[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 152 (2006), Part 2] [Extensions of Remarks] [Pages 2118-2119] [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]TRIBUTE TO DANIEL ``ED'' BARROW ______ HON. DENNIS MOORE of kansas in the house of representatives Thursday, February 16, 2006 Mr. MOORE of Kansas. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to pay tribute to a pioneer in the air traffic control field, Daniel ``Ed'' Barrow, who will celebrate his 90th birthday later this year. Born in Boone, IA, and raised in Unionville, IN, Ed Barrow attended Indiana Central College in Indianapolis, IN. After teaching school in Elwood, IN, Barrow began working for the Indiana State Employment Office, where he saw a job posting for an air controller trainee. As the holder of a student pilot's license, he met the primary qualification. As his daughter, Marilyn Smith, related to me, ``He decided to try for the position. A trucker stopped at his Marathon station. The driver was going to Pittsburgh, so Dad hitched a ride with him. When he got to Pittsburgh, he took the bus to New York City. While in New York, Dad stayed in the YMCA. The training was very hard, so he asked Mother to keep checking with the Employment Office to see if he could come back if he `washed out'.'' This led to a lengthy career for Ed Barrow with the Civil Aeronautics Administration, the predecessor agency of the Federal Aviation Administration, FAA. As a result, the Barrow family was posted at various locations around the United States, including Roeland Park and Overland Park, KS, both of which are located in the Third Congressional District. During the outset of his career as an air traffic controller, Ed Barrow and his colleagues received their information on the telephone and then plotted the information on paper maps. In the mid-1950s, Ed was the chief of the Washington National Airport control tower; he later went to work in the Washington, DC, headquarters of the Civil Aeronautics Administration. Among other projects, he worked on Operation Northern Tier, which resulted in the long range radar system's installation nationwide in the FAA's Air Route Traffic Control Centers. In the mid-20th century, air traffic control was revolutionized by the introduction of radar, a system the British initially developed for air defense prior to World War II. After the war, the Civil Aeronautics Administration began applying this technology to the problem of keeping civilian flights safely separated. In 1946, the agency used a system developed for the Navy to open a radar-equipped airport tower for demonstration purposes. By 1950, the first Airport Surveillance Radar systems were deployed in the United States. Ed Barrow's participation was key to the development of our modem ``positive air traffic control system,'' which requires all aircraft at or above 18,000 feet to be under positive air traffic control in order to ensure that they were provided separation from all other aircraft operating at the same altitudes. As chief of the FAA's Air Traffic Control Procedures Division, he was responsible for all of the procedures and phraseology used by American civilian and military air traffic controllers and ultimately oversaw the complete rewriting of the Air Traffic Control Procedures Manual. He established [[Page 2119]] a set of Military Operations Areas, MOAs, in which military training and tactics would be contained and FAA controllers would then take the fighters to and from these MOAs and the military would then operate within these designated areas. Barrow also established that an FAA controller would be assigned to the NORAD facility to ensure the competency of the NORAD controllers. This all superseded an earlier agreement with the North American Air Defense, NORAD, Command of the U.S. Air Force which allowed NORAD to control fighter/inceptors independently of the FAA air traffic control system, which had become increasingly hazardous to the safety of both civilian and military aircraft. Later, Ed Barrow was assigned to Kansas City, MO, to the headquarters of the director of the FAA's Central Region, where he was responsible for aviation safety in an 11 State area, including the operational activities of the Air Traffic Division, the Flight Standards Safety Division and the Airways Facilities Division. As his friend and coworker, Glen Tigner, recently told his daughter, Marilyn: ``Your Dad often gave that country boy approach to critical matters, but believe me he was sharp as a tack. He was a real leader among men, instilling in them the attitude that they would follow him anywhere, anytime, anyhow . . . a man one would proudly serve. He will be remembered as the best of the best.'' Ed Barrow's service to his country was recognized by the Department of the Air Force, which presented him with a Decoration for Exceptional Civilian Service. It reads: ``In recognition of his exceptional performance as Airways Operations Specialist, Directorate of Operations, Headquarters USAF, from 15 October 1954 to 15 May 1956. The constant, increasing demands on the United States Air Force and other users of the airspace since the advent of jet operations presented almost insurmountable problems in the air traffic field. Through his superior knowledge, extreme conscientiousness, and outstanding application, Mr. Barrow developed completely new concepts to meet the requirements so that the Air Force now leads in air traffic control, so vital to the emergency war plans.'' Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to take this opportunity to share with the House this tribute to the distinguished public service career of Daniel ``Ed'' Barrow, as he approaches his 90th birthday, and to wish him many happy returns in the years to come. ____________________