![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/200px-FerdinandHassler.jpg?resize=200%2C296&ssl=1\")
The first Superintendent of the Coast Survey was Ferdinand\nRudolph Hassler, a Swiss immigrant whose scientific skill, strength of\ncharacter, and indomitable nature guided this first science agency through many\ndifficult times until his death in 1843. Hassler left a thriving organization imbued\nwith principles of accuracy, scientific standards, and integrity as his gift to\nthe American people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
During the period before the Civil War, the work force of\nthe Survey was made up of a nucleus of civilians working hand-in-hand with Army\nand Naval officers. These men and women (the Coast Survey was the first Federal\nagency to hire female professionals) worked at charting the nation’s waterways,\nproducing topographic maps of our shorelines, and conducting the triangulation\nthat was the backbone of all precise mapping efforts. Their efforts made our\nmarine highways among the best charted in the world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Civil War Years<\/p>\n\n\n\n
With the outbreak of the Civil War, all Army officers were\nwithdrawn from the Survey and never returned; all Naval officers but two were\nwithdrawn from Survey duty. Consequently, the civilian officers of the Survey\nwere called upon to serve in the field and provide mapping, hydrographic, and\nengineering expertise for Union forces for the duration of the war.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Civilian coast surveyors, the professional ancestors of\ntoday’s NOAA Corps, served in virtually all theaters of the war including the\ndefenses of Washington, on the Peninsula with McClellan, with the Union\nblockading forces, with Farragut and Porter on the Mississippi and Red Rivers, with\nGrant at Chattanooga and in Virginia, and with Sherman in Georgia and the\nCarolinas. They were often in the front lines or in advance of the front lines\nconducting their mapping duties. For its part, the Coast Survey officer force\nproduced many of the coastal charts and interior maps used by Union forces\nthroughout the war.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
New Responsibilities<\/p>\n\n\n\n
After the Civil War, the Coast Survey resumed its work of\nmaking the shores of our Nation safe for commerce. The area of responsibility\ncontinued to grow with the acquisition of Alaska in 1867 and the 1871 law\nrequiring the Coast Survey to carry geodetic surveys into the interior of the\ncountry. Naval officers returned to hydrographic duty on the Survey and\nremained until the Spanish-American War when all were withdrawn permanently.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
With the acquisition of the Philippines and Puerto Rico, the\nCoast and Geodetic Survey (C&GS) realm of responsibility increased again.\nInitial surveys in the Philippines were in support of defense needs as Naval\nvessels and Army transports grounded on uncharted shoals with distressing\nfrequency.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
During the years before the World War I, all C&GS work\nwas conducted by civilians even though shipboard personnel wore uniforms that\nwere virtually indistinguishable from Naval uniforms. With the entry of the\nUnited States into the war in 1917, the commissioned service of the C&GS\nwas formed in order to eliminate the anomalous condition that arose during the\nCivil War, which placed civilian assistants accompanying armed forces in\njeopardy of being considered spies if captured by the enemy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Also, by forming a uniformed commissioned service that could\nbe rapidly transferred into the Armed Forces, the rapid assimilation of\nC&GS technical skills for defense purposes was assured. Still today,\nif a national emergency occurs, the NOAA Corps could be assimilated rapidly\ninto the armed services by order of the President.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Serving During World War I<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Over half the commissioned officers of the C&GS served\nwith the Army, Navy, or Marine Corps during World War I. They served as\nartillery orienteering officers, mine-laying officers in the North Sea, troop\ntransport navigators, intelligence officers, and even on the staff to General\n“Black Jack” Pershing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Colonel\nE. Lester Jones<\/a>, then Superintendent of the Coast and Geodetic Survey and\n“father of the Commissioned Corps,” returned to the United States and\nwas a founder and first President of the Pioneer Post of the American Legion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Following WWI, the C&GS reverted to its role of peaceful\nsurveyor and chart maker of the Nation. The young men who came into the Survey\nduring this period spent years developing expertise in land surveying, sea\nfloor and airways charting, coastline mapping, geophysics, and oceanography.\nThis expertise was combined with the hardships of a lifestyle that was characterized\nby years in survey field assignments or attached to survey vessels.<\/p>\n\n\n\n World War II<\/p>\n\n\n\n With the outbreak of the World War II, once again over half\nof the commissioned officers of the C&GS were transferred to either the\nArmy, Navy, or Marine Corps. Of the C&GS civilian workforce, approximately\none-half, slightly over 1,000, joined the armed services. Those remaining on\nthe home front were engaged almost exclusively in activities related to the\nprosecution of the war. Three officers who remained in the C&GS and eleven\nmembers of the agency who had joined other services were killed during the\ncourse of the war.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Officers and civilians of the Survey served in North Africa,\nEurope, and throughout the Pacific. These individuals served with distinction,\nearning the respect of the highest echelons of the armed services. Members of\nthe Survey shared the danger, hardship, and years of separation from loved ones\nthat were common to all services.