Materiel Command and the Materiality of Commands: An Historical Examination of the US Air Force, Control Data Corporation, and the Advanced Logistics System - History of Computing: Learning from the Past - page 90

installed its first punched card tabulator, at McCook Field in Dayton, Ohio [2]. Day-
ton has continued to be the home of Air Force logistics management for more than
80 years—under the name Air Materiel Command (AMC) up to the early 1960s, Air
Force Logistics Command (AFLC) from the early 1960s to the early 1990s, and Air
Force Materiel Command (AFMC) from the early 1990s to the present (all at
Wright-Patterson Air Force Base from the late 1940s forward) [3]. 2 Following this
initial IT procurement in the mid-1920s, the AMC installed numerous mechanical
and electromechanical tabulators during the inter-war years and throughout World
War II. In July 1954 the AMC was an early adopter of digital computers, installing a
UNIVAC I, which was soon followed by IBM 650s and 705s. Interestingly, in 1956,
it first used an IBM 705 to manage personnel much like other inventory—a prac-
tice/plan that continued with ALS [1]. Without much central organization, the other
five Air Materiel Areas (AMA)[4] 3 also procured digital computers in the 1950s [5].
At this time, the data processing task of the Air Force's logistics headquarters and
other AMAs were managed individually, and the data processing technology was
very much distinct from the communication technology used to share logistics
information.
At the end of the 1950s and the start of the 1960s the Air Materiel/Logistics Com-
mand engaged in efforts to achieve centralized authority over logistics. By the mid-
1960s this also included efforts and planning to bring together data processing (digital
computers) and communications. The task was daunting as the AFLC had 376 individ-
ual information systems—tracking/managing procurement, inventory, transportation,
and maintenance—at headquarters and the other AMAs [6]. In late 1966 this effort was
formalized in early planning for a massive automated system—a centralized database
and network of computers—to provide real-time information to authorized personnel at
different AMAs and command posts [7]. AFLC managers and data processing person-
nel, with the aid of consultants from the COMRESS Corporation, completed a “Master
Plan” for the Advanced Logistics System (ALS) in March 1968 [7].
2 An Examination of ALS and Its Failure
The following paper is a short history of ALS. Despite ALS being a larger and far
more expensive real-time computer networking project than the frequently examined
SAGE programming effort or the development of SABRE, it has been completely
ignored in the existing computer history literature. 4 A self-published AFLC history of
2 In 1961, with the renaming of AMC as AFLC, the research and development and weapon
system acquisition division of AMC was broken out as the Air Force System Command
(AFSC). In early 1992, AFLC and AFSC were combined to form the AFMC.
3 In addition to the headquarters for logistics at Wright-Patterson Air Base, Ohio, the other five
AMAs were: Tinker Air Force Base, Oklahoma; Hill Air Force Base, Utah; Kelly Air Force
Base, Texas; McClellan Air Force Base, California; and Robins Air Force Base, Georgia.
4 Many scholars and writers have examined Semi-Automatic Ground Environment (SAGE—a
computer and radar air defense system) programming and the development of the Semi-
Automatic Business Research Environment (SABRE—a pioneering airline reservations
system). Some of the best source publications and scholarly analyses include
[8],[9],[10],[11],[12].