[archy]

The Wang word processor hit the markets in 1976. Prior to that, there were other word processors, but I don't know anything about them.

As I recall, the word processor that had the corner on the legal market at that time was Vydec -- a large, brutish machine whose biggest drawback was that each page had to be stored individually (no automatic pagination). If you forgot to save the page, you lost everything, and there was no way to get it back other than to retype it.

We got a Compugraphic word processor/typesetter for use in our newspaper's newsroom in the early 1980s, and they may have had some predecessor models available in the 1970s, though those machines were pretty crude.

I might accept the idea of a Compugraphic being in regular use in a USAF PAO office of the period, but probably not by a fighter squadron's clerk. Of course, it might also be possible that someone in a newsroom with some old equipment around might have been willing to help fake some anti-Bush *evidence*....

Timeline of a few technologies of the period, wordmanglers and otherwise:

1972

Friden JustoWriter

Compugraphic 4961TL mini-computer with Intermec OCR paper tape keyboards

Varityper 1010 Cold Type composition system

1973

Compugraphic CompuWriter II with MagSet magnetic tape cassettes

Varityper headliner

1974

Compugraphic ACM 9000 area composition system

Mergenthaler VIP Variable Input Phototypesetter

CompStar 191 photosetter

Addressograph Multigraph 710 editing station with 64 character CRT

1975

Harris 2200 Display Ad workstations

Autologic APS CRT typesetter

Volt Information Sciences Yellow Pages pagination software

DEC PDP-8 minicomputers

1976

CCI-400 multi-terminal composition system with Lear Siegler dumb terminals and paper tape punches

Data General Nova 2 minicomputer running CCI OS

1977

Imsai 8080 microcomputer

Apple II personal computer

1978

Infomix text programming language

VisiCalc spreadsheet program

DEC PDP-8 timesharing system running RTOS real time operating system

Prime minicomputer running PRIMOS

Mergenthaler Linotron 202 CRT typesetter

Shaffstall media conversion system

Xerox 9700 laser printer

1979

DARPANET timesharing account

DEC VAX minicomputers running VMS

Information International Inc. VideoComp CRT typesetter

Penta minicomputer typesetting system

Kurzweil OmniFOnt OCR system

1980

Radio Shack TRS 100 color computer

Data General Nova 3 minicomputer running CCI OS and RDOS

CompuScan OCR system

C and Pascal programming languages

[MistyCA]

Xerox, if I remember right, had the card-type typewriters that were used to duplicate form letters or long documents. But I don't think a letter as short as these, or memos for the record would have been produced in that way. Besides, I don't think they justified the text.

[daylate-dollarshort]

I certainly don't know anything about the typewriters available at the time these memos were allegedly typed up. However, when I was in the 'Corps all I remember seeing were old manual Underwoods. All documents that I have are in Courier font.

My father was a Naval officer and I have his entire record here in my home. From 1943 to 1976, all of his documents are also in Courier.

Was the Air Guard so greatly funded that they had IBM's?? I remember that the Selectric and the Executive were very expensive.

There must be some retired military office pinkies here at Free Republic that might be able to cast some light on just what typewriters were being used by our military at the time these documents were supposed to have been produced.

[Not gonna take it anymore]

That pic sure brings back memories. I learned to typeset on a Comp 4. It had a small memory and film inside which had to be processed, than pasted up on grid paper.