<\/p>\n\n\n\n As the C&GS’ers were but a small portion of the men and\nwomen under arms during this period, there is no claim that our men or ships\nwere instrumental in turning the tide of any one battle or enemy\nengagement. But the claim is justly made that the Survey helped speed the\nmovement of men and materiel, that it was instrumental in improving the\nefficiency of putting ordnance on target, and that our charts, field artillery\nsurveys, and skill in developing new instrumentation and methods saved\ncountless American and Allied lives. Much of this work was done at the front as\nour officers were subjected to all the hazards of land, air, and naval warfare.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Providing Support in the Field<\/p>\n\n\n\n C&GS officers served as artillery surveyors,\nhydrographers, amphibious engineers, beach masters, reconnaissance surveyors\nfor the worldwide aeronautical charting effort, instructors at service schools,\nand in a plethora of technical positions. In Europe the work of C&GS\nartillery surveyors assured the success of the devastating tactic of\n“time-on-target.” In the Pacific, C&GS ships often operated in\nadvance of fleet units.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Of the USS Pathfinder, a C&GS ship taken over by\nthe Navy for the duration of the war, it was said, “The road to Tokyo was\npaved with Pathfinder charts.” Admiral Chester Nimitz, in\npraising this ship’s work, referred to it as a C&GS ship, because the\ntechnical expertise was provided by C&GS officers transferred into the\nNavy. C&GS amphibious engineers were regimental navigators for Army\nengineer shore and boat regiments moving men and supplies during General\nDouglas MacArthur’s leap-frog war up New Guinea and into the Philippines.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In the worldwide aeronautical charting effort of WWII,\nC&GS officers were reconnaissance surveyors with the Army Air Forces\ntraveling throughout the world pioneering many of today’s civil air routes. On\nthe home front, C&GS chart makers provided close to 100 million charts and\nmaps to the Allied forces. These included press runs of over 1,800 target\ncharts of such areas as Ploesti and Hiroshima. Adding to the total contribution\nof the C&GS to the war charting efforts was the assignment of a C&GS\nofficer as the first commanding officer of the Army Air Forces Aeronautical\nChart Plant at St. Louis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Post-war Years<\/p>\n\n\n\n Following WWII, C&GS officers returned home to be\nimmediately ordered to the business of surveying and charting our nation. Many\nmen who had spent years overseas were immediately sent out on survey ships and\nmobile field survey parties. Defense projects were still prominent as the\nC&GS sent survey crews to Arctic Alaska for 10 years on Dew Line surveys;\nconducted geodetic and geophysical surveys of various rocket ranges; and sailed\non oceanographic cruises for the Navy. C&GS expertise was used in\nestablishing seismic stations for monitoring nuclear testing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In 1959, as it became increasingly evident that the United\nStates’ environment was intertwined with the world environment, C&GS was\ngiven the mandate to conduct worldwide oceanographic studies. In the 152 years\nsince its inception, the Survey of the Coast had grown from a relatively small\noperation centered on the east coast of the United States to an agency working\nin all the oceans of the world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Following two reorganizations in which many science agencies\nwith related missions were brought together in one agency, NOAA and the NOAA\nCorps came into existence in 1970 following a short stint as the\nEnvironmental Science Services Administration and the ESSA Corps (1965-1970).<\/p>\n\n\n\n Serving NOAA and the Nation<\/p>\n\n\n\n Today, NOAA is comprised of the National Weather Service<\/a>, National Marine Fisheries Service<\/a> (NOAA\nFisheries), Office of Oceanic and\nAtmospheric Research<\/a> (NOAA Reseach), National Environmental Satellite, Data and\nInformation Service<\/a>, National\nOcean Service<\/a>, and the Office of\nMarine and Aviation Operations<\/a>. NOAA Corps officers command\nNOAA’s fleet<\/a> of\nresearch and survey vessels and aircraft, and serve within each of NOAA’s line\noffices.<\/p>\n\n\n\n NOAA officers and civilians are equally at home under the\nsea, on the sea, surveying the land, charting the airways, flying into\nhurricanes and other dangerous weather phenomena, monitoring environmental\nspacecraft, and studying the most important star, our sun. They serve on all\nthe oceans of the world and represent the United States in many nations. One\ncan only wonder what Ferdinand Hassler would think about the organization that\nhe helped found so many years ago.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" 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… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1999,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"9","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","inline_featured_image":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"wpai_generated_summary":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"dois","default_image_id":71799,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1998","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1998","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1998"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1998\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1999"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1998"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1998"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1998"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/jones_on_lydonia650.jpg?resize=650%2C560&ssl=1\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\n