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Camp Evans Oral Histories Interviewee: John C. Hansen Personal Notes Date: 1998? Place: Camp Evans Media: text and related photos Source: Jack Hansen (son)

John C. Hansen

Jack also authored a story "Without Spare Parts" based upon his dad's special assignment to make sure there were sufficent spare parts for radar units.

Jack,   Thanks!

                                            Summer 1946 to Spring 1968
                                     PROJECTS AND ASSIGNMENTS OF:
                                                  JOHN C. HANSEN
                               Camp Evans Signal Lab.,  Belmar, New Jersey

During the War years many improvements were made in equipments, components and techniques that I
had to catch-up. (While Dr. Henry Eyring, a personal friend, was at Princeton he wrote a paper on the
‘Theory of Holes’ that laid the theoretical groundwork for the whole of ‘Solid State’ techniques). When I
was working on radars (1940 to 1942) triods were the only amplifiers for radars, limiting them to about
200mc. With the Magnatron they went to 2,000 to 12,000mc making target tracking possible. At that
frequency techniques were available for moving’ target detection, (MTI). Then there was Pizo-Electric
effects resulting in Sonar detection of submarines, accurately tuning circuits and strain detectors. When
The Japanese cut off the rubber supply synthetic rubber was improved and along with it synthetic
materials were made. These and many more changes were as the result of the war demands

1946, After being separated from active duty I arrived in New Jersey.  I went to (Asbury Park) Y.M.C.A
and obtained a room and the next day took the bus to Evans labs. That day I spent being processed. I
was given two steps up in pay and responsibility from where I had been when I left the Labs. as a
civilian, but the engineers who had stayed on were two or three steps up. The first thing that I had to do
was to obtain some civilian clothes. The others were over four years old and styles had changed.

I was assigned to a group designing equipment for the instrumentation of White Sands Proving Ground
for tracking of ‘V-2’ Missiles that had been captured from the Germans. I started to look for a house to
rent or purchase but found that there was nothing to be had. During the war all building of houses was
halted and it was only at this time that any activity was taken place in the building trades. I worked
getting my feet wet on the project and after about two or three weeks I was sent to White Sands to get a
better feel for the problems.

When I reported for work at Evans Labs. I was assigned to a group headed by Cliff Maddox. There
were three Engineers and five technicians in the group. I found out later that there were two Engineers
stationed at White Sands.

My first job was to design the modifications to a SCR-584 in the tracking of V-2 Missiles.  After
spending two or three weeks I determined that there were many questions that could not be answered at
the Labs. It was arranged for me to go to White Sands where those answers were. I went by train to El
Paso where transportation met me to take me to the Proving grounds. We had to travel across the desert
about 50 miles North going on the only road that was available. When we had driven about 25 miles we
were stopped by a guard because of practice firing of field artillery by a unit stationed at Fort Bliss. We
stayed there for about two hours before we were allowed to proceed on our way. When I arrived I was
given space in a building, a desk and other equipment which I could use.

        There were two firings that caused some excitement. The first was when I had been there about
three weeks.  A missile was fired which started and when about three hundred feet in the air turned on
its side and headed east. It took a nose dive when about a few miles away and hit the ground. Another
missile was fired and suddenly turned South going into Mexico about 100 miles away. But it landed in an
area in Mexico that was not populated so no damage was done. As a result the firings were stopped until
a retrofit was made to the missile to enable it to be “blown up” by a signal from the ground. Between
each firing there were many adjustments both to the missile and to the equipment used for tracking. In
between firings I spent the time gathering data and talking to the Ordnance people who had the
responsibility for the overall performance of the job.

The Air force had a base at Alamogordo a few miles beyond White Sands National Monument. We had
to coordinate our activities with them so trips were made about once a week to their base.

At one time I went with a team into the San Andres Mountains to locate a Radar site near Oscura Peak
for future use. While there we could see the point where the first of an atomic Bomb was exploded.

Transportation was usually available to see the area when we were not busy. The schedules were not
five days a week rather when a missile was available.  Then there would be work almost around the
clock.  When they were assembling some men would be standing around doing little so at odd times we
saw the area. We went to Las Cruces and then went about 10 miles out into the desert to a Mexican
Restaurant that was called Katies (La Posta) where the food was very good and not very hot. Also trips
were made to White Sands National Monument. Trips were also made to Juarez, Mexico for a steak
dinner and shopping for leather goods and some for some liquor products. A trip was also arranged to go
to Truth and Consequences for swimming in the hot springs.

