Robert Moyer
How did your M.A. degree prepare you for your subsequent work? Which professors do you remember from ODU and why?
The number and type of assignments I was given while working toward my M.A. helped me to polish my writing and learn how to conduct academic research with discipline and focus. In terms of scope and time allowed, the typical graduate assignment at ODU was very similar to a major section for a National Register eligibility evaluation report. When I was assigned to write my first such report, I did not feel completely overwhelmed because the workload was similar to completing two or three graduate assignments simultaneously - in other words, the typical workload for an ODU History graduate student during any given semester. Of course, my M.A. prepared me for Cultural Resource Management in a more literal way as well. The Secretary of the Interior's Standards (36 CFR, Part 61) require that Historians who engage in Section 106 compliance work have "a graduate degree in history or closely related field" or a bachelor's degree and two years of specific work experience in the field. As a practical matter, most government agencies and consulting firms who are seeking Historians for Cultural Resource Management positions are reluctant to hire a candidate who does not have their M.A., even if they have a B.A. and some practical experience.
The professor that I remember most clearly from my time at ODU is Dr. Ingo Heidbrink. Ingo was the Graduate Program Director when I first considered attending ODU, and he was the first faculty member that I spoke with about joining the program. We both had practical work experience in the fields that we later researched as historians (I was a private pilot and a civilian aircrew member before doing aerospace history research at NASA Langley, and Ingo held a Captain's license before he became a Maritime Historian), and because of that shared perspective, we worked well together. When I took his Maritime History class, Ingo saw potential in my proposed research assignment topic - more than I did, in fact. Thanks to his encouragement and feedback, that assignment eventually ended up becoming a published article in the International Journal of Maritime History, and I graduated with the first Advanced Graduate Certificate in Maritime History (A-GCMH) ever awarded by ODU.
Where have you been employed since finishing your degree?
Shortly after finishing my M.A., I was offered a Technical Writer position by ARDX, Inc., a federal contractor in Norfolk who assisted the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services by providing instructional materials about the Affordable Care Act for health insurance providers. After working for a year as a technical writer and facilitator, I accepted a position in August 2015 as an Architectural Historian at White Sands Missile Range, New Mexico. I am currently working as an adjunct instructor at Doña Ana Community College and at El Paso Community College, teaching undergraduate American History to 1877 at both schools. As it turns out, this week I was offered an Architectural Historian position with the Oklahoma Department of Transportation's Cultural Resources Program, where I will begin work in January 2018.
You have acquired extensive experience in Cultural Resource Management. Can you describe this work?
When I began my M.A. at ODU, I was the Intern Team Lead at the Cultural Resources Office at NASA Langley Research Center. I was also in charge of the Langley Archives Room, which contained historic documents, oral history transcripts and recordings, and a collection of aerospace artifacts such as the backup soil sample scoop for the Viking (Mars) lander. Most of my work as a historian has focused on cultural resource management, specifically compliance with Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act. At NASA Langley, my work was almost exclusively on the "back end" of Section 106, conducting research and writing to comply with the mitigation requirements of the NHPA in accordance with a Programmatic Agreement for the NASA Langley Research Center Historic District. On the other hand, my work at White Sands Missile Range was exclusively related to the "front end" of Section 106, determining whether facilities that were scheduled for demolition were eligible for listing in the National Register of Historic Places and writing formal NRHP eligibility evaluation reports. The facilities that I researched and evaluated included a control facility for the first networked tracking radar system ever built (known as "chain radar") where the "mission control" concept used by NASA was first developed (the developer of the system went to NASA and adapted it for their use), as well as a pair of massive radar sites that were used to track and evaluate scale models of the first ICBM reentry vehicles (the scale models were launched 500 miles away from Green River, Utah and impacted near the sites at Mach 16 or so after a blistering six-minute flight.) In addition to my Section 106 work, I also did some exhibit design work in support of the White Sands Missile Range Museum, and I was part of the design team for an interactive display about optical instrumentation at WSMR.
What sort of history books do you enjoy reading?
Since most of my Cultural Resource Management research tends to involve technical documents such as engineering reports and blueprints, when I read history books for my own enjoyment they tend to be more people-focused topics like migration history. I recently completed A Great and Noble Scheme by John Mack Faragher, which is about the forced expulsion of the Acadian people from what is now Nova Scotia in the mid-1700s. Having grown up in North Louisiana, where the population is primarily of English and Scots-Irish descent, I knew many Cajuns from South Louisiana without understanding much about their origins. There are many aspects of Cajun culture that make a lot more sense to an outsider once you understand how and why they ended up where they are today.
You have published extensively, in International Journal of Maritime History and other places. What are your plans regarding research in the future?
I do not have any research plans right now that are directly tied to academic writing or publication, but I do have several topics that I would like to explore further. The last invasion of U.S. soil by a foreign power took place about an hour from where I am now, in a tiny border town called Columbus, New Mexico, when Pancho Villa's forces occupied the town in 1916. As part of the American response, every aircraft in the U.S. inventory was employed in combat operations for the first and only time in history. Ultimately all eight aircraft were lost, each one because of dust and heat rather than enemy action. Historians have discussed the field experience gained by Pershing's forces while pursuing Pancho Villa and how it was applied soon after in World War I. I would like to research how Pershing used his aircraft, and what impact (if any) air operations during the Pancho Villa expedition had on early use of American air power in World War I.
I would also love to write an article about Clyde Tombaugh's work at White Sands Missile Range. Tombaugh is well known for discovering Pluto, but he also designed and built the early tracking telescopes at WSMR, and helped the test directors to understand that tracking telescopes could provide important test data that could not be obtained through radar tracking or telemetry.
Finally, I have one research project in mind that is a bit closer to home for me. My father worked at Kennedy Space Center as an electronics technician during the Gemini and Apollo programs, but died shortly after I was born, so I knew little about what he actually did there. Over the years, I learned the facility at KSC where he worked and some general information about what he did there. I am planning to send a FOIA request to KSC for the real property records of the building that he worked in, and do a bit of digging based on what I find there.
