Dahlgren Foundation Digest Summer 2014

Dahlgren Heritage Foundation Digest - Summer 2014 1

DAHLGREN HERITAGE FOUNDATION Summer 2014

Dahlgren Heritage Museum P. O. Box 816, Dahlgren, Virginia 22448 www.dahlgrenmuseum.org

By Andrew Revelos

D ahlgren’s 95 years of achieve-ment have provided invalua-ble, hard-won lessons for the

Navy, shedding light on its past and illuminating its future. Some aspects of Dahlgren’s histo-ry—the massive naval guns still found across the installation come to mind—are figuratively and literally colossal. But those unmistakable relics of a bygone era do not explain the real rea-son for Dahlgren's continued excellence. That distinction be-longs to the military and scien-tific minds at Dahlgren, who for generations have collaborat-ed to provide the Navy with the tools it needs to win wars. The process of aligning mil-itary goals with scientific reali-ty is always changing, always challenging and almost always imperfect. But military and ci-vilian leaders at Dahlgren have found a way to consistently achieve success by giving rank-and-file scientists creative space to solve military prob-lems. Preserving the lessons learned from Dahlgren’s more than nine decades of naval problem-solving has, regretta-bly, been less successful than the programs themselves. For years, scientists, engineers and managers simply saved whatever historic material they deemed important.

A small museum was established by Dahlgren employee Robert Zink in Building 183 in the 1960s, but its dis-plays were later boxed in 1983 to ac-commodate the arrival of Naval Space Command to the installation. Historic documents, photos and scientific de-vices were sent back to the depart-ments at the Naval Surface Warfare

Center Dahlgren Division or left for-gotten in offices and closets across the base. In the early 2000s, Wayne Har-man, a longtime NSWCDD employee, chaired the Dahlgren Science and Technology Council and helped docu-ment Dahlgren’s contributions to the national defense in preparation for

what would become the Base Realignment and Closure Act of 2005. “[NSWCDD leaders] want-ed us to find out what we’d done and where did it go,” said Harman. Harman was joined in the effort by another longtime NSWCDD employee, Robin Staton. “I discovered that Robin had been stashing stuff away for years in CONEX boxes,” said Harman. “[The effort] kind of got us started doing this. It gave us a cause.” Around the same time, the Fredericksburg Area Museum and Cultural Center sought help from the base to create an exhibit about Dahlgren. “They wanted us to reconstruct stories about the base’s accomplish-ments and projects,” said Staton. “It turns out, that was not easy.” Harman and Staton re-ceived support from NSWCDD leadership and began the pro-cess of collecting historical items. A broken 8,300 pound

Dahlgren History Project

Ensuring the Past Illuminates the Future

See HISTORY PROECT

on page 4

LESSONS FROM THE PAST ...

Robin Staton inspects an item at the Dahlgren History

Project with a tragic history: the 16-inch shell that was

jammed into a barrel of the number two gun turret on the

USS Iowa when an explosion occurred in 1989, killing 47

Sailors. Preserving lessons learned is one of the primary

tasks of the Dahlgren History Project. U.S. Navy photo by Andrew Revelos


DAHLGREN HERITAGE FOUNDATION

Board of Directors

President Edward W. Jones

Vice President Robert V. Gates

Treasurer Dennis Quick

Secretary Jeron Hayes

Board of Directors Charles Armstrong

John B. Ashton Ruby Brabo Tim Carsola

Gregory Chambers James Eaton

Joseph McGettigan Debbie McInnis Stan Palivoda

Lisa A. Rossbacher Ed Watson

Our Mission

The Dahlgren Heritage Foundation pre-

serves and promotes the history, traditions,

heritage and culture of the United States

Navy at Dahlgren, Va., and the surrounding

community. The Foundation will purpose-

fully and aggressively seek financial support

to establish the Dahlgren Heritage Museum

and to provide the long-term preservation

efforts and educational activities associated

with sharing the stories and interpreting the

U.S. Navy’s physical, technical, intellectual

and social contributions to King George

County, the Commonwealth of Virginia, and

the nation.

Our Vision

To generate a public understanding of the

impact the community and U.S. Navy base

at Dahlgren, Virginia, have had in using

science and technology to strengthen nation-

al defense, particularly through support for

warfighters.

The Dahlgren Heritage Foundation is a member of the American Associa-tion for State and Local History.

