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https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/9cfbda3aab441a94659ff2a0baba46f4.m4v
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https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/ccecabe8fbead858b809e7ab0c69206d.pdf
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Grand Valley State University
Veterans History Project Interview
Lawrence Koster
Length of interview: (54:58)
(00:37) Early Life
Lawrence (Larry) was born on May 13, 1935 in Grand Rapids Michigan
His father was an auto mechanic and his mother was a housekeeper
o Lawrence had an older brother and a younger sister
o Three of his uncles served in World War Two; two served in Europe and one
served in the far east
He remembers that most goods were rationed during the war.
He graduated high school in June 1953
o Though the Korean war was going on, he didn’t think that he would be drafted
After graduating, he went to Calvin College for two years and took math and science
courses
o One of the classes he took was a correspondence course. He learned about radio
theory and television
Larry couldn’t continue with this type of coursework at Calvin but he saw that he could
do similar work in the military
o He decided to enlist for three years; eleven months of his enlistment was going to
consist of schooling
(5:15) Military Life
Larry was able to select his job in the military as long as he could manage the work
He reported for duty on April 26, 1956
o He traveled by train to Detroit and from there, they were taken to Fort Leonard
Wood, Missouri
o There they were placed in a coal-heated barracks and issued army cloths. While
they were at Leonard Wood, they had to complete tedious tasks such as leveling
off large piles of rocks
After three to four days, they were sent to Fort Hood, Texas for basic training
o Fort Hood was located in a desolate area. Larry was placed in Company C (out of
four training companies)
(10:10) The training consisted of marching, learning how to follow rules, exercising, and
firing weapons
o Drill sergeants yelled at them frequently in order to keep the men in line. Some of
the instructors were veterans of the Korean War
o During the months he was training (May and June), Fort Hood was extremely hot.
He had to opportunity to go off base but he wasn’t interested in leaving
�
o Though he was assigned to the 4th Armored Division, he didn’t receive any armor
training
After eight weeks of training, Larry returned to Grand Rapids for a short leave
(14:10) When his leave was up, he was sent to Fort Bliss, Texas for Air Defense School
o He bunked in a large room with eight other men. The buildings were nice than the
ones at Fort Hood
The schooling began with basic math
o The men taking the classes ranged from high school to college graduates. A lot of
them had little knowledge of basic math so the first 12 weeks were spent on core
skills
o After the basic skills, he went on to complete an additional 30 weeks of schooling.
This additional schooling was for learning the computer system of the Nike Ajax
Missile
o There were a series of tests that determined what sort of problems the system was
having. Vacuum tubes caused the most problems. Although there were a lot of
dust storms in the area, the equipment stayed relatively clean and secure from the
weather
The Nike Ajax was an air defense system
o It had a radar that showed all aircraft in a particular area. An additional radar
allowed the operators to lock on to a particular aircraft and follow its course.
When the missile was fired, the radar would lock on to the target, allowing the
missile to hit its mark
(21:55) The schooling was more relaxed that basic training
o Larry attended classes for 40 hours a week and when they transitioned to the Ajax
System, his class time decreased
o They didn’t go out to the range at all during the schooling. It was comparable to
attending civilian college. He wrote a lot of letters to his girlfriend Nancy and
exercised at the gym
When he was sent home on leave for Christmas, Larry married his girlfriend Nancy
o There were no accommodations for married couples on base so he rented a small
house located several miles from Fort Bliss
o Lawrence’s wife had worked as a secretary at an insurance company in Grand
Rapids; this experience allowed he to land a job at Prudential Insurance Company
in El Paso
People in El Paso treated servicemen well
Larry completed his training in June 1957
o A lot of the men were given the opportunity to go to different Ajax sites around
the United States. he was given the chance to stay in El Paso, and he accepted
o He was assigned to a radar park, which was a large field where a lot of the radar
systems were located. There were three large vans (large trailers) where each type
of radar was placed
o They tracked aircraft flying near the El Paso Airport and Biggs Army Airfield but
they weren’t working with live missiles
�
(30:40) During this time, the Soviet Union was creating its own missile systems
o When Sputnik was launched, Larry and his group was put on alert. There was
speculation that the carrier part of the rocket would land in the south western part
of the United States. Larry and several other men watched for several hours to see
where it would land; however, they never saw it
In the radar park, there were five or six men assigned to each radar set
o The men worked in shifts. Every day, they went out and checked the equipment to
make sure everything was functioning properly for each class that came in
o The people he worked with were from various backgrounds and not all of them
were college graduates
He taught students how to maintain the Ajax system. He showed them how to run
diagnostics and pinpoint particular issues
On several occasions, he would cause issues to occur so that the students could learn how
to fix them
o This was often done by installing a bad vacuum tube. He sometimes exited the
vans from a window and disconnected a wire outside. It took the students some
time to figure out how to solve the problem
(39:40) When his time was up, he was encouraged to reenlist but decided to finish
college instead
o A year after Larry was married, his wife gave birth to a baby girl
o In April 1959, his time in the service was up. Three months before that, the army
started to offer proficiency pay to those who qualified. Larry took a proficiency
test and got the highest score in his battalion. This earned him an additional 30
dollars
(42:20) Post-Army Life
After leaving the military, he accepted a job at IBM
o He had to go to Kingston, New York for five months of training. The training was
done on the Sage Computer, an air defense system built by IBM and operated by
the air force.