I left White Sands about the first part or the middle of August (1946) for New Jersey.

When I got back I started to plan the steps that were to be taken for the instrumentation of the range.
One of the first things was to contact Bell Labs. to find out if they would be interested in constructing a
simple Analog Computer that could be used in connection with their plotting board. This they refused to
do.

Because the demands were so severe at White Sands the development of the equipment was
outside of the scope of development within the Labs. It was decided to write specifications and
solicit fabrication of the improvements with outside concerns. So this work was started.

During the winter (1946) and spring (1947) there were many visits to White Sands, to the
contractors and to doing internal work at the labs. It was at this time that The Ordnance wanted
two more Radars modified for another job so the contract had to be renegotiated which
complicated the contract, so there were many visits to Long Island as a result I had to spend a
lot of time in travel during this period. As it turned out a Reeves company on Long Island was
awarded the contract to modify the Radars, SCR584
 

In the Fall of 1947 Specifications were completed for the
modification of Radars and for development of a system to enable one
to transmit coordinates of missile position to other radars to
enable them to pick them up and track them. Advertisements for bids
were made public and went to various companies that cared to bid on
the jobs. The bidding was to be closed in early winter of 1948, at
which time we started to evaluate them. We had about 60 days to do
so. A committee was formed within the radar section to evaluate the
bids and to discuss the pros and cons of the various proposals. As
it happened I had scheduled a trip to the Los Angeles area to talk
with a bidder on some of the things that were not clear on his
proposal and to get written clarification of these points.  Later the
Austin Company on west 14th street in New York was awarded the contract to develop the
system for relaying the position of the missile to a distant radar.

About 1950, Ordnance imposed upon the contractor, who was modifying the SCR-584, other
requirements so we had to spend much time modifying the Specifications and then negotiating
with the contractor for the modifications. This sent the contract back about a year or so.

It was in the spring of 1951 that we received word that the ordnance required a device to
optically track the V2 missile in flight as they wanted to obtain aspect performance data. We at
the Labs started to prepare specifications for the device. A study indicated that the telescope
would have to have a focal length of 55 inches. We wrote specifications and made a decision
that the telescope was to be let out on contract and that the guidance system was to be
furnished by a modification to the existing contract with The Austin Co.  We, at that time,
contacted The Austin Co. and advertised for the development of the telescope. The funds for
this project were not available until September of that year so the advertising of the optical
contract was not opened until about the first of December. The Contract was awarded to Perkin
& Elmer Co. so now I had three contracts to follow.

The contract with the Austin Company was completed and the components shipped to White
Sands Proving Ground in the spring of 1954. I made several trips there, one with two engineers
of the Austin Co.  At this time I was following four contracts.

As I was winding up the contracts for the missile range (1954) I was given an assignment to coordinate
with the Air force and the Navy the designs of radar equipment. The idea was to try to design
radars that were not duplicates of others and to exchange ideas for the development of
components for the radars. We held meetings at Washington where the Navy was doing its
research, at Wright Field in Ohio where the Air Force was doing its work and at Camp Evans
where we were doing the engineering. This Ad Hoc Committee was to last for about fifteen years.
At times it seemed to almost die and then when someone would give it a push from above a great
deal of wheel spinning would take place. The problem was that none of the three services would
yield ground. So we at the bottom could make very few decisions that did not tread on one of the
services toes.

Not much later (1954 or 1955?) some ideas were developed for a search while scan radar. The techniques
were nebulous and we started exploring some of the techniques. I had a hand in writing a contract for
one phase that was placed with M.I.T. at Lexington Massachusetts. I followed it for about a year and the
result of the study was that there were one or two techniques that not enough development had been
accomplished so that before a contract would be let development in these areas would have to be
undertaken.

About Christmas time (1955) the Radar Division started to preparing specifications for the development
and fabrication of an antenna capable of scanning a sector without physically moving the antenna. The
antenna would be capable of tracking several objects and searching for other objects without losing track
of those objects being tracked. The specifications were finished and ready for advertisement about May
of the following year.

