#160) Happy 10th Anniversary “Librascope Memories”.

10 years ago, on April 28th 2009, the Librascope Memories web-site was published on the Internet at https://librascopememories.com using the iWeb program on my, new at the time, 2008 MacBook. The initial goal was to make the 300+ Librazettes, issued by the Company since 1942, available for anyone to view and/or search. Over the past ten years, numerous other Librascope memorabilia have also been added to the “new” web-site, including:

1) Photo Albums (14) with many (445) photos taken at the Librascope Reunions since 1999. Note, the 2016 and 2018 reunion photos are yet to be added. The 2016 Reunion photos, however, are now viewable from Blog Post #144 (which links to a video slideshow on YouTube).
2) Various Librascope “Videos” (9), including two Librascope Promo’s, the 1992 and 1996 Christmas Parties, and two Retirements.
3) 47 photos of several “Librascope Products” from the past.
4) Copies of 69 “Librascope Literature” sheets since 1938!
5) A photo album that includes an odd assortment of “Libravet Personnel” photos (56).
6) Ten “Sea Stories” written by Libravets about their various Librascope experiences.
7) Misc. “Librascope Brochures” (22), including several from the 1950’s and 1960’s.
8) 38 “News Items” covering Librascope’s history from 1937 to 1995.
9) An album including 22 photos of various Librascope “Places”.
10) Last, a slideshow video with 366 photos of the Libravets receiving Service Awards from 1980 to 1989.

There are many other interesting items too, including the web-site’s Welcome and About pages.

Finally, I want to thank the many Libravets that helped me make this web-site possible, especially my good friend Ray Hand (1938-2018) who helped by scanning most of the 300+ Librazettes. I also wish to acknowledge the several Companies that also made this web-site possible, including: Apple, Evernote, Dropbox, Fujitsu's ScanSnap, and RageSW who has hosted the Librascope Memories web-site since the beginning.

Cheers,

Carl Sorensen -

A Libravet since 1958

#118) Three "New" Librascope Videos Are Now On YouTube

Following are three new Librascope videos that I recently posted on YouTube. The first two were filmed in 1997, but have never been published before. The first video is of a very humorous roast of Sam Ward, who served as Librascope President shortly after Lockheed Martin acquired Librascope. The second video is a film of my "surprise" retirement luncheon. I wasn't roasted, but the speakers were very entertaining. The third film is a video slideshow of the Libravets who were honored for their 15+ years of service during the 1980's. The Libravet's photos were copied from the 1980's Librazettes. Finally, I have included a previously published German video of the LGP-30 in operation.

To view these four videos, simply click on the links provided below. Your Comments are welcome.

Sam Ward's Librascope Farewell Ceremony Roast - 1997

http://youtu.be/Z726Z9YXBXg?t=0s

Carl Sorensen hosts a "roast" of Sam Ward, Librascope President and Carl's boss, in recognition of Sam's departure for an opportunity with SAIC in San Diego. Speakers (in order) were Carl Sorensen, Tom Taggart (Manassas, VA), Randy Klebe, Steve Lebit, Tom Cuda, Steve Wallace, Sam Ward, and Bob Lang.

The ceremony ends with the presentation of some "special" gifts.

Retirement Ceremony for Carl Sorensen, a Libravet since 1958.

http://youtu.be/7OV3NJs1bQs?t=6s

On September 15, 1997, a luncheon ceremony was held honoring Carl Sorensen's retirement from Librascope Division, Lockheed Martin. Speakers, in order of appearance, were Craig Gifford (Librascope President), Tom Cuda (Engineering), Ed Arnold (Business Development), Jim Brantley (Union), Ray Hand (Information Systems), Steve Lebit (HR Benefits), and Carl Sorensen (Operations and Resource Management).

Libravets Honored During the 1980’s

http://youtu.be/IQtlOsCQ9AA?t=0s

A Video Slideshow of the Libravets Who Were Honored For Their Years of Librascope Service During the 1980’s.

Note, if you see an advertisement near the bottom of the screen, you can remove it by simply clicking on the X in the upper right hand corner of the ad. The copyrighted background music required this advertisement.

Warming Up The LGP-30

http://youtu.be/7WaYYNUCWMY?t=0s

The LGP 30 is a computer made of valves, diodes and a drum memory. This machine is from 1958. It is located at the museum of the computer science faculty of the University of Stuttgart, Germany. The computer is in a fully functional state.

In this clip, the machine is shown starting up and doing some work, just to get a feeling for what that kind of machine looked and felt like.

#82) The 2012 Librascope Reunion

As some of you know, I missed the November 3rd Librascope Reunion because I fractured my back just two days before the event took place. Now I'm feeling much better though, and finally able to report here on the 2012 Reunion.

