The Internet - the last 40 Years.

"September marked the 40th anniversary of the invention of the interlinked computer-based communications networks we now call "the Internet."

What is very hard for me to realize what has happened in the past forty years. You see 40 years ago I was working as an engineer at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base (Dayton, Ohio) in the Air Cargo and Airdrop Branch. Our job was to design equipment to parachute men and equipment from aircraft and for air cargo operations from base to base.

One day, sometime in the early 70's, in front of room 103 this large yellow teletype machine appeared. Now we could sent messages directly to other offices within the Department of Defense. I had no clue then this was the start of the internet. But it was. I used it to communicate with our field office at Tan Son Nhut AB, Saigon, Vietnam. For a number of years this was a military system only and does not reflect the internet as we now know it. All communication was written only and by using paper tape.