ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, December 22, 1996 TAG: 9612230082
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-7 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: CHARLOTTESVILLE
SOURCE: Associated Press
The supersecret National Ground Intelligence Center opened its reinforced doors and relaxed its high security for a rare public peek at its activities.
Reporters and local officials were permitted inside the agency's tall, gray building in downtown Charlottesville, where they learned that NGIC provides intelligence on foreign armies and their weapons.
For example, ``weapons collectors'' working for NGIC acquire, often at great risk, foreign attack helicopters, tanks and artillery that are analyzed by the center to give the United States a technological edge over other countries.
Examining foreign weapons also helps American soldiers know what they're up against, including letting them know how to protect themselves best.
Until Friday's briefing, the NGIC was a mystery to the city. Little has been said of it in recent years except to report on a planned $3.4 million consolidation of its activities at a site off U.S. 29 north of Charlottesville.
``This gives us the opportunity really to toot our horn a little bit,'' said Col. Robert Reuss, NGIC's commander. ``There's been a lot of misconceptions in terms of what we do.''
The agency was created by the 1994 merger of the Army's Foreign Science and Technology Center in Charlottesville and the Intelligence and Threat Analysis Center in Washington, D.C.
Tens of thousands of nuggets of military information come into the center daily. A specialized software project called Pathfinder converts raw information into useful intelligence and allows the NGIC to ``monitor the world,'' said Tim Hendrickson, the program's manager.
For example, Pathfinder can pinpoint the location of SCUD missiles.
NGIC also uses satellite imagery and aerial pictures to examine foreign ground forces and terrain and assist in war-fighting simulations.
The center's satellite images have helped Army forces in Bosnia, Liberia, Burundi, Iraq and Zaire, said Chief Warrant Officer William D. Reynolds Jr.
The NGIC's work ``can have a major impact on whether people live or die,'' Hendrickson said. ``It's that serious to us.''
LENGTH: Short : 47 linesby CNB