Robert Millikan and the Establishment of a Military Weather Service

Dr. Robert A. Millikan (1868-1953) was a towering figure of 20^th Century science. He was a pioneering physicist who received the 1923 Nobel Prize in physics. He led the California Institute of Technology (CalTech) as chairman of its university executive council. Furthermore, Millikan also organized a dedicated weather service established in support of military aviation.

Millikan’s contributions to military meteorology began immediately prior to U.S. entry into World War I. In 1916, the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) had as a preparatory measure placed itself at the disposal of the commander in chief. It formed the National Research Council (NRC) to begin the work of devising military applications in order to support the U.S. military. Millikan would be appointed as the NRC’s vice chairman and lead its efforts in the physical sciences.

With war rapidly onsetting by February 1917, President Woodrow Wilson designated the NRC as the central organization behind the rallying of all of the nation’s scientific forces in support of national defense. Millikan organized dozens of committees to support the government in all of the fields that fell under the NRC’s auspices. He also commenced an effort of rigorous technological collaboration with numerous allied nations. His achievements formed a long list of technological advances and unique applications.

In addition to his work with the NRC, Millikan added several other hats he wore simultaneously. In 1917, Brigadier General George Squier, the Army's Chief Signal Officer, persuaded Millikan to accept a direct commission in the Signal Corps Reserve. Squier placed Millikan in charge of the Science and Research Division of the Signal Corps. He also directed Millikan to establish a weather service that could support not just the nascent aviation section but also several other Army service elements.

Acting in this latter capacity, Millikan devised a plan to establish this weather service. His blueprint included building up a significant component and deploying these weather personnel as soon as possible in support of the American Expeditionary Force (AEF) amassing in France. Trained troops were to be obtained from the Weather Bureau and elsewhere in civilian life. In short order, Millikan added a third portfolio in addition to the other work that he continued to perform with his appointment as the commanding officer of this new Army Meteorological and Aerological Service.

Millikan dispatched weather officers and enlisted men already experienced in weather to the AEF in France as early as the fall of 1917. He also set up a training program to qualify far more meteorological personnel. Entry-level training occurred at Weather Bureau stations or on the job at their assigned units. More advanced training would be conducted with the U.S. Army Balloon Corps stationed at Fort Omaha, Nebraska. By the spring of 1918, Millikan had spearheaded the establishment of a formal weather training school at Texas Agricultural and Mechanical School (now Texas A&M University) in College Station, Texas. Notably, with aviation assets requiring considerable weather support, the bulk of graduating personnel were assigned in support of Air Service operations at home and abroad.

By the time of major offensives in the latter part of 1918, a large contingent of meteorological personnel supported the AEF at the headquarters level, from a large weather central, and from numerous weather stations across France. Millikan also began rebuilding the Army’s own slate of domestic weather stations, something that had not been done since prior to 1891. Significantly, his weather service also pioneered new techniques and procedures not previously employed within American meteorology. However, much of that work would be circumscribed following Millikan's demobilization.

The latter decades of Dr. Millikan's career could be ascribed as stellar, albeit with one exception. He quickly resumed his academic role and dived headlong into his research work. He would be selected to head Caltech and would guide that institution to great heights during the subsequent quarter century. Furthermore, he would serve in support of the interwar League of Nations. Notably, he helped to bring the 1932 Olympics to Los Angeles. Up to and throughout World War II, he would remain an important scientific advisor to the War Department. Yet his association with a pseudo-scientific racial movement has impacted how he has been regarded in more recent times.