The last time the United States was at war, was the big one, WW II. Since then Korea, Vietnam, various banana republics, the middle east, we've had parts of our military doing their best, giving their all, for "our national interests" as defined by politicians.
But during WW II the country was at war, everyone was involved, like it or not. Some actively gathered scrap, rolled bandages, (Wo)manned the USOs, others just grumbled about rationing and difficulties, but went along. Everyone knew someone in the military, and were likely related to them... everyone.
During that time every field of science, engineering, and medicine were tapped to come up with ways to help the war effort. If no field covers that, create one. About every empty space available was utilized for research and it was all SECRET, unless it was TOP SECRET. Hey buddy haven't seen you in a year, what have you been up to? Secret, how about you? Secret. Even if you knew they were bullshitting, if you pressed it you could disappear.
No kidding, we had internment camps in the desert, mobsters and longshoremen patrolling the NYC docks, and itchy trigger fingers everywhere.
Now with all this stuff automatically stamped SECRET, and commies under the bed, it took decades for the existence of some of the research projects to be disclosed. Sure the A-Bomb and high profile stuff, but I'll bet some never were disclosed. Maybe to prevent questions of how much money went to Daddy Warbucks, too.
At Harvard University the Harvard Psycho-Acoustic Laboratory, was drafted into the war effort to help the military communicate. You've seen the John Wayne types on the silver screen talking on the radio of their fighter or bomber, with a burning tail, and machine guns blazing. Real people did that too, but it was a fuck of a lot noisier than the movies. Communicating was both critical and difficult, way more than we'll have to reshoot that scene, no do-overs for dead men.
The Harvard Lab was asked to establish standards to help clarify transmitted speech. What words to avoid and what words to use in helping cut mistakes. They did just that and to test men and equipment wrote the "Harvard Sentences". Seventy two lists of ten sentences each like this one.
But that says 1965? There was a ton of research during the war on devices to transmit/receive voice... and pictures. This market exploded after the war and the IEEE adopted the Harvard Sentences as part of their standards, while reviewing and revising them periodically. The, "Can you hear me now?", commercials actually happened, except instead of a guy stopping every few feet to ask, vans were transmitting Harvard Sentences while driving all over the country, to test the network.
When I look at this staff picture from 1945 I can't help but assigning personalities and mannerisms to some of them.
The guy on the back row, the tallest one, with a pipe in his mouth. The pipe is always in his mouth but rarely lit. Nobody has ever seen him eat. His sandwiches disappear but he's never been seen biting one. Most communication in nod & grunt but somehow everyone knows what he means.
Everyone knew there was to be a
class staff photo today. Some don't give a shit, others are wearing the Sunday best. Some are embarrassed by their wardrobe but did the best they could for geeks and nerds.
A lot has changed in 70 years, but some things never change, case in point... the woman in the first row on your right, holding a cat, casual stance, fully relaxed. Why not, that's DiDi the boss's wife. It'll always be good to be the queen.