Military Technology Preview

This tour contains three types of stops:

• HONOR stops mark the gravesites of specific indivudals.
• REMEMBER stops commemorate events, ideas, and groups of people.
• EXPLORE stops invite you to discover what history means to you.

Arlington National Cemetery is the final resting place for approximately 400,000 service members and their families. We remember and honor the individuals buried here for their service to the nation—whether on the battlefield or at a research center, in uniform or not. This walking tour honors those individuals buried at Arlington who dedicated their careers to technology and innovation. Some, like Hyman Rickover and Grace Hopper, did so while serving in the military. Others, like George Westinghouse and William Hammer, contributed to technological advancement outside of their military service.

Although this walking tour focuses on individuals, technological innovation depends on collaboration. Collaboration is found in many forms — between individuals across military, civilian and private organizations, and over time as scientists and engineers build on, maintain, and improve the work of their predecessors. While reading about the individuals on this tour, notice the connections.

What existing technologies were they using and adapting?

Who were they working with?

What is the legacy of their work?

• Pioneered nuclear propulsion in the U.S. Navy
• Oversaw the development of the first nuclear-powered submarine and first commercial nuclear power plant for generating electricity

• Pioneering inventor, engineer, and businessman.
• Invented the air brake, revolutionizing railroad safety and operations worldwide.
• Championed use of alternating current (AC) electricity.
• Founded the Westinghouse Electric & Manufacturing Company, a dominant force in American industry.

• One of the first bacteriologists in the United States, studying bacterial diseases like yellow fever and typhoid.
• Founded the Army Medical School.

• Engineered the Washington Aqueduct, securing a reliable water supply for Washington, D.C., that remains in use today.
• Supervised construction of the U.S. Capitol dome and wings.
• Established Arlington National Cemetery in 1864 and oversaw its early development, including the Tomb of the Civil War Unknowns and McClellan Gate.

On January 28, 1986, the space shuttle Challenger exploded just 73 seconds after takeoff, killing all seven crew members. ​

The Challenger launched from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida at 11:38 a.m. It was the shuttle’s 10th mission into space. The goal of the mission was to deploy a communications satellite and to deploy an astronomy spacecraft to study Halley’s Comet. Most famously, the Challenger also carried the first teacher to go to space, Christa McAuliffe, who would teach science lessons from orbit. ​

On the morning of the launch, the shuttle’s engineers expressed concerns about how unexpectedly cold weather might affect the integrity of the seals on the solid rocket boosters. Overnight, the temperature had dipped below freezing, and at the time of the launch it was 36 degrees Fahrenheit – 15 degrees colder than the next coldest launch temperature. After listening to the engineers’ concerns, managers decided that the temperature was not enough of a reason to delay the launch, and they cleared Challenger for liftoff. This was a fatal mistake. ​

• Pioneering electrical engineer and inventor.
• As Thomas Edison's assistant, he helped develop the incandescent lamp and promote the adoption of electric lighting.
• Led the U.S. Army’s Inventions Section in World War I, evaluating and managing military technological innovationsand intelligence efforts.

• Pioneered computer programming by helping develop the Mark I, the Navy’s first automatic computing machine, and writing its first operations manual.
• Standardized Navy computer languages, creating systems that improved efficiency and data management across military operations.

Every time you turn on your computer, you owe a debt to Grace Hopper. In 2016, President Barack Obama awarded Rear Admiral Grace Murray Hopper a posthumous Presidential Medal of Freedom. Speaking of her contributions to military-technological innovation and social change, President Obama remarked:

“If Wright is flight, and Edison is light, then Hopper is code.”

• Advanced U.S. space technology in the 1960s–1970s.
• Helped lay the foundation for GPS and space shuttle re-entry.

Today, Arlington National Cemetery uses GPS, GIS (Geographic Information System) and LiDAR (Light Detection and Ranging) to manage the cemetery’s grounds. These technologies are crucial to the cemetery’s mission to honor and remember the service and sacrifice of individuals buried here, and to enable visitors to explore the nation’s history.

BIRTH: October 28, 1917, Kansas City, MO

DEATH: December 7, 1941, Pearl Harbor, HI

In June 1941, two friends, Ted Hall and Don Lowery, enlisted in the Marine Corps. After completing boot camp, they were assigned to the battleship USS Oklahoma and stationed in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. On the morning of December 7, 1941, Japanese planes torpedoed the Oklahoma as part of their surprise attack on Pearl Harbor. According to Lowery, who was able to escape the ship, Hall

“went to breakfast that morning. I was told he was down there when one of the torpedoes hit and one of the gear lockers turned over on him. He was crushed.”

The Oklahoma rolled over and sunk within 20 minutes of the first torpedo hit, taking with it more than 400 men.

Over the next few years, the Navy and the Army’s American Graves Registration Service worked to recover and identify the remains of the Oklahoma crew. Their efforts were limited by the technology available at the time, however, and they were able to identify only 35 crew members. The rest of the recovered remains, including those of Ted Hall, were buried in group graves at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific in Hawaii.

In 2015, armed with new DNA analysis technology, the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) and the Armed Forces Medical Examiner System (AFMES) launched an ambitious effort to exhume and identify the remains of the USS Oklahoma crew. They contacted family members of the crew to collect DNA samples they could match with the unidentified remains.

There are two types of DNA used for forensic testing and identification: nuclear DNA (nucDNA), which is found in the nucleus of the cell, and mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA), which is found in the mitochondria.

• Pioneer in the field of aviation, as a designer and test pilot.
• First U.S. military officer to pilot an aircraft.

You've reached the end of the Military Technology Walking Tour. We hope you enjoyed your time exploring the cemetery and learning about the lives of these groundbreaking service members!

You can explore additional content and resources on the Arlington National Cemetery Education Program website, or find more tours through Arlington National Cemetery's STQRY.