Joseph Mauborgne

Joseph Oswald Mauborgne (February 26, 1881 – June 7, 1971) co-invented the one-time pad with Gilbert Vernam of Bell Labs. In 1914 he published the first recorded solution of the Playfair cipher. Mauborgne became a Major General in the United States Army, and from October 1937 to his retirement in 1941 was the Army's 12th Chief Signal Officer, in command of the Signal Corps.

Biography
Mauborgne was born on February 26, 1881 in New York City to Eugene and Catherine Elizabeth McLaughlin Mauborgne. After graduating in 1901 from the College of Saint Xavier in New York, he studied fine arts until commissioned a 2d Lieutenant, Infantry, in the regular Army in 1903. Stationed in the Philippines several times at several infantry posts, Mauborgne attended the Army Signal School at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, in 1909-1910, graduating from the Signal Officers Course, followed by a tour of duty in Washington D.C. in the office of Chief Signal Officer Brigadier General George P. Scriven.

While stationed at Fort Riley, Kansas, in 1912, he installed a radio transmitter in an airplane and had 1st Lt. Henry H. Arnold send him the first successful air to ground radio transmission on November 2. Two years later, while in command of the radio station at Fort Mills on Corregidor, Mauborgne went up himself with 2nd Lt. Herbert A. "Bert" Dargue in a Burgess Model I seaplane to conduct a series of experimental flight tests of an airborne radio, and made the first two-way radio telegraphy between an airplane and a station on the ground on December 16, 1914. After World War I, in the 1920s and 1930s, Mauborgne pursued communication advancements in numerous research-and-development assignments, including a stint as chief of the Signal Corps Engineering and Research Division and as commander of the Signal Corps laboratory in the Bureau of Standards. During the early 1930s, Mauborgne was Signal Officer for the 9th Corps Area and later Director of the Signal Corps Aircraft Factory, Wright Field, Ohio. He attended the Army War College during its 1931-32 academic session.

As Chief of Signal, Mauborgne supported technological development and oversaw the mass production of the SCR-268 and SCR-270 Army radars. Just a few months after he retired (September 30, 1941), two Signal Corps soldiers — using an SCR-270 radar at Oahu, Hawaii in the early morning of December 7, 1941 — spotted Japanese aircraft on their way in to attack Pearl Harbor.

In addition to his professional study, Mauborgne attended the Chicago Art Institute in 1922-1923. Returning to Washington D.C. in 1923 he continued his art studies at the Corcoran Art Galley between 1923 and 26. Portraits and etchings produced by Mauborgne were exhibited in galleries in Washington, San Francisco, and Dayton, Ohio; acquired by the United States Military Academy, and sold to private collections.

Mauborgne reached the mandatory retirement age in October 1941 and retired near Fort Monmouth, New Jersey. Among his interests were music and violin-making, for which he won an international competition in The Hague in 1949. During his early career, Mauborgne was a recognized marksman, on the "Distinguished Shooters" list of the Civilian Marksmanship Club.

Mauborgne married Katherine Hale Poore in December 1907, and had two sons, one of whom was also a career Army officer. Mauborgne moved to Atlanta, Georgia, in ill health in 1970 and died on June 7, 1971. He was buried in Andersonville National Cemetery.

General Mauborgne is a member of the Military Intelligence Hall of Fame.

General Mauborgne is also known as "The Cubic General".

Army Distinguished Service Medal citation

 * General Orders: War Department, General Orders No. 81 (1919)
 * Action Date: World War I
 * Service: Army
 * Rank: Lieutenant Colonel
 * Organization: Chief, Engineering and Research Division
 * Division: Signal Corps

The President of the United States of America, authorized by Act of Congress, July 9, 1918, takes pleasure in presenting the Army Distinguished Service Medal to Lieutenant Colonel (Signal Corps) Joseph O. Mauborgne, United States Army, for exceptionally meritorious and distinguished services to the Government of the United States, in a duty of great responsibility during World War I. As head of the Engineering and Research Division of the Signal Corps, Lieutenant Colonel Mauborgne rendered conspicuous in connection with coordinating the design and supply of new technical apparatus for the Signal Corps. He was largely responsible for the high type of radio equipment developed for our Army and rendered unusual service in connection with cipher telegraphy.