First of all, Georgine Archer says the 2012 Reunion was “very successful”. As expected, a little over 100 Libravets attended, including first-timers Mark Ferry, Norris Guy, and Pete Maimone. She also said the food was good, and it was a beautiful location. About half the attendees were subscribers to this Blog.

A hugely successful “50/50 Raffle” was held to help support the ongoing expenses associated with our three main websites (Librascope Memories, Librascope Search, and this News Blog). Georgine also reported that there was a very generous, but anonymous donor. And, our thanks to Jeff Luther, and Jim Carpenter who sold $420 worth of the above raffle tickets. The happy raffle winners were Barbara Herrick, Al Mohill, and Marty Rudolf who each received $70.

A lot of good pictures were taken at the reunion, which are now posted on the Photos page of the Librascope Memories website (click here). Note, there are two 2012 Reunion Albums. One album is for all the “table photos” that Georgine normally takes at each reunion, and the other album is a collection of candid photos that were taken by Georgine, Charlotte Ashby, and Don Chen. The “Tables” Album includes a list of all the people at each table. This list is also on the Librascope Search website. In addition, Ray Hand took a short video which we hope to publish at a later date.

On a sad note, Georgine also made available a list of the Libravets who had passed away since the 2010 Reunion. A current version of that list of 35 Libravets is published on the Librascope Memories website History page (click here), Section IV. It is also on the Librascope Search website.

Finally, I wanted to mention again that I will soon be publishing over 100 new candid and table photos that were taken at the 2006 and 2008 Reunions, so stay tuned.

#77) Two New Photo Albums Published on LM

In case you haven't checked the Librascope Memories (LM) website recently, two new 1990's vintage photo albums were published there earlier this month.

1995 Service Awards Luncheon Collage

The first album contains 18 candid photos that were taken at the 1995 Service Awards Luncheon hosted by Ed Arnold, Librascope President, at the Cinnabar in Glendale. The service awards were for those senior Libravets who had recently celebrated a major award anniversary with Librascope. Carl Sorensen, VP of Quality and Resource Management, presided over the ceremony. Other attendees included Don Barton, Ralph Simon, Stacy Lavender, Tom Charbonneau, Tom Cuda, Ray Hand, Larry Anderson, Margie Boudinot, Joseph Collin, and Peter Chang.

BSY-2 Collage

The second photo album is an assortment of BSY-2 pictures. During the early 1990's, Librascope was in full production of the BSY-2 Fire Control System Program for the U.S. Navy. During this time there were many visits by the Navy to attend periodic program reviews, and tour the manufacturing facility where they could inspect the systems being built for the Navy's new Seawolf attack submarine program.

Both of these photo albums may be accessed from the Photos section on www.librascopememories.com. Click here to go directly to the Photos section, and simply click on the album you wish to view.

#55) A Special Thanks to Roy Kramer, Don Tubbs, and a Couple of Others

Ray Hand and others recently documented this "sea story" about how 60+ years of Librascope memorabilia was literally saved from the dumpster, and eventually made available for others to enjoy. Click here to view the story on-line.

A Special Thanks to Roy Kramer, Don Tubbs, and a Couple of Others

The “Librascope Memories” websites and Libravets everywhere owe a great debt of gratitude to Roy Kramer, Don Tubbs, and others. To begin with, Roy’s initiative saved the original 1937 Librascope developed by Louis Imm in his garage, over 300 Librazettes, the Publications Department’s master photo file, and a lot of other Librascope memorabilia from total destruction.  

In 1999, Roy had completed eighteen years service at Librascope and was in charge of Publications Department operations. At that time, efforts were underway to close the Glendale Facility and move the remaining work to Lockheed Martin in Manassas, Virginia. The employees sent from Manassas to supervise the shutdown were interested in transferring the engineering and manufacturing drawing files, but had no interest in preserving any of Librascope’s rich history. If it had not been for Roy, with considerable support from Don Tubbs, most of Librascope’s storied history would have been condemned to the dumpster.

Yes, literally a dumpster. When Roy discovered that Librascope memorabilia was being thrown in a dumpster he quickly told Don Tubbs. Together, they decided to do something about it. Roy and Don were soon discovered digging through the dumpster and retrieving assorted memorabilia. When asked what they were doing, they said they were saving a part of Librascope’s history that should be preserved. They were then told to stop until “upper management” was informed, and were accused of planning to sell the material on eBay. The questioner clearly did not know anything about the integrity of the Librascope family. Reportedly, Ernie Pool soon vouched for Roy and Don who were then told they had management’s permission to collect Librascope items of memorabilia.