PRESIDENT’S MEMO

By Ed Jones

T he secretary to the Northern Virginia judge sounded a bit perplexed. I was calling to leave a message for her boss about a reunion coming up for Dahlgren School. When I mentioned the word “reunion,” she im-

mediately assumed I meant for law school or college, or maybe even for high school. The fact that it was for a grades 1-through-8 school, a tiny elemen-tary/middle school on a Navy base in King George County, seemed to throw her. But she took the message anyway. It didn’t take long for the judge to call back. His message was short and emphatic: “I’ll be there!” Such is the pull of Dahlgren School. With its roots extending back to the 1920s, the school continues to offer small classes, superb teaching and inno-vative opportunities – precisely the combination that attracted the judge and over 100 other alumni of Dahlgren School to a reunion a few years ago. The Dahlgren Heritage Museum hopes to explore that ongoing legacy with a forum or forums beginning this year with former teachers from the school. (Check our website, www.dahlgrenmuseum.org, for updated details.) Through these conversations, we will be living into our mission of telling the story, not only of the base itself, but also of the communities it has spawned and impacted. Beyond all the technological achievements and intellectual resources pro-duced by the Navy’s presence at Dahlgren, the base also has created a lasting legacy of community-building. Back in the 1950s, when I was beginning my nine-year journey through Dahlgren School (kindergarten through eighth grade), we were known as “the Dahlgren kids” – the proud members of a school community that mixed military with civilians, captains’ children with sailors’ kids. Today, with an all-military student body, the tradition of excel-lence continues. Department of Defense schools, like the one at Dahlgren, are undergoing a review this summer that will help determine their future roles. That’s all the more reason for the Dahlgren Heritage Museum to shine a spotlight on this important part of the Dahlgren story. Check our website for upcoming forums, and then make plans to join us at the museum. In the former Welcome Center at the foot of the Nice Bridge, we’re telling the remarkable story of Dahlgren.

Exploring the Dahlgren Legacy

The current Dahlgren School building has been in use since the early 1940s.

http://www.dahlgrenmuseum.org


Toward that end, Jones said, the foundation will concentrate on devel-oping a number of special events over the next few years, as well as recruit-ing additional volunteers to enable the Dahlgren museum to expand its operating hours.

By Gary Wagner

I n his assessment of the current status of the Dahlgren Heritage Foundation at the organization’s

annual membership meeting on June 17, foundation president Ed Jones em-phasized, “We’re halfway through our critical startup period leading to the centen-nial anniversary of Dahlgren.” Since the foundation was organized in 2010, the group has made good progress in garnering financial support, and in being able to open the Dahlgren Heritage Museum with the support of the Vir-ginia Tourism Corporation, recounted Jones. But looking toward 2018 and the 100th anniversary of the establishment of the na-val base at Dahlgren—now known as Naval Support Fa-cility (NSF) Dahlgren—he added, “That’s when we want to be going full speed ahead with our outreach ef-forts and community pro-grams.”

See ANNUAL MEETING on page 5

Fundraising will also be a priori-ty, said Jones. “We need to ignite our fundraising efforts again so our next four years can be as productive as the first four years.” A review of the foundation’s finances, presented by treasurer Dennis Quick during the annual meeting, highlighted the fact that the organization’s current equity had decreased from over $165,000 in 2013 to just over $118,000 this year, a dif-ference of $47,502. “But this reduction in total assets is primarily accounted for by the cost for design and installation of the ex-hibits in the Dahlgren museum for its opening last year,” Quick report-ed. Dr. Robert Gates, foundation vice president, was also on the agen-da to report on the latest exhibit re-cently loaned to the museum by the Navy. A number of artifacts related to computational analysis—dating to the 1940s and later—were provided by the Dahlgren History Project of-fice of the Naval Surface Warfare Center Dahlgren Division. Business conducted during the annual meeting included the election of officers, which is required annual-ly. All four currently serving officers were re-elected: president Ed Jones, vice president Dr. Robert Gates, sec-retary Jeron Hayes, and treasurer Dennis Quick. A handful of foundation board members—which are elected on a rotating basis—were affirmed. Re-turning for a second three-year term are Jim Eaton, Dr. Greg Chambers and Debbie McGinnis. Dennis Quick was elected as a new board candi-date for his first three-year term to fill a recently vacated board position. The annual meeting concluded with a conversation with Capt. Peter Nette, commanding officer for Naval

ANNUAL MEMBERSHIP MEETING REPORT

It’s ‘Full Speed Ahead’ Looking Forward to Dahlgren Centennial in 2018

Capt. Peter Nette was a featured guest speaker

during the annual business meeting, conducted

at the Dahlgren Heritage Museum.

