What military technologies did you use before they ever became a main stream civilian technology?

PO3 Aaron Hassay — Mon, 24 Sep 2018 00:58:08 -0400

I remember using GPS on the ship for Navigation when pagers were the new amazing civilian technology.

Response by CSM Charles Hayden Passed 7/29/2025 made Sep 24 at 2018 1:03 AM

CSM Charles Hayden Passed 7/29/2025 — Mon, 24 Sep 2018 01:03:51 -0400

In 1954 I found Wire Photo machines in our supply room at Ft Knox. After reading the manuals, I was able to send wire photos from one machine to the other.

Were wire photos an early fax machine?

Does anyone recall the AP Wire Photos in the news about WW II??

Response by TSgt David L. made Sep 24 at 2018 1:54 AM

TSgt David L. — Mon, 24 Sep 2018 01:54:23 -0400

X-Rays and robots.

Response by CAPT Kevin B. made Sep 24 at 2018 10:04 PM

CAPT Kevin B. — Mon, 24 Sep 2018 22:04:34 -0400

I remember my early days doing Electronic Warfare. Nowadays, the current Amateur Radio gear has displays and filtering capabilities beyond what I had. The technology that made it possible was digital signal processing. At some point it caught up and passed what I had in the early '70s (tubes and transistors). That tells me the MIL side must have some real bad ass stuff now. Then there is the flip side. Kennedy/LBJs Postmaster General Gronouski (Polish background which was unheard of at the time in a major Govt job) was the one who pushed Robert Moon's ZIP Code initiative. He then saw something else. There was this company that started competing with the Postal Service parcel market. UPS purchased this thing called the IBM 360 computer and had it figure out optimal routing, nodes, etc. The MIL side was gangbusters on this stuff for the modernization of what became called Time Phased Force Deployment Data/List which was an outgrowth of classified "Linear Programming" methodology developed in WW2 and run on human "computers" then the UNIVAC. You needed a tool to crunch a lot of stuff. The PG tried without success to modernize with LBJ at one point slamming his fist on the table yelling "Machines don't vote!" The Postal Service has been a dinosaur ever since, never catching up to the free market. So it flips both ways out there. Politics will always slow or kill something good.