From that point on, Roy would inform Don whenever memorabilia items were to be destroyed. Instead of throwing them out though, they placed the items in the back of Don’s pickup truck and Don took them home to his garage. However, the large volume of memorabilia storage space required soon occupied the space needed for his “hot rods”, so Danny Sibley offered to store it in his Company’s stockroom. Then, a couple years later, Georgine Archer volunteered to move the everything to her garage, where it remains to this day. Now, just before each Libravet Reunion, Don and Danny visit the archive at Georgine’s, and select the most interesting items to be displayed at the upcoming event.

But that’s only part of this story. In April 2009, after starting the construction of a brand new “Librascope Memories” website dedicated to the Company’s history, Carl Sorensen called Roy Kramer to ask if he knew of any old Librazettes or other Librascope memorabilia that had been saved. Not knowing the extent of Roy’s previous preservation efforts, Carl was amazed to learn about the six decades worth of Librazettes, photographs. and other Librascope documents that Roy had saved and stored at his home for almost ten years. Carl, who could hardly contain his enthusiasm, then asked if he could borrow the collection for scanning and placing on the new website. Roy approved of the idea, because he recognized that putting Librascope’s historic documents on the Internet would make them accessible to everyone. After all, preservation of the Company’s history for the benefit of others was Roy’s and Don’s objective from the very beginning.

When Carl informed Ray Hand of the unbelievably good news, Ray volunteered to pickup the historic treasure from Roy and commence scanning it. Ray then bought a special flat bed scanner suitable for scanning the nearly 300 large size Librazettes, and periodically e-mailed the scanned files to Carl for addition to the growing Librascope Memories website (www.librascopememories.com). Working together, over 2,000 pages of Librazettes, plus numerous Librascope news items, brochures, photographs, and technical literature were processed.

The "Librascope Memories" website's Welcome page

 It soon became apparent, however, that a system was required to facilitate searching of the large and still growing Librascope memorabilia database. So. in late 2009, Carl set up a second web-site called “Librascope Search”, utilizing a new commercial application called Evernote. Evernote was the perfect solution, because it was relatively inexpensive and easily capable of accurately searching the large and complex database for key words such as people’s names, project titles, and various events.

Later, numerous other Librascope documents, that had also been saved, were added to the already large but living database. Today, there are over 60+ years of Librascope history on the two web-sites, including hundreds of historic documents and thousands of pages, that can easily be accessed on the Internet. New items of historic interest continue to be added as they become available.

Then, in time for the 2010 Librascope Reunion, Carl set up a third web-site called Librascope Memories - News Blog (www.librascopememories.blogspot.com). Its purpose was to communicate current events of interest to all Libravets, including any new information relating to the other two “living” web-sites Don and Roy made possible.

 

The "Librascope Memories - News Blog" Welcome page

And so ends another story about Librascope’s interesting history, and its many good people. Special thanks though to the foresight and personal initiative of Roy Kramer, Don Tubbs, and the others that followed for saving the Company’s past from the dumpster. Librascope’s rich 60+ years of history, including numerous technical contributions, have now been preserved for the benefit of not only thousands of Libravets, but future researchers and historians as well.

#52) Iran - Tensions, Rescue, and Librascope History

Ray Hand recently submitted this "Sea Story" relating current international events with some interesting Librascope history. The story is also on-line at: http://goo.gl/kPxtU.

Iran - Tensions, Rescue, and Librascope History

by

Ray Hand

Current tensions with Iran, contrasted with a recent incident where a U.S. Navy destroyer rescued an Iranian fishing boat from pirates, reminded me of some Librascope history from the late 1970’s.  The historical connection came to mind because the destroyer involved in the rescue was named the USS Kidd (DDG-100).

The Shah of Iran, before he was exiled in January 1979, purchased four DDG (guided missile destroyers) from the United States.  He spared no expense in the building and outfitting of the ships.  In general, they were better outfitted than the Spruance Class DDG's in service at the time in our Navy. The first of the four ships was to be named "Kouroush" but, because of the 1979 Iranian Revolution and the Shah’s exile, the ships were never delivered.  The ships were retained by the U.S. Navy and the first ship was renamed USS Kidd (DDG 993).  DDG 993 has since been decommissioned and the name reused for the DDG 100.  It seemed ironic to me that a ship named Kidd would just happen to be the one to assist the Iranian fisherman.

As for the rescue during tense times in the Persian Gulf and the Arabian Sea, anyone who has spent extensive time at sea knows that, except during hostilities, there is a kinship between sailors that compels them to come to each others rescue in times of need.  We do not torpedo life boats.  But, on with the story.