During this time (1955 or 1956?) the contract for the modification of Radars for White Sands were
completed and delivered so I had to inspect each of them by running them through a series of tests that
took a long time during the winter months. After the Radars were delivered questions of costs came up
between the Government and the contractor concerning costs which were incurred as a result of the two
modifications to the contract that had taken place after the contract began. I spent much time with the
procurement people and later with them and the contractor ironing out the money details.

We advertised for bids for the development of the scanning antenna and in June or July (1955 or 1956?)
started to get returns from the bidders. The bids were to be opened in July and we had 60 days to
evaluate the bids. A committee was organized consisting of members of the Radar, Antenna and Solid
State branches to evaluate the bids. The consensus of the committee was that of eight bidders, five were
not responsive to the specifications so we started to evaluating the other three bids. It was the first of
September that we obtained the funds and could make a recommendation for the successful bidder. This
bidder was Hughes Aircraft Company in the Los Angeles area. I went out as project engineer and spent
about a week with them going over the contract, answering questions and getting the contract going in
the right direction. It was on one of my first trips that the discussion of A Clystron tube in connection
with frequency shifting arose. A Dr. Johnson came in to discuss those problems. He later was junior in
Watkins, Johnson (Military Electronics Research Company) of Palo Alto where Paul would later (Aug.
1968) be employed.

It was during the same year, 1955, that I had a trip to Lexington Mass. to M.I.T. to see a demonstration
of a very large tube operated computer which at that time was tracking all military and unidentified
planes in the U.S.A. It was a monster being housed in a room about 150 feet by 40 feet. The air
conditioning took 500 kw of power. The thing I remember about it was that it would overload during
peak traffic hours. Upon talking with the engineers they had a solid state computer designed but because
of cost it would take some time to pry the money loose from Congress as this operating computer had
only been installed for one year and had just been debugged.

It was about this time (1956) that inter service symposiums were established calling for papers from both
the military services, Educational and Industrial concerns to participate. From the beginning I was to go
to Michigan University at Ann Arbor in February to plan the symposium and to select the papers what
had been submitted. I would go by train as the weather was not so that the planes were to be depended
upon. The three services, Army, Navy and Air Force were to take turns sponsoring the symposiums.
Many were held not only at military installations but also at Universities and at Industrial plants. The first
held in 1956 at Washington D.C. at the Naval headquarters. They lasted for three days.

In the spring of 1956 I had to go to Hughes which in the meantime had moved its radar plant to Fullerton
California. I expected to spend about two or three weeks there

After WW II the U.S. gave France and England funds to do research in the Radar field, with the
stipulation that what they found out with the money spent would be furnished to the U.S. In the course
of the projects France had three companies doing work on Radar areas while the English government
was spending their funds in British Government agencies. About the first of June of 1957 I was one of
two Engineers selected to go to Europe and inspect the progress of the contracts and to determine where
if any contracts could add to our knowledge.  About six weeks later We left for Washington D.C. as the
transportation was a WW II Prop Plane It would take off from Washington, fly to Gander
Newfoundland, gas up, fly to Shannon Ireland gas up and then to Paris France. It was about noon when
we left Washington. We arrived at Gander about 11pm and left about l am. Then we landed at Shannon
about 10am and left 12 noon arriving in Paris about 6pm. We had been traveling about 24 hours or so.
A few days later we left for England by plane arriving there on a Friday afternoon in time to check in
with the English office in London.  On Monday we took a train to Greater Malvern about 200 miles
north and west of London where the Government Research Installation was located. We stayed in a
hotel that had no central heat so we had to put a six pence coin in a slot for heat every hour or so. The
only restaurant in town was in the hotel so when we arrived there, late in the afternoon, the only thing
they had to serve was a very thick barley soup with hard bread, so we filled up on that. It was placed on
the table and we served ourselves to as much as we wished to eat.
We spent about three days discussing the research work which was going on as a result of the money
that was furnished them. During this time we traveled to a radar site about ten miles west on a hill which
had a radar working and had a demonstration of tracking plains in the area.
We returned to London and after visiting the office for a day and writing an evaluation of the work being
done we left the next morning by air for Paris. Arriving there we spent a couple of days evaluating the
work being done both by the French Government and the Contractors.
We left Paris on a flight during the week going first to The Azores where we got off the plane and into a
terminal. We were there for about five hours or so but were not allowed to leave to terminal to look
around. Late in the day we took off for Washington D.C. arriving there in the early hours of the next
morning. Then we took a train home.

