ABERDEEN PROVING GROUND, Md. -- As the home of the Army communication-electronics finished its move from the Jersey Shore to the Chesapeake Bay region of Maryland Sep. 15, pioneering scientists and engineers will not be forgotten.
Dr. Walter McAfee, an African-American scientist and mathematician, whose success led to man's first contact with the moon by way of radar, was a Fort Monmouth hero whose legacy in radar research and development will continue at the new home for C4ISR here as a state-of-the-art research building is named in his honor.
McAfee, who died in 1995, was one of eight people whom an APG-Command, Control, Communications, Computers, Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance Campus building was named at a campus dedication ceremony here Sept. 15 to mark the completion of the six-year Base Realignment and Closure process.
During his time as an Army civilian scientist and engineer, McAfee aided with Project Diana, a program created to determine if a high frequency radio signal could penetrate the earth's outer atmosphere. McAfee's theoretical calculations determined the feasibility of bouncing a radar signal off the moon and back to earth. On Jan. 10, 1946, the experiment was successfully conducted and many regard this work as the beginning of the Space Age.
McAfee was also the first African-American in the Army to achieve a civil service super grade rank when President Dwight D. Eisenhower presented him with one of the first Secretary of the Army Research and Study Fellowships in 1956.
"I am totally enamored with Dr. McAfee's accomplishments, and I am ecstatic we were successful in having his legacy travel with us to Maryland," said Anthony Lisuzzo, director of the U.S. Army Research, Development and Engineering Command's communications-electronics center's Intelligence and Information Warfare Directorate.
A portion of Lisuzzo's organization focuses on legacy systems and technologies originated by McAfee, and the organization's Fort Monmouth building was also named after McAfee.
McAfee was the second oldest of nine children, all of whom received higher-education degrees in either math or science, according to the Communications-Electronics Command's historical office.
McAfee and one of his sisters were the only two McAfee children who were not high school teachers.
Velma McAfee-Williams, the second youngest of the McAfee children and a college professor, attended the C4ISR Campus dedication ceremony and toured the McAfee compound. She is the only surviving sibling of McAfee.
"It's a great honor that his line of work and his contributions are being recognized here," said McAfee-Williams. "Today was such an enlightening and overwhelming experience. The tour was outstanding, and I got to go inside various labs and see different programs being worked on in this space."
McAfee-Williams said her brother loved Fort Monmouth and probably would have been sad to see it close. However, he would have appreciated the larger space and facility, she said.
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