o IBM had a contract with the air force to maintain the system (some of the largest
computers ever built). Larry worked for IBM for 36 years full-time
o He worked in Syracuse for a year and worked on a large system that consisted of
two computers working together for air defense
o He eventually got into software programming and was able to code his own
programs.
o After his son was born, he transferred to Poughkeepsie, New York and worked in
a lab. He also finished his degree in mathematics
While he was working in the lab, he helped research new computer chip technologies
In 1984, the software organization he was with moved to North Carolina
o Larry worked in computer design and programming. In the late 1980s, several
overseas companies started to make products with similar codes as IBM. He was
involved in litigations work until his retirement from IBM in 1995
�o
In 1996, he continued to work three days a week at IBM
In 2010, he and his wife moved to Michigan to be closer to their children
Larry is grateful for his time in the military because he met a lot of good people and it
allowed him to have a career at IBM
�
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Veterans History Project
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Grand Valley State University. History Department
Description
An account of the resource
The Library of Congress established the Veterans History Project in 2001 to collect memories, accounts, and documents of U.S. war veterans from World War II and the Korean War, Vietnam War, and conflicts in the Middle East and elsewhere, and to preserve these stories for future generations. The GVSU History Department interviews are part of this work-in-progress, and may contain videos and audio recordings, transcripts and interview outlines, and related documents and photographs.
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
1914-
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
<a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a>
Subject
The topic of the resource
Afghan War, 2001--Personal narratives, American
Iran Hostage Crisis, 1979-1981--Personal narratives, American
Korean War, 1950-1953--Personal narratives, American
Michigan--History, Military
Oral history
Persian Gulf War, 1991--Personal narratives, American
United States--History, Military
United States. Air Force
United States. Army
United States. Navy
Veterans
Video recordings
Vietnam War, 1961-1975--Personal narratives, American
World War, 1939-1945--Personal narratives, American
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Smither, James
Boring, Frank
Relation
A related resource
Veterans History Project (U.S.)
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
RHC-27
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
<a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/455">Veterans History Project interviews (RHC-27)</a>
Oral History
A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge.
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
RHC-27_KosterL1763V
Title
A name given to the resource
Koster, Lawrence R (Interview outline and video), 2015
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2015-05-14
Description
An account of the resource
Lawrence Koster was born on May 13, 1935 in Grand Rapids, Michigan. After attending Calvin College for two year, he enlisted in the army with the idea that he would be allowed to finish his degree. Since his test scores were high, he was given special training to maintain the Nike Ajax Missile system. Once he completed his training, he was stationed in Fort Bliss, Texas where he trained recruits in the maintenance of the Ajax Missile System. He discusses the tensions between the United States and the Soviet Union during this time. When he left the military, Lawrence took advantage of his electronics experience and went to work for IBM.
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Koster, Lawrence R.
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Smither, James (Interviewer)
Subject
The topic of the resource
Oral history
Veterans History Project (U.S.)
United States--History, Military
Veterans
Video recordings
Other veterans & civilians--Personal narratives, American
United States. Army
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Moving Image
Text
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
<a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/455">Veterans History Project collection, (RHC-27)</a>
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
<a href="http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/">In Copyright</a>
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
Grand Valley State University Libraries. Allendale, Michigan
Relation
A related resource
Veterans History Project (U.S.)
Format
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video/x-m4v
application/pdf