July 11, 2019 • APG News B3 Iron Mike: Fort Bragg Mascot Has Md. Roots BY ASHLEIGH BICKLER CECOM ABERDEEN PROVING GROUND, Md. -- Nestled amidst a colorful array of well- tended flowers and bushes, within view of the XVIII Airborne Corps commander’s Courtesy photo office at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, stands a monument dedicated to the Airborne Soldier. Iron Mike, the Airborne Trooper, created by Bel Air artist Leah Hiebert, stands in While the nearly 17-foot tall statue is offi- the traffic circle in front of the XVIII Airborne Corps headquarters at Fort Bragg, cially named “The Airborne Trooper,” it is North Carolina. colloquially known as Iron Mike. The statue year, in Fayetteville, the Army hosts the ue reads: “Iron Mike In honor of Airborne is said to keep eternal watch on the post flag, Wear Blue: Run to Remember All American Troopers whose courage, dedication, and tra- and those who listen closely, can almost hear Marathon and the Mike to Mike Half Mar- ditions make them the world’s finest fight- it whisper the airborne moto, “All the Way!” athon. The Mike to Mike starts at the Iron ing soldiers”. That statement embodies the The moniker “Iron Mike” was common- Mike statue at the Airborne & Special Oper- strength, tenacity, and ferocity of the XVIII ly used in the early 20th century to refer to ations Museum and ends at the Iron Mike Airborne Corps and is a fitting tribute to its military statues - so much so, that the nick- statue at Fort Bragg. Participants literally run continued mission today. name has endured and actual names for many from one Iron Mike to the other Iron Mike As Fort Bragg is the “Home of the Airborne monuments are seldom used. Fort Bragg’s Courtesy photo during the aptly-named half marathon. The and Special Operations Forces,” housing the Iron Mike was completed in 1961 by artist popular race typically draws huge crowds headquarters of the XVIII Airborne Corps and and sculptor Leah Hiebert, whose husband, Author Ashleigh Bickler’s mural, that cheer on the civilian and military run- the 82nd Airborne Division (Air Assault), Iron Samuel L. Hiebert, served as an Army chap- commissioned by the Army & Air ners who come from across the country to Mike is, understandably, the mascot for Fort lain during World War II. The statue depicts Force Exchange Service, which she participate. Bragg and the Airborne Soldier. a World War II-era paratrooper holding a designed, printed, and displayed at Thompson submachine gun while advanc- two Exchange locations in 2016, fea- The stance Leah L. Hiebert ing. The original statue was commissioned tured Iron Mike, the Airborne Trooper Iron Mike stands with his left foot in a Hiebert created paintings and sculptures by former XVIII Airborne Corps Command- statue. raised position on a pile of rocks and his in the U.S., as well as in North Korea, Japan er Lt. Gen. Robert F. Sink, and was meant to ca created in 2005. The original Iron Mike, upper body leaning forward bearing his and Germany, while serving overseas with be a tribute dedicated to all paratroopers past, created with polyester strips dipped in epoxy weight on his elbow which rests on his raised her husband. According to her obituary at present, and future. and stretched over a steel frame, stood 16 left knee. This famous stance led to the Legacy.com, she had more than 60 years of Sgt. Maj. James Runyon, a veteran of feet 4 inches tall from boots to helmet, and renaming of a popular calisthenic exercise in experience lecturing, teaching, judging and World War II, Korea and Vietnam, posed weighed 3,235 pounds. It stood watch over Soldier’s physical training routine. The exer- creating and she was the first Western wom- for the statue in 1961. Known as a prolific, the southern entrance to the post, on Bragg cise, known as The Lunge was renamed The an to have a solo art exhibit in Korea in 1947, groundbreaking artist and dedicated military Boulevard, until its move to the traffic cir- Iron Mike by Fort Bragg’s airborne troops. and to have sculptures accepted in the Metro- spouse, Leah Hiebert passed away at the age cle in 1979. Today, paratroopers and Soldiers across the politan Museum of Tokyo. She is best known of 99 in 2009, at her Harford County home After its replacement with the bronze ver- force - as the name has attained ubiquity in for her creation, under the commission of in Bel Air, Maryland. sion, the original statue, which had been the Army - spend their early-morning PT ses- the Army, of the “Iron Mike” statue at Fort Not many people realize that the stat- deteriorating, was restored and refurbished sions strengthening their legs for