Snoopy

The photo shows an IBM 360/50. Believe it or not this computer was at FLC.

The computer center was located in a 2 story building that was completly surrounded by a wall that must have been over 3 feet thick and rose above the highest point of the building. The walls had a steel facing on each side and packed with sand. No shortage of sand where FLC was located. The only way the building could be hit was by a direct hit from above. Good luck.

I think they also had their own power source, diesel generators, installed inside the protective wall.

I wasn't at the center to photograph the computer but the defensive wall that surrounded it. They had only just powered up the computer and they allowed us the view it. In 1969 that was a big deal but now it's a ho-hum.

When the Marines left Vietnam they took the computer with them. It was later installed at a Marine base somewhere near Philadelphia, Penn. I only know this because I maintained an IBM 360/50 at Camp Pendleton, CA in the 70's and they had Marine personnal at the camp that had worked at the FLC computer center. Small world.

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