McClellan 1961 - 1965: AUTODIN
This section covers the Years 1961 through 1965.
Data Source: Historical documents & AUTODINERS (Ron Ondracek, Bob Pollard)
The following Western Union (WU) Personnel were temporarily or permanently assigned to McClellan AFB during the period of 11/1961 through 1965.
All personnel assignments are based on the information available at this time (8-1-00) and much of the information is unverified.
On site personnel changes occurred frequently because of responsibility changes, transfers, (in and out), promotions (Technicians to Supervisory positions), terminations and new employees (some ex RCA personnel) and for other miscellaneous reasons.
Site Manager:
Al Schroepfer
Assistant Site manager:
Lew Feucht
Maintenance Analyst:
Initially RCA personnel performed the Maintenance Analyst (program maintenance) duties. Western Union personnel gradually assumed these duties as time went by. Gene Fritts was the first W.U. Maintenance Analyst assigned to McClellan.
Modem/Technical Control Supervisor:
Jay Fackrell?
Site Supervisors: (Temp. 1962*)
*Jeff Lord (6 Mo), *Hal Werner (8 Mo.), *Stan Kruse, Tom Barlow (65), Joe Bandzak, Harrold J. Enos, Gene Fritts, Art Galbraith, Doug Heffron 1963 - 1966, Ray Hughes (65), Ed Linek, Herman Lunow (65), Perry Mathis 1965 - 1967, Raul Ortiz, Bob Pollard (to Norton mid 65), Brent Rowett, Al Stepp 1963 - 1965, Paul Thorpe (63 -).
Computer Center Technicians:
Some of the Technicians were promoted during the time period shown, therefor, they were only in the Technician classification for a short period of time. The total time period listed would then reflect the time spent at McClellan.
Lonny Anderson 1962 -1964, J.D. "Joe" Bates (64 -), Fred Beglau 1965 -1967, Bill Bradley 1965 - 1966, Lloyd Breshears 1965) - closing, Tom Carlson 1965 - 1998, Albert Deverall 1961 - 1984, Harold Enos 1962 - 1964, Edwin Emburg 1961 - 1980, Jay Fackrell (61 -), Wayne Gardner 1961 - 1983, Leonard Ghiorso (61 -), George Goodwin 1962 - 1963, Charlie Green (65 -), Richard Haines 1961 - 1998, Bill Keene 1961 - 1967 (deceased), Glenn Kelly (61 -), Robert Kligerman 1961 - 1983, Bill Lomax 1961 - 1964, James (Dick?) Magness (CCC) 1961 - closing, Gil Martinez 1962 - 1964, John McDonald (CCC) 1961 - 1973, Darl McFall 1961 - 1993, Doug Miller, George Miller 1962 - 1964, Neal Miller (61 -), Richard Miller, Glen Moore 1961 - 1995, Frank Morita 1961 - 1964, Chuck Moritz (64 -), Ron Perez, George Royal (61 -), George Riedel 1961 - 1984, Ron Saling 1965 - 1966, Del Sexton (61 -), John Stevenson 1961 - closing, Jack Steinhoff (65 -), Dan Tanner (65 -), Joe Tanner (65 -), Bobby Thompson 1961 - 1993, Lee Thompson 1962 -1966, Robert Wanous (64 -)Jack Weems (61 -)
Secretary/storekeeper and support staff:
Glen Berkham (Storekeeper), Ray Breault (Bldg Mntc, 1963 -), Bill Cain (Installer, 1963 - 1989), Harold Hummel (Storekeeper), Larry Lara (Storekeeper), Norma Miller (Secretary), Macario Oyog (Storekeeper, 1966 -), Dave Tilden (Installer, 1965 - 1973)
A Story by Bob Pollard:
I don’t remember when the equipment arrived, before or after arrival of the original Western Union group. Whenever it arrived the Cherry Hill scenario was the norm. RCA was in charge of all the testing activity and we were told to look and observe, but don’t touch. We did take care of other important matters, like emptying ashtrays. RCA didn’t object, when we worked on Western Union equipment. That wasn’t as much fun though! As time went by W.U. personnel began pushing their way into the RCA realm and did get to participate (a little) in the testing activity. Gradually the controlled turmoil reached the cut over day and the great AUTODIN system celebrated by going on line. Seems this occurred in December of 1962.