the rigors of Bragg, North Carolina. Also an author, she ue that stands in the traffic circle in front and was placed at the Airborne & Special missions and Airborne operations, mimick- published “The Making of Iron Mike” at the of the Fort Bragg post headquarters is not Operations Museum in downtown Fayette- ing Iron Mike’s lunge-like stance. age of 96. Hiebert is buried in Shenandoah Hiebert’s original statue, but a bronze repli- ville, North Carolina on June 14, 2010. Each The inscription on the base of the stat- Memorial Park, Frederick County, Virginia. Army Physicists Explore GPS-free Navigation with Electromagnetic Fields CCDC Army Research Laboratory ADELPHI, Md. -- In the future, Soldiers and autonomous vehicles will use tricord- er-like sensors to measure electromagnetic fields. That might be valuable information for navigation in a GPS-denied environment, according to Army research leadership. At the U.S. Army Combat Capabilities Development Command’s Army Research Laboratory, scientists are working on a proj- ect called Mobile Power Meter - a way to remotely measure power without exposure to harmful high voltages. “The power grid bathes everything in electromagnetic low-frequency radiation,” said research physicist Dr. Kevin Claytor, with the lab’s Sensors and Electron Devices Directorate at its Adelphi Laboratory Center. “By measuring voltage, we can help deter- mine the stability of the grid.” When you think about it, we’re all swim- ming through 60-hertz fields, Claytor said. “One of the cool experiments we did is strapping a sensor to the top of the car and driving it around town,” he said. Army researchers found stronger signals closer to power lines -- knowledge that may help with moving around power lines or for avoiding them altogether. “We realized that we can use this for oth- er applications such as navigation,” Clay- tor said. The Global Positioning System, or GPS, works by having many satellites in orbit broadcasting signals down to Earth. Those signals are very weak, Claytor said. This means they are vulnerable to jamming. “The power system is basically a ground- U.S. Army Shutterstock illustration based system that’s generating a lot of Electromagnetic low-frequency radiation from the power grid bathe everything in a sea of 60-hertz waves. This may be 60-hertz fields,” he said. “It’s very difficult a key to a denial-resistant navigation system, according to Army scientists. to avoid that signal. We can even see it from satellites.” In the meantime, Army researchers con- By leveraging this, Army researchers tinue their underpinning research discover- think they may have a denial-resistant meth- ing, innovating and hopefully transitioning od of navigation. these capabilities to future warfighters, he “This could become really important for said. the Army of the future and for society in gen- “This technology is probably more of the eral,” said CCDC ARL Director Dr. Phil Per- 15-to 20-year time frame, but we’ll prob- conti. “If someone were to take down the ably see some demonstrations of that well GPS system, or the GPS signals were denied before then.” and people were trying to navigate … it The CCDC Army Research Laborato- would be somewhat problematic.” ry is an element of the U.S. Army Combat It would be a particular challenge for the Capabilities Development Command. As the U.S. Army because the military depends on Army’s corporate research laboratory, ARL assured position, navigation and timing to discovers, innovates and transitions science accomplish its wartime missions, he said. and technology to ensure dominant strate- “There are still outstanding problems,” gic land power. Through collaboration across Claytor said. “One of the things is that you the command’s core technical competencies, need good knowledge of where your source CCDC leads in the discovery, development signals are.” and delivery of the technology-based capa- Using supercomputers to interpret field bilities required to make Soldiers more lethal measurements may be a potential solution, to win the nation’s wars. CCDC is a major Claytor said. subordinate command of the U.S. Army “In the future, that’s something that is Futures Command. going to be augmented by artificial intelli- gence and machine learning,” he said, add- ing, “I think we’re a few years away from seeing a demonstration of this. Much of what Research physicist Dr. Kevin Claytor we do at ARL is very future forward. We’re studies electromagnetic fields for focused not just on the immediate impact, the Army at the Adelphi Laboratory but on impacts 20 or 30 years out.” Center in Maryland. Photo by David McNally, CCDC ARL.