Chuck J.
"Austere Religious Scholar"
Wow. I recognize all those names. Suzy Laplaine and Ginny Berlin recruited me from Stevens Creek. (I was one of those 'hated' new raw meat people coming into the SO at the time. (Five months at Stevens Creek, prior). Johan Berlin..... serious stone-face dude. I didn't want to work for him. Altho' I did see him crack a smile a time or two. Yep, Bob Klima a computer nerds' nerd.You're probably right, that we met in passing in INCOMM in the 1983-84 months, I was not in INCOMM as staff, only for visiting, and possibly I might have passed by INCOMM staffers like you in the chow area.
In summer 1983 til fall 1984 I was back and forth from Int to some office rooms adjacent to INCOMM proper. The AOLA side of INCOMM, that door to the "Int Dat Bu" part of INCOMM, I was across the hall, and I'd see people going into INCOMM's doors.
When I was on the "routing forms" project, we didn't have spaces in INCOMM (not til the 1989 redux Routing Forms update project when I was in the Int Data Bu section of INCOMM, the Int Data Bureaux section were almost 100% special category staff who didn't ultimately get "Int Clearances" and were just relegated to Int Data Bureaux microfiliming, indexing, stats upkeeping. A few finally got Int Clearances and they transferred to other Int orgs, LOL, didn't even stay INCOMM/Int Data Bureau staff.
The details are tedious.
Anyways, I think you are right, I was always eyeballing everyone in INCOMM, I wasn't a computer person so never aspired to be in INCOMM and all the persons who were going to build the Chug computer system had to be real computer programmer type people.
There's a bunch of ex INCOMM people who I think you'd know, since you were part of the first bunch.
Was the lady who recruited you, forget her name for the moment, but she's been on the chat sites once or twice, I recall in past years.
Her name will come to me.
Did you know Dennis Soto? He's been on the chat sites a couple times, years back.
Dennis was always hardware.
Of course you would remember John Busby. John came from CMO Int, he was in the LRH External Comm depart of the Int Base, and LRH wrote one of the original INCOMM despatches to John, and John was thus the first person to get the beginning of LRH's "computer advices" and John would have been there when you were in INCOMM.
A famous programmer, was Johann Berlin.
You may also remember Lars Bystrom, he was around then.
Chuck Prenner was the ex Harvard Phd computer brains that was Foster's right hand man, at the beginning of INCOMM. His wife, Noomi Prenner, both of them were from Brooklyn, brainy, went to top universities, seriously smart persons, even though Chuck Prenner later had some tragic flaws he ran on Noomi horrendously.
Bob Klma and his wife, Chris Klima, Bob was a brain, really one of the best nerds of early INCOMM.
John Dunn was around then. John became the ASI computer guy, tending the computers that went to LRH, and LRH most people don't know, had the "Grid" computer setup, an early laptop style computer. When I years later became the computer guy for ASI, in 1992, ASI still had the LRH Grid laptop and a mirror Grid laptop to communicate from ASI to LRH.
The security guard for INCOMM was Frank Gordon, remember Frank?
Later when Frank left INCOMM, Hank Gould became the main Security Guard for INCOMM.
Jenny something, in her late forties, a little chubby and glasses, was the recruiter for the early INCOMM in 1983.
View attachment 1900
Me in that office across the hall from the AOLA side entrance of INCOMM, this office is today where the staff canteen of the complex is.
I'm typing away doing routing forms "submissions" paperwork, my expertise was the policy references supporting each step of the routing forms, all 90 of them, which in total were hundreds and hundreds of LRH policy references.
Chuck
I had almost zero computer experience but they (they being Jorae Tibbitts, Suzy and Ginny i.e. HCO) wanted to use me as a guinea pig to see how long it'd take to train up a 'reasonably intelligent' guy. Other new peep's were jealous of me! This will sound funny but I think it was the fluorescent lights. I didn't want to be in there 15 hours a day under the lights. Pat finally got me out of that. Also, him telling me he had Hubbard calling him at some late hour to solve a problem on his computer sort of had an opposite effect on me. No thanks!
I enjoyed working with Mogens. Funny personable guy. He had the hots for that little Filipina chica, I forget her name, Christina? I heard later (after my time) he got "sent to Coventry," i.e. put in charge of that unGodly little Cadet thing over near Hollywood Blvd. Him and me went over there one time for some goofy errand and that opened my eyes! Holy Hell, what is going on here? Seemed like 'Lord of the Flies.'
They trusted me with huge checks. Not cash though. Sent a 'minder' (who carried the cash) with me to go buy a new Toyota. $9600 cash. I felt insulted. But I did drive around LA in a van buying stuff and bringing it back to the org. Thus I was like Santa Claus to staff. They had Happy Mental Associations with Chuck, 'What a great guy! He brings us cool stuff we've been trying to get approved by FP forever!' The guy with the presents.
I would call up companies, order stuff I was instructed to buy, try to bargain on the price. I spent 10's of thousands of dollars. I would order 8k worth of printer ribbons on a monthly basis from DJC corp. Then when the time came I'd go pick up all the stuff I had ordered. I was The Purchaser but basically a glorified delivery guy. It was just me. Although sometimes another new guy helped me, Ron, blonde-haired, bearded Grizzly Adams type telephone repair guy, but he was assigned elsewhere usually. Or if we needed to look 'official' Mogens would get his uniform on (black slacks, blue shirt with tie) and we'd go together. I loved it. Out of the org. driving all over Los Angeles away from inter-personal drama most of the day.
Here's another blast from the past, remember Vinny Ruffalo? From one of those little Italian countries, as Suzy used to say. He called me the Pur-chaser. Noomi I liked a lot. She was a nice person. Chuck P. had a disdain for me that I never figured out. Some other names: Jorae Tibetts, Wendy & Pete Schultz, Wendy tried to protect me, she was another really nice person. Pete was a good guy. Careful with all that 7-11 coffee Pete! He had a bottomless cup of that crap! Celia & Brian Patrick. Mary Sierra. Martha Dubay, who married Dennis Soto. Liz Mercier-Gibble. Pete? Bob? Griffiths, Co-CO of INCOMM. Seriously talented computer guy. Always wore those sweater vests.
If you remember, in those days people at INCOMM didn't even wear uniforms. John Busby wore jeans and a light blue SO type shirt. HCO people did wear uniforms but besides them everyone else was pretty casual. A few people wore black slacks and a blue shirt, which was about as formal as anyone got. I never wore one. It was suggested to me to wear a uni, lol. I was even sent to "Manny, Moe & Jack" <jk> the three old Jewish guys with the store on Melrose where everyone bought SO uni's at. I never wore it.
My second stint I was treated differently. I had met the Fatman, (which is an entire saga in itself) and that was a get out of jail free card. Believe me, I could have made a career out that if I had the desire to. I didn't. I could see the gears turning in peoples heads, who is this guy? He's met our Lord and Saviour, Elron? Why? Is he...? What is he? Who is he? Anyone? No one? But he's just a low-level guy! Is he a secret agent? lolol.
Anyway, what a weird strange time in my life that was.
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