Ed Jones, president of the Dahlgren

Heritage Foundation, addresses mem-

bers during the group’s annual meet-

ing on June 17.


Dahlgren cannon that served onboard the USS Merrimack and CSS Virginia during the Civil War was loaned to the museum for five years, but the effort fizzled when the project ran low on funding and the gun was returned to the Navy. Harman retired in 2007 but re-turned to Dahlgren the following year on a part-time basis with the task of organizing and preserving Dahlgren’s history. Harman was hired by Kratos and contracted to support NSWCDD’s history mission. Harman and Pete Kolakowski, operations department head for NSWCDD, met with Rear Adm. Jay Deloach, director of Naval History and Heritage Command, in 2009 with the goal of re-establishing a Dahlgren museum. Deloach informed them that the Navy was changing the way it managed its museums; from that point on, museums would be private-ly funded and operated, but follow Navy protocol and policy. The following year, Naval Sup-port Activity South Potomac orga-nized a meeting of local government, business and educational leaders with representatives from the military com-mands at Dahlgren and staff from Na-val History and Heritage Command. The purpose of the meeting was to determine whether there was support from the community for developing a museum to highlight the history and work at Dahlgren in support of the nation’s defense. Deloach sent Dr. Jay Thomas, as-sistant director for collections man-agement, to Dahlgren to evaluate the situation. “[Thomas] was very encour-aging,” said Harman. “He said the Navy was developing a new museum structure and maybe you all could be the prototype for this new idea.” The Dahlgren History Project would function to preserve the les-

sons of the past for the cur-rent workforce while sup-porting a Dahlgren muse-um if a private, organized effort to establish one arose. “The purpose of the history project is knowledge preservation, management and transfer,” said Staton, who became a Dahlgren History Project employee after he retired from NSWCDD in 2012. “We serve as a reposito-ry for the historical infor-mation, to keep it organized and be able to respond to data calls. A major part of our role is to respond inter-nal and public inquiries. Another part of what we do is preserving corporate knowledge and lessons learned.” In the meantime, strong consensus in the communi-ty continued to build in support of a museum fol-lowing the organizational meeting hosted by the base in 2010. A group of organ-izers quickly identified a

HISTORY PROJECT

Continued from page 1

U.S

. N

avy p

ho

tos b

y A

ndre

w R

eve

los

Sara Krechel, historian at the Dahlgren History Project, is reflected by the mirror

of a device used to inspect the inside of naval guns barrels.

Wayne Harman, historian at the Dahlgren History

Project, examines a pristine example of

Thatcher's Calculating Instrument, an “ultimate

slide rule” patented in 1881.

Preserving Dahlgren’s History: ‘Every Day


“The question is, why is this here?” said Staton. “What’s the story behind it?” For two years, the team searched for the facts. “We figured out that it was given to the commander of the 7th Fleet, an admiral, and apparently his buddy was Admiral Turner Joy, who we are pretty sure brought it here when he became Dahlgren’s [commanding officer] in 1947,” said Staton. “There is a story like that for almost everything that's here.” Office moves are the kind of events that gets the team excited since they often produce surprise finds. “We’re trying to minimize the amount of information that’s lost,” said Staton. “Most of the time it’s lost for-ever.” Boxed items from the old museum in Building 183, for example, were recently re-discovered at Public Works. “You never know what’s his-torical until you know what’s histori-cal,” said Harman, who cringes at the idea of losing potentially historic items. The team strongly encourages any employee or service member at Dahlgren to contact them if they find any document, photo or item that could be historic. While the work continues, uncov-ering history is a rewarding task. “This is great fun,” said Harman. “Every day is a day of discovery.” What are some of the lessons those discoveries can offer today’s workforce? “The knowledge that this base learned about how to develop computer programs for ships, these weapons systems that are so critical, they have to work,” said Harman. “To me, that is a big contribution this base has made.” “I think this base has done a pret-ty good job to not only discover, but to document and tell the story of how you run a successful science, technol-ogy and engineering organization,” added Staton.