I remember that just after I returned from Europe (1957) I was sent to Washington to meet with a group
of Army officers who discussed things that they would like developed in the way of Battlefield
Surveillance Equipment. One of the things
that was discussed was to detect movement of troops and vehicles from the battle area about five or ten
miles to the rear of the enemies lines. Up on arriving home I with two other engineers started to explore
various possibilities to implement the requirement. Because of other things that I had to do it was given a
low priority. We got together once in a while and discussed ideas but the program was not moving too
fast, first because there had been no money set aside for a detailed study and second that the engineers
that were working on it had other higher priority work to be done.

A layout was designed for the optical solution, which took about three months, and then the components
had to be located and ordered. It was decided to use U.S.Geological topographical maps using a scale of
1 inch =25,000 feet. Next a source of light had to be located that was as nearly a point source as
possible, lenses and a fiber-optical unit about one eight inch diameter and four inches long that could be
rotated with a slightly convex front surfaced mirror mounted on a 45 degree angle to the unit. All of this
plus a lot of traveling to various fabricators took about four months and then the delivery was almost a
year before the equipment was delivered for us to use. In the meantime I had assigned to me two
engineers that were just out of school to help to fabricate and design the equipment that would go with
the special equipment that was to be delivered.

Mr. Hansen is third from right

In the meantime I was spending more and more time with symposium and inter service work.

It was at this time that the Air Force was installing a radar system beginning with the area around
Chicago. I made several visits there during the winter of 1958-59 and the next summer at South Carolina.

During 1960 I spent a lot of time on the debugging of the Optical scanning of maps. I found that the
maps sagged so we had to provide a support around the edge and place nine adjustable screws on the
inner area to maintain the correct height. We would cut a hole through a point of the map where the
radar was to set and adjust the height of the optical fiber device so as to just clear the top of the map. A

transparent flat plate which had concentric circles scribed on the surface. A series of neutral density
filters were placed on the plate as well as outer rings of a neutral density material so that when the light
beam was swept through a 360 degree angle the photograph would not over expose the inner area and
make an even exposure on the film. The bugs were worked out about the middle of 1961 and
the tests were completed toward the end of the year.

When Ordnance saw the results they also wanted results from two radars covering the same terrain. It
took about two months to modify the equipment and then a couple of months more to run the tests and
write the report.

About the time that we were finishing the internal optical study we were advised ‘that funding was
planned for the development of the Battlefield Surveillance radar which had the acronym PEEK. We
began to write the specifications. In the course of this project we had to visit Washington and also make
visits to Fort Leavenworth Kansas. We finished the first daft in the fall of 1961 and then the final draft
just after the first of the year. The Procurement people took some two months to add their paragraphs to
the specifications and then some time to thrash out any differences between us so it was about the first
of April when we were ready to advertise for bids. We sent out the bids and ask for replies in 60 days,
which was when the money would be available for the first phase of the work. As it turned out the
money was not available until the first of September. We had evaluated the bids but could not take any
action in notifying the successful bidder until September. So at that time we notified General Dynamics
that they had thirty days to start working on the contract. I had already visited all of the bidders that
were responsive to the specifications so knew who they planned to put on the job if they obtained the
contract.

With the completion of the optical study that had been done in the Labs. the writing of specifications for
a Search while scan radar was started in the spring of 1962 and was finished ready for bids by July of
that year, however money was not available. About this time a study was completed at Washington
which in effect said that radars that were to be designed in the future Should be studied to determine if
they should be compatible with the requirements of the three services, An Ad Hoc committee was
organized to determine if the radar that we had written the specifications for would come under the guide
lines as laid down.

We started meeting about the beginning of the year 1963 at Washington each month. We were not only
considering this radar but several others as well. I believe that we considered about six that were all the
way from a gleam in a services eye to those who were already under development. In August we began
to meet twice a month for about two or three days. It was at one of
these meetings while we were in session that the word came that Kennedy had been shot. We finished
the day but called the sessions to an end for that week. As it happened we were finished before the
Christmas holidays.

The result of this study, as far as the radar which the specifications were written, was it fall into that
classification.

