Top Security Clearance - Lawrence C. Scharmann

A Father.

A Secret Career.

A Legacy That Reached Beyond Our World.

Growing up, Lawrence C. Scharmann knew his father as a devoted husband, loving father, Navy veteran, and gifted electrical engineer who, when asked what he did for a living, would simply smile and say, "It’s a secret."

For nearly three decades, Lawrence E. Scharmann worked as a civilian engineer for the U.S. Army at Camp Evans, home to Communications-Electronics Command. His career grew from the legacy of Project Diana into work involving satellite electronics, communications technology, and specialized devices designed to survive-and transmit data from-the far reaches of space. Much of what he accomplished remained hidden not only from the public but from his own family.

In Top Security Clearance, Lawrence C. Scharmann pieces together the extraordinary story of his father through personal memories, family history, and years of research. The result is an intimate portrait of a quiet, humble engineer whose imagination and ingenuity intersected with national security, the early space race, global communications, and America’s first steps into deep space.

At its heart, this is more than a story about classified work. It is a son’s tribute to a father whose life was defined by service, curiosity, integrity, family, and the enduring tension between invention used to explore and invention used to destroy.