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o + o + o + o + o + o + o + o + o + o + o + o + o + o + o + o + o + o + o +
Yes, I can still remember singing Xmas carols and songs in the public schools,
too, way back when!
Thanks, Virginia for your interesting reply and worthwhile lead!
I suspect that all the 1:250 000 and 1:50 000 topo. maps of Cuba were taken, at
that time, to the library of what is now known as the NGIA (way back then, the
Army Map Service, AMS).
As you may know, unfortunately, all foreign place names
gazetteer responsibilities were taken away from the BGN and given to the AMS
(undoubtedly out of security classification concerns) at around the time that
those "suits" visited you at Interior, although the gazetteers
themselves remained unclassified.
Unfortunately, virtually all the maps produced by the Defense Dept. (NGIA et
al.) at scales of 1:250 000 or better likewise remain classified to this day,
and I know that this definitely does include their 1:50 000 and 1:250
000 topos. of Cuba.
Obtaining official maps from Cuba will likewise remain impossible, I'm afraid,
until Castro Bros. go out of business.
Nice to have heard from you on this topic.
Mike G.
From: Virginia R Hetrick PhD <[email protected]>
To: [email protected]
Sent: Saturday, September 3, 2011 2:45 PM
Subject: Maps of Cuba for Michael Goodman
First, John, you're right! ;~) And, all my friends in school were
reminded of that every time we could produce our minister to deliver
an invocation or benediction back in the day when those things
happened at school events!
Now, about the maps for Michael,
In 1962 six of us (all college juniors from various colleges around
the country) worked for the summer in the Department of Interior's
Office of Geography which provided decision support for the Board on
Geographic Names. In mid-summer, having been hired because we had
French language skills, we were switched from working on a new
gazetteer of France to working urgently on a new gazetteer of Cuba,
not a hotbed of Francophones! I got the 1:250,000 of Santiago d'Cuba.
On 12 September, my boss and four suits not from inside our building
came and took away all my maps which included all 1:50,000s that
covered the same region as the 1:250. And, we all know what happened
about a month later!
So with that thought in mind, you might contact the National Archives
to find out whether the Office of Geography ever got those maps back.
I found the following citation by googling the BGN and it does refer
to decision cards which is what we made for the Cuban places we found.
BTW - when my buds and I had them, they were not under any security
classification.
http://www.archives.gov/research/guide-fed-records/groups/324.html
HTH.
v
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Virginia R. Hetrick, here in sunny California
Email: [email protected]
"There is always hope."
My fave: http://www.washington.edu/cambots/camera1_l.gif
There's no place like: 34N 8' 25.7", 117W 57' 43.2"
if you can't be at: 48N 7' 4.11" 122W 45' 52.3"
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