Development of Computer Technology 131 



Acquisition of military construction is never very easy. What were some of the major 

 problems in getting construction approved for your present facility? 



You're talking about this building [Building 1200]. 



Right. 



Just a couple of comments on the older buildings. I think it was recognized 

 that there was need for construction to house the two Harvard computers. 

 There was no other place to put them. The Laboratory didn't have any suitable 

 place, and the computers needed air conditioning. In fact, at that time, the only 

 way you could get air conditioning was for equipment — it couldn't be done for 

 people. People would walk around sometimes sweltering, wearing shorts, 

 perspiring. Every now and then, we would go back to the computer area and 

 cool off. 



In the case of this building, the problem we had was that all during the late 

 1940's, and in fact almost every year I've been here except for the last 10 or so, 

 there were pressures or indirect threats about closing Dahlgren. I heard it when 

 I first came here, and it just kept persisting. Around the end of 1959, it was 

 almost a reality, and everything here was in bad shape except for the computa- 

 tion and analysis facility. We had new modern programs building up. We had 

 computers and things that were on the upswing. The rest of the Station had gun 

 and ammunition programs and a lot of miscellaneous things. It was after the 

 Korean War. Some of the Advisory Committee that knew the situation said, 

 "Dahlgren is out in the sticks. You can't get any professional people to work 

 there. After all, the educational system is no good. They're not close to univer- 

 sities. Who would want to work at Dahlgren?" That was the general attitude, 

 and some inspections were made here and recommendations were generated 

 to close Dahlgren. That stayed in the chain for a long time. It was three or four 

 years, almost 1964, before we finally got the building through, and some of 

 those things were still bouncing around in the Navy Department. Every time 

 McNamara * or somebody decided to look at base closings, Dahlgren was one of 

 those mentioned. That finally stopped about 1964. 



We moved into this building in 1 964, and the reason we were able to acquire it 

 was that, when Captain Simons** was here around the end of the 1 950's we had 

 the Public Works Department to help. Our department was expanding, and a 

 few other things were expanding about that time. We needed office space. Most 

 of the buildings constructed previously were very special-purpose things on the 

 range and on the waterfront They weren't good office buildings. For air 

 conditioning, we had to go through several inches of concrete. Lighting wasn't 



*Robert S. McNamara was Secretary of'Defense from 1961 until 1968. 

 **Rear Admiral Manley H. Simons, Jr., was Commanding Officer at Dahlgren from October 1957 

 until August 1959. 



