Lt. Col. Rea Leaves Impact on TENCAP (14 July 1981)

Photo By Lori Stewart | On 14 July 1981, Lt. Col. Billy C. Rea unexpectedly passed away while serving as commander of the 1st MI Battalion. In his nineteen-year military career, this expert on Army tactical imagery requirements directly impacted the early development of imagery architecture for the Tactical Exploitation of National Capabilities program.  

UNITED STATES

07.07.2023

Story by Lori Stewart 

U.S. Army Intelligence Center of Excellence

by Lori S. Stewart, USAICoE Command Historian

14 JULY 1981
On 14 July 1981, Lt. Col. Billy C. Rea unexpectedly passed away while serving as commander of the 1st MI Battalion. In his nineteen-year military career, this expert on Army tactical imagery requirements directly impacted the early development of imagery architecture for the Tactical Exploitation of National Capabilities (TENCAP) program.

Born in San Antonio, Texas, in 1937, Billy Rea graduated from Texas A&M University and joined the U.S. Air Force at the age of twenty-five. Upon transferring to the U.S. Army in 1965, he joined the 519th MI Battalion and deployed to Vietnam. In a subsequent tour in Vietnam, he served first as the G-2 air and later as the deputy G-2 operations advisor to the 3d Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN) Corps. He also had assignments with the Defense Intelligence Agency, 2d MI Battalion (Aerial Reconnaissance and Surveillance), U.S. Army Imagery Interpretation Center, 527th MI Battalion, and 66th MI Group.

Colonel Rea returned to the U.S. from his last European assignment in 1978 to become chief of the Special Activities Branch (SAB), Directorate of Combat Developments, at the U.S. Army Intelligence Center and School (USAICS) at Fort Huachuca. With an extensive background in aerial reconnaissance and surveillance and imagery interpretation, he became the USAICS’ point of contact for the Army-wide TENCAP program. Begun in 1973 with the creation of the Army Space Program Office, TENCAP sought to provide immediate access of national and theater overhead collection capabilities to commanders at the tactical levels. These assets had initially been designed to support only strategic requirements.

Colonel Rea’s field experience allowed him to understand the type of information and timeliness requirements of tactical commanders and conceptualize practical solutions. He first coordinated the production of an Army-wide “Imagery Architecture” study outlining the characteristics, use, and exploitation of imagery intelligence in support of commanders at all echelons. Written in layman’s terms, this document oriented congressional and other government officials to requirements for the tactical exploitation of multisource national imagery. Despite deficiencies in digital transmission and multinational interoperability, the study claimed a tactical imagery exploitation system could be available by 1985.

Rea’s study became the accepted tactical imagery roadmap and, by October 1979, a Tactical Imagery Exploitation System (TACIES) prototype had been developed. In 1980, the prototype, renamed the Digital Imagery Test Bed (DITB), participated in European field exercises and then deployed to Fort Bragg to support the intelligence requirements of the XVIII Airborne Corps. Colonel Rea was selected to command the 1st MI Battalion, 525th MI Group, to which the DITB was fielded. He continued to refine the test bed’s capabilities and mentored and trained the system’s initial group of leaders and operators. Meanwhile, back at USAICS, Rea’s 1978 study continued to guide the efforts of the SAB he had formerly led.

Colonel Rea did not live to see the future impact of his efforts on TENCAP and later imagery exploitation systems developed for the Army, Air Force, and Marines. He unexpectedly passed away on 14 July 1981. Later that year, the XVIII Airborne Corps dedicated Fort Bragg’s Rea Compound, where the DITB was housed, in Rea’s honor. Colonel Rea was also posthumously inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1992 for his role in the TENCAP program.

Notably, the TENCAP program is celebrating its fiftieth anniversary in 2023 and continues to support tactical commanders by integrating and making accessible data collected from space, air, and terrestrial sensors.

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• Date Taken: 07.07.2023
• Date Posted: 07.07.2023 16:37
• Story ID: 448744
• Location: US