It started with a casual hello at a local Veterans of Foreign War – the VFW – post sometime before the COVID-19 pandemic. The chance meeting would eventually lead retired Sgt. Maj. Richard Kottemann to gift his collection of personal reports, field manuals and maps to the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency. Once catalogued by the NGA historians, items will be divided between NGA and the U.S. Army Geospatial Engineer School in Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri. 

“What an opportunity to have some of our historical maps out there!” said Command Sgt. Maj. T.J. Baird, NGA’s senior enlisted advisor, who will liaise between NGA and the Army Geospatial Engineer School.

NGA welcomed Kottemann, accompanied by his daughter Tina Kottemann, to NGA Campus East Feb. 23, where he handed over a cache of topo treasure he said he “cleaned out from my bookshelf.”

Among the historical artifacts are several maps from his tour of duty in Vietnam and a reference handbook of the People’s Republic of China. Over his 29-year career in the Army, Kottemann also served in Germany, Japan and Hawaii.

“I think I saved a lot of lives in Vietnam,” he said, as he was unpacking his offerings. “I feel really good, the way I served.”

Kottemann compiled and managed crucial road and bridge data during his time in Vietnam, spanning 1966 to 1968. He participated in numerous ground and aerial reconnaissance missions to gather data in areas not covered by Free Force units and occupied by Viet Cong and/or Vietnam Army units. During his NGA visit, he shared stories of making topo maps out of putty and using flashlights on broken light tables.

Kottemann served as a topographic engineer in the Military Intelligence Corp. until 1985. His last assignment was at the Intelligence and Threat Analysis Center at the Navy Yard in Washington, D.C.

Kottemann’s present-day connection to NGA comes by way of Beth Sweet, herself an Army veteran and deputy director of Research’s Advanced Phenomenologies office. While at Springfield VFW Post 7327, where Sweet was serving as chaplain at the time, she overheard Kottemann mention he was a former topographic engineer, and she immediately offered an hello.

The two quickly discovered they had more in common than their Army service and GEOINT – Kottemann is also an alum of one of NGA’s predecessor organizations, the Defense Mapping Agency. During the mid-1970s, he was assigned as chief instructor supervisor of the Department of Topographic Sciences in DMA’s Defense Mapping School at Ft. Belvoir.

“We immediately connected when he found out where I worked,” said Sweet.

It wasn’t long before Kottemann decided to donate his materials to NGA, but the COVID-19 pandemic halted plans. He said he was thrilled to “finally get inside NGA,” where he was treated to a tour of the museum by NGA Archivist Lisa Wagner of the Office of Corporate Communications history department.

“He wanted to see what became of all those maps and charts he worked on and what his MOS [military occupational specialty] is working on now,” said Sweet.

At one point during the museum tour, Kottemann challenged Wagner’s use of the term “GEOINT,” revealing how the occupation has evolved.

“It’s topo,” he said. 

Wagner just smiled.

Article by NGA Research Communications