With the advent of World War I in 1917, the CMRP was re-organized and expanded by Major Charles H. Ruth in anticipation of a map supply crisis and was renamed the Engineer Reproduction Plant (EMP).

Ultimately named the Central Map Reproduction Unit, it incorporated a lithographic school and 18 assigned military personnel.

Smith commanded part of the 29th Engineers, a map making and topographical unit, with 53 officers and 146 men transferred from the US Geological Survey.

Thirteen additional USGS topographers were assigned to the United States Army Coast Artillery Corps as "orienteur officers."

When the 2nd Brigade of Coast Artillery was formed, the military made a similar request for more USGS personnel, but the order was denied as these men were needed for the US Army Corps of Engineers.

"Indeed, General George S. Patton claims to have planned Third Army movements by using a Michelin tourist road map of Europe, his knowledge of terrain, and gut-level feeling that tanks could negotiate the ground William the Conqueror had crossed nine centuries before.

Between 1949 and 1951, standardization of military mapping was agreed to between Canada, Great Britain and the US, and was expanded to NATO, SEATO and CENTO countries as well.

There it absorbed the 64th Engineer Battalion and continued its mission of providing topographic support to U.S. and Allied forces in the Pacific Theatre, particularly to combat commands in Southeast Asia.

Up to date map and topographic information were key ingredients to military operations in Vietnam, especially the placement of artillery fire.

By tying aerial photographs to base maps, artillery surveyors could readily obtain azimuth and location of firing positions.

Environmental conditions within the areas of operation created physical hazards such as miles of desert, blinding sand storms that imperil health and damage delicate instruments, mountains that range up to 15,000 feet above sea level, and steaming jungles with wild animals, dangerous reptiles and insects.

TEC did research in such fields as terrain analysis and geospatial data generation; developed imagery exploitation, rapid prototyping, and other systems; and conducted operations in areas such as geospatial information, crisis support, urban studies, and historical photo environmental analysis.

Reflecting TEC's growing responsibilities in more diverse and technologically sophisticated areas, its name was changed to the Army Geospatial Center in 2009.