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The Nation - News from April 13, 1989

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The National Guard has more than 100 computers and close to 5,000 terminals that are collecting dust because it has been slow in purchasing software needed to run them, a House subcommittee was told. The Army National Guard Bureau, believing its Burroughs 1900s computers would be obsolete by 1986, bought 119 Unisys 5000 minicomputers, about 5,000 terminals and hundreds of printers and other equipment as part of a June, 1986, contract. But units in 54 states and territories are still using the Burroughs 1900s because they lack the software to operate the Unisys computers, which may be obsolete after 1991. “In military terms, this would be analogous to buying missiles without guidance systems, troop carriers that do not protect troops and attack helicopters without engines,” said Rep. John D. Dingell (D-Mich.), chairman of the House Energy and Commerce subcommittee on oversight and investigations. The computers remain idle with the staff occasionally opening boxes to see if they still run or using them “for games like tick-tack-toe,” said Richard Chervenak, a subcommittee investigator.

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