Issue 10: Tech from the Military

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14 | ORIGINS Well also it turns out that the place I was stationed at was considered “remote isolated.” This meant there was probably only 300 personnel there. There was actually 600 total, but 300 of them were Danish people who lived in Greenland. So it was remote isolated which meant no women. It was isolated. As a matter of fact, there were actually no roads in Greenland. The longest road in Greenland was on our base, which went from the base down to the fjord. When the ships came in during the summertime, they’d resupply us. It also turned out that on this base, it was an ICO (which stands for “International Civil Organization”). Their job was to transfer all the flight plans for all the airplanes that flew over the North Atlantic. This was every plane that flew to Europe through the North Atlantic because that’s how they get there in the shortest way. But you weren’t flying in cargo. What did you have to do? I was the man from ICO, which meant I stood in a room about 20 feet by 20 feet, probably 400 square feet that had about 20 teletype machines. Every teletype machine was tied to a certain air space area in the United States and in Europe. My job was to take flight plans leaving the United States or Europe on teletape tape, take it from one machine, and go over and feed it into the machine where the plane was going. So that, back then, was how they transferred the flight plans and patterns of planes flying across the ocean. I took them from one teletype machine and put it in the next correct teletype machine. An example would be like leaving New York Kennedy in the United States and flying to Heathro, London in England. And I would have to do that. All airplane traffic came through that room for the whole northern part of the world really. DADEROT/NATIONAL ELECTRONICS MUSEUM | CC0 1.0 Did this ever cause difficulties? Every once and a while a plane was lost. They couldn’t find a plane. For that, we had an air rescue operation. Unfortunately, because of my work schedule, I was never able to go on it. You could volunteer to go on these rescue missions to find out where these planes went. A lot of times it was just that the information got lost, because, you know, it was just teletype machines. I also had to type things on these ticket tapes. Sometimes, the flight plans would come over the teletype but wouldn’t come out as a hard copy and I would have to retype it to send it on. Of course I could already type pretty fast, but I ended up able to type probably 140 to 160 words per minute on a teletype machine. Because that’s all I did all day; that’s all I did for my 8 hour shift. What did you do when you weren’t typing or moving teletapes? So I was in Greenland, I actually liked it there. I was out of the 600 total personnel on base there was only six of us that did not drink. Everybody else was inebriated the whole year tour there. So there was only six of us who also happened to be the six in the chapel program, which I ended up getting an award for from the Air Force. I got a special award for being in Greenland and being in the chapel, probably because I wasn’t drunk. www.knowyourorigins.org
COLD WAR | 15 What is one of your most memorable experiences from Greenland? I was in Greenland up until one day I thought I died. I had this wicked fever. There was no hospital, only the dispensary. I walked into the dispensary the next morning after a horrible, horrendous night where I really thought I had died because of whatever I had. It turns out as soon as they saw me, for some reason they knew the symptoms but it’s the only recorded case that they know of arrecipolis in Greenland. The very next day, I was on a plane to Chelsea Naval Hospital in Boston. Because of being a remote isolate back during the Vietnam War, when you left you were had the option of choosing where you wanted to go. That was kind of their sympathy for you because you were remote isolated. So they asked me where I wanted to go in the United States and since I had a youth group that I helped in Everett, Massachusetts, which is next door to Chelsea, I chose Chelsea Naval Hospital in Boston. That’s where they sent me. They packed me up. I didn’t even have a chance to go back to my room. I didn’t have anything. They loaded me on a plane. The first thing they had to do was they had to give me penicillin, the kind they give to horses I think. It was so thick that after they inject it into you, they have to physically knead it and break it up underneath your skin. So, this arrecipolis, I didn’t know what it was but when they got to Chelsea Naval Hospital every morning I woke up there was at least four or five doctors standing around the bed looking at this rare case of arrecipolis. It turns out it’s a viral leukemia. Air Force Academy Chapel Built in 1956-1962 by architect Walter Netsch with Skidmore, Owings and Merrill in expersionist modern style. Located in Colorado Springs, CO. Origins Scientific Research Society
Page 2 and 3: On the Cover We wanted to show a mo
Page 5 and 6: World War II cost more money, destr
Page 7 and 8: After World War II, or what Russian
Page 9 and 10: COLD WAR | 9 map of the dew line |
Page 11 and 12: EXPERIENCE 1958 TELEVISION The Arct
Page 13: COLD WAR | 13 How did you get assig
Page 17 and 18: COLD WAR | 17 STIG NYGAARD | CC BY
Page 19 and 20: The Union Army Balloon Corps starte
Page 21 and 22: from my class received orders and e
Page 23 and 24: TAKING FLIGHT | 23 PILOT TRAINING T
Page 25 and 26: TAKING FLIGHT | 25 E X P L O R E Ho
Page 27 and 28: The United States Department of Def
Page 29 and 30: DEFENSE TODAY | 29 The Pentagon As
Page 31 and 32: DEFENSE TODAY | 31 DAVID GUO | CC B
Page 33 and 34: MILITARY MARINE MAMMALS | 33 During
Page 35 and 36: JAMAICA TO OKINAWA | 35 JAMAICA, a
Page 37 and 38: I said to General ‘Sir, we are ob
Page 39 and 40: JAMAICA TO OKINAWA | 39 activity. C
Page 41 and 42: WWII COMPUTING TODAY | 41 FROM WWII
Page 43: WWII COMPUTING TODAY | 43 Many time
Page 47: REFERENCES & FURTHER READING | 47 D

Issue 10: Tech from the Military

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