Clifford Bragg - GE Field Service

Ah yes, I remember those monsterus disk drives well. Here is a history of my life as a Technician and Engineer/Scientist (non graduate). See attachments.      


I started with GE as a technician in 1960 right out of the USN (was a gunnery fire control Tech) and worked mainly on experimental Radar's and other military projects until 1964 (see 1964 below).

I worked in field service on the GE 115, 200, 400 and 600 series computers and also the origin of the 600 series the M236 made in Syracuse, NY for the USAF's Space Track program sites at Shemya AFB Alaska and Diyarbakir Turkey.

I started with the M236 in Shemya, AK in 1964 then in 1965 to the 600 system in Los Angeles, CA for a year trained on 600 hardware and the GECOS operating system internals. Then to Tacoma WA. servicing the Weyerhaeuser Corporate computer center consisting of a GE 115 system, a GE 235 real-time system and four GE 635 systems two of which operated under GECOS and the other two tied together operating under WEYCOS (not GECOS) which was a joint effort of GE and Weyerhaeuser to create a system with 4 wings or 4 systems tied together (we used to kid, what has 4 wings but will never fly).

From there I went as site EIC (engineer in charge) of the GE 435 system at the U.S. General services Administration district headquarters in Auburn, WA until GE sold the computer division to Honeywell 79.

 I spent 5 years with Honeywell working on the GE 115, GE 435 and various Honeywell systems.

In 1974 I went back to GE and to Shemya for 1 1/2 years as lead engineer on the dual Xerox Sigma 5 which had  replaced the GE M236

In 1976 I went to Vandenberg AFB as systems Engineer with GE on the Atlas space launch program and Harris slash-4's used as a guidance computers for the Atlas rocket.

In 1981 I left GE for Systems Development Corp. (SDC) at VAFB as senior Engineer and site manager of a complex of 14 SEL model 3277 systems for 2 years then as repair depot lab manager of SDC.

In 1984 I went to Rockwell International as instrumentation hardware/software Engineer using SEL (later sold to Encore) systems mated to our own instrumentation system designs and used to test and       instrument the MM-III and Peacekeeper ICBM's and also the Rail Garrison Train in test as a mobile launch platform for the Peacekeeper ICBM. (Rockwell's Defense Electronics Div. sold to Boeing in 1996)

I later was the Avionics Lab Manager for an experimental satellite at Boeing in Anaheim, CA and then on to National Missile Defense until my retirement in June 2002.