During the early testing period one of the RCA supervisors gave me a "Cross" pen and pencil set with the RCA emblem on them. Apparently this was given as a bribe to keep me away from the CDP console. It didn’t work! They tried to take it back, but I was good at arm wrestling, so they lost again and decided to allow me to crowd in.
The various areas of responsibility were assigned according to the training received at Cherry Hill and during the test phase, or as dictated by the Site Manager; not always satisfactory to everyone. We all became experts (quote, unquote) in our assigned areas and dumber in the non-assigned areas. The definition of an “expert” will not be stated at this time. Also someone may not like the word “dumber” and will respond to the Editor.
During the normal humdrum existence at an AUTODIN Site an interesting problem occurred on the CDP (selected from one of hundreds). I happened to be involved.
An intermittent problem was occurring while writing to a magnetic tape device from the CDP. The problem didn’t seem to show up when communicating with other I/O devices. Some brilliant CDP personnel (including me) jumped right in to take care of this minor problem. Well, about a week later it was decided by others, that brilliant should be changed to trainee, since the problem still existed. We couldn't get the problem to keep occurring and everything in the magnetic tape transfer channel seemed to check out just fine. About 8 or 9 days (who’s counting) into the problem another supervisor (unknown) and me along with a couple technicians (unknown) were sitting at the CDP console poking buttons, with not a care in the world. Then we happened to notice the BAC (arithmetic) register was counting down while writing to a magnetic tape device. The “light flashed” because this was not a normal happening so naturally being brilliant people, OOP’s trainees, we replaced the appropriate circuit card. Lo and behold it solved the magnetic tape problem.
After that the Site Manager, being a nice guy, decided we could have our brilliant status back. Also all the non-CDP people quit telling jokes about the CDP people.
END
A Story by Bob Pollard:
One day, while hiding from the Site Manager, I decided to write a Drum diagnostic. It seemed like a good idea and a fun project. Off I went with pencil and paper in hand and started putting down 1s and 0s (good ole machine code). I figured I could accomplish this simple task before the Site Manager found me. This simple task seemed to take longer than anticipated and it was very difficult to hide in a switching center for a month, but after being caught, the Site Manager felt sorry for me and let me continue.
I decided to use alternating 1s and 0s patterns and composed about six different matrices. After many pages of 1s and 0s (coded instructions and data patterns) were completed it all had to be punched in a paper tape. A punched paper tape was one method to get programs recorded on magnetic tape via the CDP. This paper tape had to be input on the Paper Tape Reader connected to the CDP. This is where all the fun began. The tape couldn't be read into the CDP because it caused parity errors (BTPE). The Paper Tape Reader did not like those alternating bit patterns. After correcting the problems in the tape reader logic electronics the memory started registering parity errors. After the memory problems were corrected the Magnetic Tape Units started registering parity errors while attempting to put the diagnostic on magnetic tape. After correcting the write to magnetic tape problem the diagnostic couldn't be read back from tape because of the parity errors. After correcting the read from tape problem it was finally time to try the diagnostic on the Magnetic Drum Unit. The result was basically the same, read and write parity errors. All of the errors were caused due to the gain or loss of data bits.
After correcting the drum parity problems the diagnostic seem to run ok except it took over five minutes to run, which was an excessive run time. The problem was due to the use of consecutive sector addressing, which caused the drum to make a complete rotation before picking up the next sector address. It was necessary to skip a sector address each time because the instruction decode and sector selection electronics were not fast enough to address the next sector in line. After doing a little program rewrite in order to skip the next sector address and jump to the second in line it worked fine. It reduced the run time to about two minutes.
The diagnostic tested the entire addressable surface of the drum. It turned out in order to run this drum diagnostic, input from magnetic tape and all other devices had to be in good order. At least I learned a lot from this little adventure. I think they ended up calling it T&M 600.
I might add, this activity occurred prior to the availability of "AAMPS" (AUTODIN Automatic Maintenance Program System) the maintenance routines that were developed for testing the hardware.
END