The USS Kidd (DDG-993) was fitted with a Mk 116 ASROC (Anti-Submarine Rocket) system that fired rocket assisted anti-submarine torpedoes.  The Mk 116 was designed, manufactured, installed, and maintained by Librascope.  At the time of the Shah’s exile and the Iranian Revolution, several Iranian Naval Officers were stationed at Librascope and were being trained on the operation and maintenance of the system.  As I remember, one of the officers asked for asylum in the United States and the others returned to Iran.

During this same time period, Librascope was also engaged in marketing submarine fire control technology to the Iranians.  Dr. Walt Picker, who was later to become President of Librascope, was Vice President of Marketing.  I e-mailed Dr. Picker about the connection I had made between the rescue and Librascope history, and he replied with a story about what he described as his interesting experiences with the Iranian submarine marketing effort.  I thanked him for writing the story and asked his permission to include it in this article.  He gave me his permission, so I conclude this story with his words.

Hi Ray,

We never got very far with the Iranians.  The Iranian Navy Captain in charge of the project clearly was not favorable.  They had a proposal from us but it seemed to me that he already had made a deal and it wasn't in his best interest to change it.

My recollection is that I only made three or four trips to Iran.  We were coordinating with the MK48 supplier to get the Iranians to give us a contract to insert the MK48 capability into their FCS.

On my last visit in December 1978, I was there with Pool.  I took him there to familiarize him with the situation - since I was quitting at the end of the year for a new position in Texas and Ernie was my replacement.

It was one of my more interesting trips.  There was a frantic mob at the airport and we were unable to get our luggage for a couple of days. We arrived just after martial law had been declared so we only had an hour to get to our hotel.  People had been told to get off the streets or be shot.  The army was setting machine guns up on corners, fires were burning from rioters, and our hotel had its big lobby windows smashed.  Within a few minutes, there was no traffic on the streets and no pedestrians either.  When we went to visit our agent the next day, there was a tank parked on the sidewalk in front of the office.  And so forth.

It became very clear that there never was going to be a program for the Iranian submarines since [with the regime being forced out by the Islamists] many of the senior officers were unsure about their future. It was hard to get their attention when they were concerned about their personal survival.

I had a meeting with the senior U.S. military guy [an Air Force General].  Hard to get his attention also.

Toward the end of the week, the Parliament was debating on TV whether to shoot the Shah or let him emigrate.  He was lucky.  They ended up kicking him out. 

After a week of chaos, we finally managed to get a flight to Germany and were glad to get out of there.  Ernie had never been in Iran before - he was somewhat shocked by it all.

It was a good example of "may you live in interesting times."

Walt

#18) New! 366 Libravet Photo-Movie Now On-Line.

From 1980 through 1989, there were 366 Libravet service award photos published in the Librazettes. Those 366 photos were recently cropped, collected, and put into a slide-show movie format with background music. The resulting 24 minute photo-movie was then published, and is now available for viewing on the Internet. The name of the web-site is Carl’s Gallery, which may be new to some viewers.

Each photo has the Libravet’s name, year the photo was published, and the years of Librascope service being awarded. Service awards were made every 5 years, but unfortunately some Libravets were camera shy when their time came. Consequently, some Libravets had two photos taken during this 10 year period, while others had only one or none. You will note that a few Libravets received awards for 40 years of service!

To view this new photo-movie click here. Next, scroll down to the Movie section on the web-site, and select the “Libravets 1980 - 1989” movie. While you are on the web-site, you will note that there are several other Librascope photo albums and movies that may have been updated since you last saw them.

My thanks to Ray Hand for preparing the 366 photos. To view an index of all the names in alphabetical order click here.

Enjoy,

Carl

#5) Are you on Facebook?

Are you on Facebook? If so, you can share any posting on this Librascope Memories - News Blog on your Facebook page, by simply clicking on the "Share to Facebook" icon located in the lower right hand corner of the post to be shared. This posting, for example, might be a good one to share on your Facebook page!

Currently, there are at least 35 Libravets on our mailing list that belong to Facebook. Recently, a Librascope Memories Group was started by Ray Hand, and new members are welcome to join! It's a good way to reconnect with the Libravets you once worked with. Those searching for the Group should look for the Librascope logo shown here.

#3) "Librascope Memories" Search Demonstration at the 2010 Reunion.

Ray Hand will have a laptop computer set up at this Saturday's Reunion to demonstrate the powerful search features provided on the Librascope Memories web-site. For example, provide Ray with any Libravet's name, and he will show you how to simultaneously search all 301 Librazettes for that name. In a few seconds, the computer will list every issue that that name occurs in. Next, the computer will find exactly where in each issue that that name appears. After this demonstration, you will be able to perform identical searches on your PC or Mac at home. Similarly, the same procedure can be used to search for other subjects, such as Polaris, or VECP.