Dangerous Hardware 2484

Phil Weldon

I worked at CICV (Combined Intelligence Center, Vietnam) under MACV, in a small walled-off compound on the outskirts of Saigon, after I got back from NKP (recounted downthread). We were a small outfit of weather weenies attached to an Army group called Area Analysis. We worked up the potential weather for proposed operations, mainly from climatalogical records. Me (E-3), a Master Sgt., A 1st Looie, and a Capt. I key-punched 'till my eyes fell out of my head. Hated it.

There was a Major whom I had ran programs for when I was a the USAF GWC at Offutt, whom they had co-opted to write a program to manipulate all the data I had punched.

Then, they tapped him on the shoulder and informed him that he was going to go out and command a Combat Weather Detachment. No Way, says he, I got special T.S. Plus clearance from working at GWC, and I Am Not To Be Placed In Harm's Way, lest I'm captured, interrogated and Spill The Beans. Too Bad, they say, you're going. And he went.

The Army had a 1401 there, with 8 or 16k of memory, I forget which. Ours back at GWC was only a 4k! Since I had had a lot of experience running one, and we could only get time on it at night, I was elected to stay overnight to run the program. This was during the Tet Offensive of '68, and we were confined to the compound overnight for our safety.

So, I load up the program deck and start to feed the data cards in. Crunches for while, then halts on an error. Well, sez I, I'm gonna get some sleep tonight anyway!

But, I really couldn't just let it sit there, especially since I had been to IBM 1401 Autocoder school! So, I buttembled it, found where the error had occurred, fixed his logic, re-buttembled it, and it ran to completion just fine!

They were pretty happy with me the next morning.

Sometime later, after I had gotten back to Offutt, I was surprised to be called to a presentation ceremony, with some others. I got a Medal! Just for doing my job. I guess that then, as well as now, that that is a pretty rare feat. It was just the AF Commendation Medal, but it's the highest they give for non-combat performance, I think.

Bill