I'd be surprised if the NG really used Selectrics. I was in an Army Reserve unit back then, and I'm pretty sure all our typrwriters were manuals. Selectrics were expensive, and usually involved IBM maintenance contracts. Pretty high end stuff for a Guard unit. But I suppose it's possible.
If today, you were to walk into the TANG offices where these documents were supposedly produced, would you find a state of the art desktop running XP Professional? or, would you be more likely to find a three-four year old Compac or HP that might still be running 98?
Get my point?
The IBM Composer, the expert reports, cost in the neighborhood of $4,000-$5,000 in 1972-73 dollars, the equivalent of some $20,000+ dollard today.
My understanding is that it wasn't just an IBM Selectric like a secretary would use in an office. I thought someone had said that the only machine capable of creating the proportional spacing, etc, was the IBM COMPOSER which was a much more expensive machine than the typical Selectric, and was not in common use by most folks, and almost certainly NOT by a Texas National Guard unit.
I read a thread yesterday in which Jerry Killian's son is quoted as saying that his Dad and another Guard officer were in a office that shared a secretary, and the secretary only used an old electric typewriter, NOT a fancy (for the time) IBM Selectric. I'd love it if someone could find the secretary and get the real story!