March 7 1960

[Smitty37]

March 7th 1960 was a Monday. It was the first day I reported for work at IBM in Poughkeepsie NY. I would work for that company for the next 32 years retiring from there at the end of 1991. The first things I worked on were sub-assemblies from IBM 709 computers which were Vacuum Tube technology. The last things I worked on had what was at the time the very latest micro chip technology. I began as a technician and retired as an Advisory Test Engineer/Scientist which was the 2nd highest engineering pay grade. It was for the most part a fun ride.

After 7 years in Poughkeepsie I transferred to Owego NY where I worked on military equipment and I was involved in the Gemini and Apollo Space programs with a tad on the Saturn Rocket. I worked on the B52 Stratofortress B C,D,E,and H( this old codger is expected to serve until 2040 and has already been in service for more than 60 years) the A7D&E, the F14 Tomcat (of Top Gun fame) and F15 Strike Eagle, the EA-6A & B, the FX-111, E3A &B AWACS The Wild Weasel IV & V (variations of F4 aircraft were used), the ill fated B-70, the F117 Stealth and at the end I worked on the B-2 Spirit Bomber still in use. There were a number of other projects I was involved in that were not as well known and soma like the AN/BQQ-5 submarine sonar that I was only involved in sub-assembly test generation and didn't work on the hardware myself.

 

[flyitfast]

Go Big Blue!!
Congratulations on a great career. Sounds like you were a big buddy of Mr Watson??:biggrin:
I remember the 709 - we had one in the Air Force here in San Antonio.
You probably remember the Air Force Sage system. Over 52000 tubes per system. That was fun to work on until the movies got ahold of it because of all the blinking lights!! Remember Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea with Admiral Nelson?? The computer that "ran" their submarine was the old Sage system.
Anyway, sounds like you had a career to be proud of.
And, you do now with your present business of service and as an educator.
Gordon

 

[Smitty37]

Go Big Blue!!
Congratulations on a great career. Sounds like you were a big buddy of Mr Watson??:biggrin:
I remember the 709 - we had one in the Air Force here in San Antonio.
You probably remember the Air Force Sage system. Over 52000 tubes per system. That was fun to work on until the movies got ahold of it because of all the blinking lights!! Remember Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea with Admiral Nelson?? The computer that "ran" their submarine was the old Sage system.
Anyway, sounds like you had a career to be proud of.
And, you do now with your present business of service and as an educator.
Gordon

I did not work on the Sage System myself, but when the program ended a number of people who had maintained it and worked on it transferred to Poughkeepsie and worked with me on other programs so I heard a lot about it.

 

[magpens]

A very memorable and no doubt rewarding career, Smitty ! Congratulations !!!

 

[jdmacdo]

August 29, 1990 was my first day at IBM in Poughkeepsie. I was on one of the teams that were looking to develop the next generation bi-polar mainframe (at the time, it was called the H8 Processor). Once IBM dropped the bi-polar chip technology, the team switched to CMOS and are still going strong today. I left IBM in 2007 and have been wandering among other companies since...

Every day, we find out how small the world is by the places that people may have crossed in the past...

 

[Smitty37]

The 1st Gulf War was interesting ... they kept reporting about the "new" high tech weapons we were using not realizing that most of them were 15 or more years old. (I also worked on Harpoon and Tomahawk Cruise Missiles).

I didn't mention that I was also involved with the IBM System 360 (which really made IBM for 2 decades) in the mid 1960s. I worked on the first IBM System 360 ever shipped to a non-IBM Customer. I also worked on the first IBM System 360 ever shipped in house. Both were System 360 mod 40s.

I was also a little involved with what became the FAA air control system which was a System 360 mod 50 with some variations.

It was a "heady" time in Poughkeepsie during the 1960s.