of being considered spies if
captured by the enemy. Also, by forming a uniformed commissioned service
that could be rapidly transferred into the Armed Forces, the rapid
assimilation of C&GS technical skills for defense purposes was
assured. Still today, if a national emergency occurs, the NOAA Corps
could be assimilated rapidly into the armed services by order of the
President. Over half the commissioned officers of the C&GS served
with the Army, Navy, or Marine Corps during WWI. They served as artillery
orienteering officers, mine-laying officers in the North Sea, troop
transport navigators, intelligence officers, and even on the staff
to General "Black Jack" Pershing. Colonel E. Lester Jones, then Superintendent
of the Coast and Geodetic Survey and "father of the Commissioned Corps,"
returned to the United States and was a founder and first President
of the Pioneer Post of the American Legion.
Following
WWI, the C&GS reverted to its role of peaceful surveyor and chart
maker of the Nation. The young men who came into the Survey during
this period spent years developing expertise in land surveying, sea
floor and airways charting, coastline mapping, geophysics, and oceanography.
This expertise was combined with the hardships of a lifestyle that
was characterized by years in survey field assignments or attached
to survey vessels. With the advent of the Second World War, once again
over half of the commissioned officers of the C&GS were transferred
to either the Army, Navy, or Marine Corps. Of the C&GS civilian
work force, approximately one-half, slightly over 1,000, joined the
armed services. Those remaining on the home front were engaged almost
exclusively in activities related to the prosecution of the war. Three
officers who remained in the C&GS and eleven members of the agency
who had joined other services were killed during the course of the
war.
Officers
and civilians of the Survey served in North Africa, Europe, and throughout
the Pacific. These individuals served with distinction, earning the
respect of the highest echelons of the armed services. Members of
the Survey shared the danger, hardship, and years of separation from
loved ones that were common to all services. As the C&GS'ers were
but a small portion of the men and women under arms during this period,
there is no claim that our men or ships were instrumental in turning
the tide of any one battle or enemy engagement. But the claim is justly
made that the Survey helped speed the movement of men and materiel,
that it was instrumental in improving the efficiency of putting ordnance
on target, and that our charts, field artillery surveys, and skill
in developing new instrumentation and methods saved countless American
and Allied lives. Much of this work was done at the front as our officers
were subjected to all the hazards of land, air, and naval warfare.
C&GS
officers served as artillery surveyors, hydrographers, amphibious
engineers, beach masters, hydrographers, reconnaissance surveyors
for the worldwide aeronautical charting effort, instructors at service
schools, and in a plethora of technical positions. In Europe the work
of C&GS artillery surveyors assured the success of the devastating
tactic of "time-on-target." In the Pacific, C&GS ships often operated
in advance of fleet units. Of the USS PATHFINDER, a C&GS ship
taken over by the Navy for the duration of the war, it was said: "The
road to Tokyo was paved with PATHFINDER charts." Admiral Chester Nimitz,
in praising this ship's work, referred to it as a C&GS ship, because
the technical expertise was provided by C&GS officers transferred
into the Navy. C&GS amphibious engineers were regimental navigators
for Army engineer shore and boat regiments moving men and supplies
during MacArthur's leap-frog war up New Guinea and into the Philippines.
In the worldwide aeronautical charting effort of WWII, C&GS officers
were reconnaissance surveyors with the Army Air Forces traveling throughout
the world pioneering many of today's civil air routes. On the home
front, C&GS chart makers provided close to 100 million charts
and maps to the Allied forces. These included press runs of over 1,800
target charts of such areas as Ploesti and Hiroshima. Adding to the
total contribution of the C&GS to the war charting efforts was
the assignment of a C&GS officer as the first commanding officer
of the Army Air Forces Aeronautical Chart Plant at St. Louis.
Following
WWII, C&GS officers returned home to be immediately ordered to
the business of surveying and charting our nation. Many men who had
spent years overseas were immediately sent out on survey ships and
mobile field survey parties. Defense projects were still prominent
as the C&GS sent survey crews to Arctic Alaska for 10 years on
Dew Line surveys; conducted geodetic and geophysical surveys of various
rocket ranges; and sailed on oceanographic cruises for the Navy. C&GS
expertise was used in establishing seismic stations for monitoring
nuclear testing. In 1959, as it became increasingly evident that the
United States' environment was intertwined with the world environment,
C&GS was given the mandate to conduct worldwide oceanographic
studies. In the 152 years since its inception, the Survey of the Coast
had grown from a relatively small operation centered on the east coast
of the United States to an agency working in all the oceans of the
world.
Following
two reorganizations in which many science agencies with related missions
were brought together in one agency, NOAA and the NOAA Corps came
into existence in 1970 following a short stint as the Environmental
Science Services Administration and the ESSA Corps (1965-1970). NOAA
today is comprised of five offices: The National Weather Service;
National Marine Fisheries Service; Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric
Research; National Environmental Satellite, Data and Information Service;
and National Ocean Service. NOAA Corps officers serve within all components
of NOAA as well as with DOD, the U. S. Coast Guard, NASA, and the
Department of State. Through the Office of Marine and Aviation Operations,
they operate NOAA's fleet of research and survey vessels and aircraft.
Today's NOAA civilians and officers are equally at home under the
sea, on the sea, surveying the land, charting the airways, flying
into hurricanes and other dangerous weather phenomena, monitoring
environmental spacecraft, and studying the most important star, our
sun. They serve on all the oceans of the world and represent the United
States in many nations. One can only wonder what Ferdinand Hassler
would think about the organization that he helped found so many years
ago.
