DAHLGREN HERITAGE FOUNDATION Summer 2014
Dahlgren Heritage Museum P. O. Box 816, Dahlgren, Virginia 22448 www.dahlgrenmuseum.org
Dahlgren History Project
Ensuring the Past Illuminates the Future Center Dahlgren Division or left forgotten in offices and closets across the ahlgren’s 95 years of achievebase. ment have provided invaluaIn the early 2000s, Wayne Harble, hard-won lessons for the man, a longtime NSWCDD employee, Navy, shedding light on its past and chaired the Dahlgren Science and Technology Council and helped docuilluminating its future. Some aspects of Dahlgren’s histoment Dahlgren’s contributions to the national defense in preparation for ry—the massive naval guns still found across the installation what would become the Base come to mind—are figuratively Realignment and Closure Act and literally colossal. But those of 2005. unmistakable relics of a bygone “[NSWCDD leaders] wantera do not explain the real reaed us to find out what we’d son for Dahlgren's continued done and where did it go,” said Harman. excellence. That distinction belongs to the military and scienHarman was joined in the effort by another longtime tific minds at Dahlgren, who for generations have collaboratNSWCDD employee, Robin ed to provide the Navy with Staton. “I discovered that Robin the tools it needs to win wars. had been stashing stuff away The process of aligning milfor years in CONEX boxes,” itary goals with scientific realisaid Harman. “[The effort] kind ty is always changing, always of got us started doing this. It gave us a cause.” challenging and almost always imperfect. But military and ciAround the same time, the Fredericksburg Area Museum vilian leaders at Dahlgren have found a way to consistently and Cultural Center sought achieve success by giving rankhelp from the base to create an and-file scientists creative exhibit about Dahlgren. “They space to solve military probwanted us to reconstruct stories lems. about the base’s accomplishPreserving the lessons ments and projects,” said Staton. “It turns out, that was learned from Dahlgren’s more than nine decades of naval not easy.” Harman and Staton reproblem-solving has, regrettaLESSONS FROM THE PAST ... bly, been less successful than ceived support from NSWCDD the programs themselves. leadership and began the proRobin Staton inspects an item at the Dahlgren History Project with a tragic history: the 16-inch shell that was For years, scientists, engineers cess of collecting historical jammed into a barrel of the number two gun turret on the and managers simply saved items. A broken 8,300 pound USS Iowa when an explosion occurred in 1989, killing 47 Sailors. Preserving lessons learned is one of the primary whatever historic material they See HISTORY PROECT tasks of the Dahlgren History Project. U.S. Navy photo by deemed important. Andrew Revelos By Andrew Revelos
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A small museum was established by Dahlgren employee Robert Zink in Building 183 in the 1960s, but its displays were later boxed in 1983 to accommodate the arrival of Naval Space Command to the installation. Historic documents, photos and scientific devices were sent back to the departments at the Naval Surface Warfare
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Dahlgren Heritage Foundation Digest - Summer 2014
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