The decision at Washington was that the Navy was to have the responsibility for monitoring the contract,
however I was appointed to be liaison between the Army and Navy to see that the Army’s needs were
not jeopardized.

In the meantime I was spending much time on project PEEK which when the contract was let was at
Pomona California was transferred to San Diego. I was visiting the plant, at first, once a month and as
they got deeper into problems I had to go about twice a month.

As the system developed it employed a platform that carried a radar aloft by an unmanned gas driven
system that could rise into the air gather data from a radar which sent data to the ground and then would
come down only to go up again at a different spot. The ground station would keep track of the platform
by means of a transponder beacon that would give range and angle to the platform. The ground station
had a computer that would convert polar coordinates into rectangular coordinates for transmission to the
using headquarters for action.

In the Summer of 1962 I went to Europe to monitor Radar development made with U.S. funds. This
time we flew from New York directly to Paris where we met with representatives of the French
Government and the contractors. We arrived early Tuesday morning having left New York Monday in
the evening. We were there the whole week and on into the first of the next week as there were several
more places to inspect than the first trip.
We had heard of a radar that had been developed for the Dutch Government by Norelco for navigation
on the rivers in Holland. We flew to Amsterdam where representatives from Norelco met us.  Taken to
The Hague and then to the Radar plant at Arnhem in southern Holland. We went through the plant and
then took a small trip on the nearby river to demonstrate to radar. Then they took us back to Amsterdam
where we were taken to an old restaurant, whose name translated was, “The Five Flies”. They really put
on a spread for our benefit.We flew back to Paris for a day with the Government engineers and then
flew to London where we spent almost a week between Greater Malvern and London with visiting the
research and writing out report. Then we flew to Paris where we wrote to reports for the French effort.
When we finished we flew directly to New York.

About 1964 I visited M.I.T. Labs and while there found that the Engineers were delighted because they
had, received an allotment to develop a computer which would be capable of handling the total targets in
the air or what were likely to be in the air in the next 20 years. They would have a solid-state computer
that would not need much air conditioning.

In the fall of 1963 a group of Engineers were assembled for the purpose of evaluating a Radar system
called the MAULER which the Ordnance Department had the prime responsibility. We started meeting
around Thanksgiving time at Washington D.C. and shortly after the first of March we had a report
prepared evaluating in detail all the components of the system.
 

It was in the spring of 1964 I had planned a trip to visit General Dynamics at San Diego.  It was during
this visit that the first free flight of the platform was witnessed. And resulted in obtaining additional funds
to carry on the project.

1965 I had to visit General Dynamics in regards to the contract. I had three days of work with the
Company. The Engineers arranged for us to go to a restaurant for a wonderful dinner. We stayed at San
Diego that night.

I had a trip to General Dynamics in the spring of 1966.

1966 I went to Seattle and attended the symposium that was sponsored by the Air Force and held at the
Bowing Aircraft Plant. It was a three day session and after the sessions we visited parts of the city.

 In November of that year I had a symposium as usual at M.I.T.

In 1967 there was a symposium at the Naval school at Monteray.

The Radar symposium in 1967 was held at Fort Monmouth so a great deal of time was spent in doing
those things connected with the symposium.
About this time I was planning on retiring when I reached the age of 65. I so informed the Labs. and
they started to shift my jobs to other engineers. The PEEK contract was completed and was waiting
funds from the Infantry to build some pre-production models for field testing. The
Track-While-scan-Radar, being the prime responsibility of the Navy, however, another Evans engineer
was assigned to follow the contract. I expected that my responsibility as a member of the papers
committee would be transferred as well but I was still on the committee so I had to go to the University
of Michigan in February to select papers for the 1968 symposium.

I submitted my retirement papers about two or three weeks before I wanted to retire which was to be
effective the first of April 1968. The last week or so was completing my technical notebook, to
explaining some of the things that had transpired over the life of the programs that were on going or just
recently transpired activities.

On the day before I was to retire a party was given in my honor. There were both Lab. and personal
friends in attendance. About 150 people attended the dinner. Peg of course was there.

The last day was spent in checking out my accounts signing papers necessary for retirement pay and
turning in my pass. I could no longer go to the Lab. without an escort nor look at anything I had
originated which was classified.

This photo appears to be in an office in the Marconi Hotel (9001).  Note the door and window hardware and moldings.
Mr. Hansen is second from left

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