Ink sketch of young George Washington surveying the area around the Popes Creek plantation. Credit: National Park Service, U.S. Dept. of the Interior, National Park Service Historical Handbook Series No. 26, frontispiece.

Plotting the Course

Marines at NGA follow in Washington’s footsteps

By Kevin Clark, NGA Office of Corporate Communications

In early 1748, a young George Washington set off on his first major surveying
expedition across northern Virginia. The monthlong undertaking took the 16-year-old west over the Blue Ridge Mountains with George William Fairfax, nephew of Fairfax County’s namesake, Lord Thomas Fairfax, and James Genn, the surveyor of Prince William County.

A map of Lord Fairfax’s property based on the survey from 1736–1737. Courtesy of Library of Congress.

The adventure helped spark Washington’s decision to become a geographical surveyor, according to the U.S. national archives.

More than 265 years after Washington’s journey, the Fred W. Smith National Library for the Study of George Washington opened Sept. 27 at Mount Vernon, the first president’s Fairfax County home. While spectators and scholars attended the opening of the museum, Marines at the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency on Fort Belvoir were busy surveying the northern Virginia landscape visible from Washington’s back yard.

U.S. Marine Sgt. Austin R. Hackett collects data points using a GPS-based Field Controller 200 as part of a “realtime kinematic survey” during his survey phase exercise July 26. The points collected with the FC 200 will be recorded as specific objects during the exercise and later uploaded to mapping software such as Google Earth to show the locations of fence lines, manhole covers, trees and any other obstructions. Photo Credit: Kevin Clark, NGA Office of Corporate Communications

NGA is home to the U.S. Marine Corps Basic Geographic Intelligence Specialist course, a seven-month endeavor that teaches Marines to perform precision ground control survey operations and provide the positional data required for various weapons delivery systems, according to marines.mil, the official U.S. Marine Corps website. Upon completion of the course, Marines are awarded the military occupational specialty of 0261 and have the basic skills necessary to construct and revise military maps and conduct topographic and hydrographic survey operations, analyzing terrain and hydrography as a functional aspect of military intelligence.

U.S. Marine Pfc. Nathan A. Edwards operates a Topcon Total Station during his survey phase exercise July 26. The Total Station gives point-to-point measurements from location to location, allowing its user to later upload the data and detect any change in a point’s initially presumed coordinate. One use for such data is to help pinpoint artillery targets in the field. Photo Credit: Kevin Clark, NGA Office of Corporate Communications

The first area of course study is a three-month, survey-based phase that develops the skills necessary to perform geographical surveys in the field, said Marine Staff Sgt. Keith Winfrey, a course instructor at NGA. At the end of the first phase, students test their new skills in a weeklong exercise that demonstrates their newly developed talents as Marine Corps surveyors, said Winfrey. The next phase of their training integrates their work into useful products for developing military intelligence.

This article was originally published in the Fall 2013 edition of the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency’s Pathfinder Magazine