Many people have asked “where are all of the Einstein’s?” The truth is that after World War II, the identity of US scientists were heavily guarded, due to the Cold War Era. Our scientists went through strict background checks on a regular basis in order to get and maintain their top secret and secret clearances. Warren P. Waters had many top secret clearances including Q for energy. The US government wanted to make sure that none of our scientists had any connections with the Soviet Union or other Communist countries or sympathizers. My Dad was a World War II veteran and a great patriot. In order to guard US scientific advancements from foreign spies, it was necessary to keep these scientific technologies and discoveries secret. Therefore, many of our Cold War Era scientists had to remain anonymous like my Dad.
In addition, Warren Waters could not tell his family anything about what he was working on. We knew that he was working on solid state engineering in semi conductors, but rarely heard anything about the details. We knew that he worked on miniaturization or micro chips. He was very proud of how small he was able to build these first micro chips. They had to be light enough to go up into space for the many telecommunication satellites that he was working on. These satellites were used during the Cold War Era not only for telephone service and communications, but also doubled in remote viewing as spy satellites. So this information was critical to National security issues, and therefore heavily guarded. US corporations like Hughes Aircraft, were also afraid of commercial spies getting information about our technologies, and using it to manufacture cheaper products that would compete with our products. These fears were not unfounded, and many of our technologies were either stolen or reverse engineered.
The Development of Infrared Technology
During the Cold War Era, one of the projects that Warren Waters worked on was developing infrared technology. This technology was first used in satellites to take pictures and to film activities at night. Naturally, there were major military applications that were carried out with infrared technology. As a physicist, Warren Waters knew about the importance of the light spectrum and its properties. He was also very familiar with photography. So, he was asked to work on developing high resolution infrared viewing devices that could take remote pictures. I do not know which aero space firm(s) he was working at when he developed this technology. It was all classified. He worked for Rockwell International of Anaheim, CA during the 1980’s setting up labs in R & D.
Later on after the Cold War, infrared technology began to be used for hundreds of other non-military, business and medical applications. When you go to a grocery store, and check out, the bar code on the food you are purchasing is scanned by infrared technology. Infrared technology has been used in space satellites to search the universe. It has been used to scan people for medical purposes. It has been used by our border patrol to catch illegal aliens and smugglers. Infrared technology is used in many security systems and scanning devices. Many of the technologies that were developed by Cold War Era scientists, were later used to help people in every day life.