I was both.
In 1982 our Computer geek tragically died and my one BASIC/7 and one class in FORTRAN meant I was in charge of such things.
PDP1100.
1-foot square boards and 10-inch “floppy” disks.
Boards were proprietary so they had to be handled with care or else the home office would put a lien on your first born to get a replacement.
Cool thing (I’ve related this before) was they sent me the RS2730 board and in late 1983, I was talking to all our sister labs via an electronic network and phone lines.
Had a little pop-out connection for the RJ455 jack that we took out of the phone.
My first file sent was one I created in BASIC for the other labs to use as a summary calculation.
> Data Prompt
> Calculate
> Display
> Running Summary Loop
Note: Geologists are easily amazed...
As a new LT (O-3) in late 1981 I started my first shore duty assignment at TRI-TAC, a Joint Service Command. I shared and office with an Army cannon-cocker artillery officer. Jerry was the one who got me interested in computers.
He had just come from being CO of an Army Data Center. One of the stories he told, and they were ALL good, was the time they had one of their custom made mainframe cards go down. They called the Mom&Pop manufacturer of the card who came right out. They guy opened the mainframe, attached two vice-grips to the card, put his feet on the computer and pulled to get the card out.
He looked at it, and said, "Yep, bad card." He opened a box and took out the new card and slid it in. He then reached into his bag and took out a small piece of 2x4 and a 2-pound hand sledge. Before Jerry could say anything he seated the card with said sledge.
Jerry said that had to be the best card ever made because they never had a lick of trouble with it.
WWG1WGA
Garde la Foi, mes amis! Nous nous sommes les sauveurs de la République! Maintenant et Toujours!
(Keep the Faith, my friends! We are the saviors of the Republic! Now and Forever!)
LonePalm, le Républicain du verre cassé (The Broken Glass Republican)