Phil Tarver - AEDC's man behind the lens

  • Published
  • By Philip Lorenz III
  • AEDC/PA
Arnold Engineering Development Center's (AEDC) first public affairs photographer, Phil Tarver spent more than 30 years documenting the people, technology and engineering breakthroughs instrumental in keeping the center at the forefront of flight simulation testing in the world. He did more than record images for posterity; these photos appeared in major news articles published locally, nationally and often, internationally. 

Tarver's first experience with photography began when he was a teenager.  

"I started in high school with the annual staff at Red Bank High School in Chattanooga," he recalled. "And back then when you were 18 you had to go into the service or get drafted." 

In 1943, he volunteered for a tour in the Navy with the hope of going into photography. 

"You didn't always get what you wanted," he said. After basic training, Tarver was preparing to come home on leave before facing a likely assignment overseas on a ship or submarine as a seaman without a specific job specialty. 

He got the mumps before he could leave and ended up in the hospital for a couple of weeks. 

"While I was there, this chaplain came around to visit all the patients," Tarver said. "I had some pictures that I had made while on the (high school) annual staff and I showed these to him. I also had a couple of recommendations from studios I had worked at while living in Chattanooga. When I got out of the hospital, my orders said that I was going to Pensacola, Florida for photography school." 

Tarver said he always thought the chaplain had something to do with those orders. 

"Somebody or something was looking over me," he said smiling and pointing up. "At the Naval School of Photography in Pensacola, I chose to go into aerial photography." 

After completing all the preliminary training, he was assigned to Fleet Air Photographic Squadron One, in the South Pacific Theater. His squadron was comprised of B-24 Liberators, designated as PB4Y aircraft in the Navy. 

The squadron's mission was reconnaissance and Tarver, along with the other aerial photographers, were taking photos of mainland Japan in preparation for the planned final invasion that never came. 

When the war ended, he went to Japan to document the damage wrought by the allied bombardment. Many of his photos showed Japanese military aircraft. Some were missing propellers; the consequence of a previous bombing raid that successfully destroyed an aircraft parts factory. Tarver was decorated with an Air Medal with two stars for his photo missions over the home islands of Japan and territories it held. 

He wasn't aware of it at the time, but his wartime training and experiences were setting the stage for his future with AEDC. 

In 1946, after completing his Navy tour, Tarver moved to Oak Ridge, Tenn., where his parents had moved during the war. By 1951, he had landed a position as a photographer at the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission's local facility. 

Roy Worthington, a friend, left his job at Oak Ridge Lab and took charge of office services at Arnold in 1953. 

"He hadn't been there two or three months and he called me up one night and said, 'there's an opening for a public relations photographer here at the center,'" Tarver said. "He said, 'would you be interested in coming down for an interview?'" 

The idea of starting at the ground floor of a new public relations office was irresistible and by May 1954  Tarver had begun a 30-plus year career at AEDC. 

"When I first came to Arnold, I thought 'man, if a guy couldn't make it here with all these subjects, he's not a very good photographer," he said laughing. "I was really impressed with AEDC." 

Arnold already had a large photo lab and 30 photographers, but their focus was strictly geared toward technically-oriented documentation of flight simulation testing and all the technical processes that entailed. 

Tarver said the other photographers were highly technically trained, but due to their priorities, were often not available to take public affairs assignments. 

By 1958 he was working directly for Jack Shea, who was the special assistant to the managing director at Arnold Research Organization, the primary support contractor for AEDC. Shea's primary responsibility was running the center's public relations office. 

Shea saw the need for a photo lab independent of the large one serving the test customers. According to Tarver, it was also clear to both of them that the existing photo lab, although large, was not set up to provide the quick turnaround required for making news publications' deadlines. 

"Somehow, Jack pulled some strings and we got our dark room right in the A&E Building," he said. "It was where the barber shop is now and it was known as the pictorial section." 

Tarver, with help from his small staff, designed and oversaw the construction of the lab from scratch. 

He credits long-time coworkers Charlie Powell and Richard Scott with helping him with the rapidly growing workload. It was increasing exponentially as Arnold's engineers and technicians tackled tests supporting the demands for space exploration and intercontinental missiles, all driven by the escalating Cold War. 

"Our pictorial section was set up to do mass volumes of photos for news releases and do them in a hurry," he said. "We tried to cover every test that came through here, and I don't think we missed many. We'd go in and set up lights and we'd make movies - I did all the stills and R. Pierson Smith, who was the supervisor of the motion picture section, did all the movies." 

Tarver and his staff worked long and erratic hours because testing often took place at night and unexpected delays and starts were common. Despite the hectic schedule and long hours, he is proud of what he accomplished, mostly behind the lens. 

It was also the responsibility of public relations photographers to document any work-related fatalities. Accidents, although infrequent, could occur at any time and required immediate attention. 

Tarver vividly recalls getting the call to come to work the night an explosion at the J-4 rocket engine test cell killed four men in 1982. 

"I heard that, it shook the bed when that happened," he said. "I said 'the phone will ring in a minute,' and it did. A couple of those guys I knew pretty well. I didn't know what was going on until I got there. That was hard." 

Looking back at all the people and tests he captured on film at Arnold over the years, Tarver admitted there were many highlights during his career. For instance, he still marvels at how Glen Norfleet and his staff figured out a way to capture and examine a projectile after it had hurtled at 14,000 miles an hour down the 1,000 feet of the center's von Karman Hypervelocity Ballistic Range G. 

He met and photographed most of the people from AEDC who made significant contributions to the center, the nation and beyond. He said one person who stood out from the rest was Maj. Gen. Lee Gossick, the center commander from 1964 to 1967 who had served as a fighter pilot during World War II. 

"He was a gentleman, someone who treated everybody with respect," Tarver recalled. 

Only after retiring did the full impact of what he had recorded on film start to sink in, because in the frenetic atmosphere at AEDC, it was all part of doing his job. 

His most memorable experience was something he believes couldn't have happened to him anywhere else but Arnold. 

"The highlight of my whole career was the day I met this guy right here - I think it was in 1971," Tarver said pointing to a framed photograph signed by Neil Armstrong. It shows a photo of the moon as seen by the first two men to land on its surface under an Apollo 11 crew patch. 

"He came here after he had been to the moon," he said. "I got to spend the whole day with him, following him around to cover his visit to AEDC - he's my hero." 

Toward the end of his career and since retiring,  Tarver has kept his feet firmly planted on the ground, including time spent as an assistant scoutmaster with Boy Scout Troop 132, taking boys on long hikes, along multiple sections of the Appalachian Trail. 

From 1951 to the present, he has been a member of the Tennessee Professional Photographers Association, serving as president in 1965. He also belonged to the Professional Photographers of America (PPA) from 1954 until 1975, serving as print judge and councilman from Tennessee. 

The PPA has recognized Tarver with the following awards: a master of photography degree in 1962, national award for service in 1971 and a photographic craftsman degree in 1973.