Memorial to Mark Patrick Connaughton1912-1992

M IC H A E L E. CONNAUGHTON St. Cloud State University, St. Cloud, Minnesota 56301-4498

Mark Patrick Connaughton died on April 7, 1992, after a stroke suffered in his home the preceding day. He had applied his geological expertise to solving military intelli­gence problems during a 28-year career with the Army Corps of Engineers. Throughout that time, his work was cloaked in the secrecy deemed essential to Cold War secu­rity efforts. Even more than 20 years after his retirement, much of his contribution to geology and to the national defense effort is contained in classified documents. Within that tight-lipped community, however, his expertise was widely acknowledged. He was a Fellow of the Geological Society of Am erica, having been accorded the unusual honor of being elected to that status in 1954 without the customary three-year membership requirement.

Connie Connaughton was bom on August 17, 1912, in Hamilton, Ohio. He completed high school in the early days of the Depression and began his studies at the University of Cincinnati in 1930. In June 1935, he graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in geological engineering, a program which at that time combined studies in civil engineering and geology. His personal papers include a meticulous journal of his efforts to secure professional employment with over 100 corporations and agencies. He finally began his career in a rigorously applied fashion, working as a laborer in the Texas oil fields.

In December 1935, Connie began his government career with the Soil Conservation Ser­vice. His first assignments were in the field, with emphasis on sedimentation research, particu­larly as applied to reservoirs. He worked in 16 states, primarily in the West and Southeast. He wrote numerous studies distributed internally with the Soil Conservation Service, and was engaged in significant research at the Enoree River Laboratory near Greenville, South Carolina, when World War II broke out. He worked with well-known researchers in the field such as Walter Lowdermilk, Hugh Bennett, Gordon Rittenhouse, and Hans Einstein, only son of the physicist.

On the basis of his experience, he was selected for a new military geology unit in the Corps of Engineers. During the Second World War, he headed the Strategic Intelligence Branch o f the Military Intelligence Division of the Office of the Chief o f Engineers. His duties during the war involved applying geological data concerning the far-flung theaters of war to solving military problems, such as the suitability o f beaches for amphibious landings, the best locations for mili­tary airfields, the availability o f fresh water, and planning for possible strategies such as artifi­cially flooding the Rhine Valley to block the German retreat. He and his military and civilian colleagues prepared, on very short notice, elaborate surveys o f terrain and geologic features for more than 100 areas in both Europe and the Pacific. Field commanders credited this office with providing accurate, indispensable information; Major General Gar Davidson reported that the folio provided for the invasion o f Sicily (162 pages completed in ten days) included “more information than the natives themselves” possessed.

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Another significant contribution to the war effort was made by the Military Geology Unit of the U.S. Geological Survey. Connie Connaughton played a significant role in establishing this unit, assisted in recruiting its members, and maintained liaison between the Chief of Engineers and the civilian geologists, coordinating their efforts to apply geological science to military problems. He was cited for this role by the secretaries of both the departments of Defense and the Interior at war’s end.

Following the Japanese surrender in August 1945, the military intelligence capability of the Chief of Engineers was sharply curtailed; the staff of Connaughton’s Research and Analysis Branch was reduced from 35 persons to five. Much of the next 25 years was devoted to two tasks: assuring that the intelligence applications of geological expertise were not lost to the mili­tary, and providing for modernization of that expertise as new technologies became available. As a staff member, Connaughton participated in the successful effort to establish the Engineer Strategic Intelligence Division at the Army Map Service, so that the work of the Chief of Engi­neers could be carried on. The organization achieved considerable distinction and increased in size to prepare outstanding studies and new products on a world-wide basis.

In the postwar period, Connaughton traveled extensively in Europe and Asia as an advisor on intelligence matters to his counterparts in NATO and SEATO. In 1958, he was an official representative at the SEATO Mapping Conference in Bangkok, one stop on a tour that also included Taiwan, Hong Kong, Japan, Korea, and the Phillipines.

He also became conversant with atomic weaponry, observing the final above-ground atomic bomb tests in Nevada in 1957 (from a forward position one mile from ground zero) and attending briefings at Sandia and Los Alamos, New Mexico, and Fort Bliss, Texas.

In 1958, Connaughton became Chief of the Engineer Intelligence Group, later the Special Projects Office, assigned to direct and coordinate production of intelligence and topographic maps from “special sources.” These included advanced methods of aerial photography, com­puter-enhanced photo techniques, and eventually, satellite technologies. For these efforts he was awarded official commendations for outstanding performance by the Chief of Engineers in June1960 and October 1962.

Connaughton retired in July 1970. He was cited throughout his career by both peers and superiors for his ability to coordinate complex efforts between various intelligence organizations and to provide diplomatic yet forceful guidance and leadership to his colleagues, military and civilian, less knowledgeable in the operations of Washington bureaucracies. Over the course of his career, though employed by a single agency for 28 years, he worked closely with the Central Intelligence Agency, the U.S. Geological Survey, the Defense Intelligence Agency, all branches of the Armed Forces, and intelligence units in allied nations.

After his retirement, Connie Connaughton settled in Southport, North Carolina. Following a career of enforced silence regarding his everyday affairs, he chose to lead a quiet life devoted to family, reading, and getting to know his neighbors. He occasionally spoke out on environ­mental and national affairs issues through sharply focused, sometimes impassioned, letters to the editor. During his many years in Arlington, Virginia, he was instrumental in establishing and improving the Northern Virginia Science Fair for junior and senior high school students.

He is survived by Margaret, his wife of more than 50 years; three sons and one daughter; nine grandchildren; and two great-grandchildren. In addition to GSA, he was a member of the American Geophysical Union, the Geological Society of Washington, and the Society of Ameri­can Military Engineers.

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