board of directors, and the private Dahlgren Heritage Foundation was incorporated in 2011 to develop and operate the Dahlgren Heritage Muse-um. Soon after, the foundation re-ceived non-profit designation and a temporary site for the museum was secured at the former Virginia Wel-come Center. Now, the long-neglected job of collecting and organizing Dahlgren’s history began in earnest. Karen Farley joined the Dahlgren History Project as its first full-time employee even as Harman’s own hours grew to a full work week. When Farley departed, a series of in-terns from the University of Mary Washington’s prestigious historic preservation degree program lent their talents to the monumental task at hand. One of those interns, Sara Krechel, returned to the Dahlgren History Pro-ject as a full-time employee after grad-uation. Krechel estimates that the pro-ject has thus far cataloged and inven-toried more than 1,000 historic objects and 2,000 documents, a tiny fraction of the historic items in the Dahlgren History Project’s possession.

T he project’s mission only be-came more challenging after floods in 2011 forced the team

to hastily relocate thousands of items from their shop in Building 492, throwing a wrench into the painstak-ing organization. Newspapers were strung along clotheslines in the facili-ty in the flood’s aftermath in an effort literally to save history. Throughout it all, the list of items that need to be cataloged grew. But the study of his-tory is not for the impatient. “We spent literally years [investigating] some things,” said Staton. One of Dahlgren’s lesser-known items is a statue of a warrior Buddha, now located behind Public Works. A Navy officer received the statue from an Army command in Korea in the 1940s, according to the plaque.

Support Activity South Potomac, moderated by Ed Jones. Nette, who has managed NSF Dahlgren since August 2011, departs for his next Navy assignment in Nor-folk in July. “I’ve enjoyed by time here, espe-cially the working relationships with many in the community—a lot of great people,” Nette replied. Jones, in commenting on Nette’s on-going support of the foundation, asked, “Why have you cared so much about the history of Dahlgren?” “It was important for me when I came here to immerse myself in un-derstanding the missions and history of all the tenant commands, and to get to know the community,” Nette re-plied. “I think before you starting estab-lishing or changing policy, it’s im-portant to know the history and how things were ‘back in the day’.” Nette added that he quickly came to appreciate the sense of pride and ownership of the base held by many in the community.

ANNUAL MEETING

Continued from page 3

is a Day of Discovery’

"The past reminds us of timeless

human truths and allows for the

perpetuation of cultural traditions

that can be nourishing; it contains

examples of mistakes to avoid,

preserves the memory of alternative

ways of doing things, and is the basis

for self-understanding ..."

— Bettina Drew


Dahlgren Heritage Foundation P. O. Box 816 Dahlgren, VA 22448

Down Range Dahlgren Heritage Foundation News & Upcoming Events

July 16

Dahlgren Heritage Foundation Board Meeting

Dahlgren Heritage Museum

September 6

Art Auction University of Mary Washington

Dahlgren Campus

November 15

German Christmas Market Dahlgren Heritage Museum

Dahlgren Heritage Foundation is an

approved charity for this year’s Potomac

Combined Federal Campaign (CFC),

organization #80381

DHF Registered With AmazonSmile

The Dahlgren Heritage Foundation is now a participating charity in the Am-azonSmile program, which offers Ama-zon customers a simple and automatic way to support their favorite charity every time they shop, at no cost to cus-tomers. Amazon customers shopping at smile.amazon.com will find the same low prices, vast selection and conven-ient shopping experience as Ama-zon.com, with the added bonus that Amazon will donate a portion of the purchase price to a customer’s favorite charitable organization. To shop at AmazonSmile simply go to smile.amazon.com. Tens of millions of products on AmazonSmile are eligi-ble for donations. Shoppers will see eli-gible products marked “Eligible for Am-azonSmile donation” on their product detail pages.

Shoppers can use their existing ac-count on Amazon.com and Ama-zonSmile. A customer’s shopping cart, Wish List and other account settings are also the same. On their first visit to AmazonSmile, customers will need to select a charita-ble organization to receive donations from eligible purchases before they begin shopping. Customers’ selections are remembered, and then every eligible purchase made on AmazonSmile will result in a donation.

Museum Hours Growing

The Dahlgren Heritage Museum is now open to the public on the first and third Saturday of each month. Operat-ing hours are 8:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. on the first Saturday, and 12 noon to 4 p.m. on the third Saturday. Group visits to the museum can be arranged at times that are outside the regular monthly hours. To arrange for a group tour, send an email to [email protected].

Dahlgren Foundation Digest Summer 2014

Documents

Transcript of Dahlgren Foundation Digest Summer 2014