ABERDEEN PROVING GROUND, Md. –May has been designated as National Inventors Month, and the spirit of innovation and creativity is central to the establishment of the U.S. Army Communications-Electronics Command. CECOM, along with the other command, control, communications, computers, cyber, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance, or C5ISR, organizations as they currently exist, grew out of the establishment of a dedicated installation for the Signal Corps Laboratories at what would become Fort Monmouth, New Jersey.
The person responsible for the decision was then-Chief Signal Officer, Maj. Gen. George Owen Squier.
Squier was himself an inventor, and among his claims to fame include being the inventor of telephone carrier multiplexing and Muzak. He also supported and advocated for the advancement of technology in the Army, and promoted the Signal Corps’ contract with the Wright Brothers to develop an airplane for military use, and was the first military passenger on a flight.
Another early inventor who laid the foundation for the future of CECOM was Maj. Edwin Howard Armstrong, for whom the CECOM headquarters building is named. He served in France in the Signal Corps in World War I, helping to develop radio communication for the Allies. His invention of frequency modulation radio, and the superheterodyne receiver system, was adopted by the Signal Corps in the 1930s. The broad military application of FM radio which changed the communications landscape was made possible when Armstrong gave the military free use of his patents during both World Wars. Armstrong has the distinction of being included in the National Inventors Hall of Fame.
Other well-known figures in CECOM history who were inventors include Col. William Blair, who received the patent for radar, and Dr. Harold Zahl, who lead the Signal Corps Labs as the director of research in the 1950s, whose patents also dealt with object finding using heat and radiation detection and for electronic tubes. In fact, his invention of the VT-158, also known as the “Zahl Tube,” pushed radar into the megacycle operating range.
Though not well-documented in the CECOM archive, in 2000 there was an approved concept to develop a CECOM Inventors’ Wall of Fame, to help highlight the many people who brought their inventiveness to support the Army. At the dedication in 2001, there were over 200 inventors deemed eligible within the command; 200 individuals with one to five patents; and 48 with over five patents, deemed Senior Inventors. Over the twenty-year period from 1981 to 2001, more than 1,000 patents were attributed to the CECOM workforce.
The inventors came not only from the Communications-Electronic Research, Development and Engineering Center (now DEVCOM C5ISR Center), but also from the Software Engineering Center and the then Logistics Readiness Center (now ILSC). Dr. Herbert Leupold, an expert in magnetics, held the most with 102 patents, followed by Dr. Arthur Ballato, with 56 over the course of his 50 years of service to the Army.
Several of CECOM’s inventors have been honored in the CECOM/C5ISR Hall of Fame, including Dr. Stanley Kronenberg, Dr. Rudolf Buser, and Dr. Ray Filler. Kronenberg has more than 40 documented patents, many done in collaboration with his co-worker George J. Bruker, often related to radiation detection.
Buser’s patents include several for a long-range eye safe laser radar (LADAR) system, growing out his work with the Night Vision and Electronic Sensors Directorate.
Filler’s efforts in research, experimental and modeling studies on navigation systems and technology, to include Global Positioning Systems and integrated GPS. He has six patents related to quartz crystal resonators, thereby successfully converting his scientific research into usable military technology developments and equipment.
This article highlights just a few of the inventors who have made a difference in CECOM and Army history, but there are hundreds more scientists and civilians who support the Army every day with their dedication, creativity and inventiveness.
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