Things That Make You Feel Old...

[Chris Werb]

I turned 54 today, which i don't consider particularly old. However, sometimes I'll see something that will make me feel the weight of age pressing down on me. A few months back I saw that we'd already scrapped (three years ago) the first tranche of two seater Typhoons - literally "returned to produce" as the MoD calls it. Typhoon, to me is still shiny and new. Yesterday, I was looking at M series trucks for sale at US vendor and noticed that they'd got some of the Stewart and Stevenson FMTV trucks for sale. I couldn't believe the US military would be casting anything that new - then I looked at the dates of production. Some were from as far back as 1995. I discovered deliveries to the US military had started in 1993. 1993 is like yesterday to me and it takes some believing that it was 26 years ago. What have you seen recently that had a similar effect on you?

[Tim the Tank Nut]

antique plates on a "late model" Mustang. For Philistines a late model Mustang is an 86-93 with fuel injection.

 

In the military sphere 900 series trucks (5 ton) have flooded the MV market. That's pretty new to me

[Dawes]

This is now considered "Retro" by many people:

 

[Stuart Galbraith]

Challenger 1 has been out of service 16 years. That was brand new in the early 1980's when I was at school.

The Tornado has been completed retired from service in the RAF. That was the shiny new toy of the RAF when I went to the Greenham Common IAT when I was a kid.

Tomcat has been out of service for 13 years.

Its 27 years since the cold war. And we have already forgotten all the precepts of it.

 

Im 46. I feel like Stonehenge with this modern world that increasingly looks alien and impossible to understand. When did Politicians suddenly have to have personalities? Why arent policies enough? When did music stop being good and became political broadcast's to loud bop bop sounds?

[RETAC21]

No piece of kit I used while in the .mil crowd is still in use 25 years later...

[Nobu]

The benchmark numbers for the latest generation Threadripper CPUs versus the best of 20 years ago.

[Dawes]

Gothic Serpent (Somalia) happened in 1993. Most everyone that participated is probably retired by now.

[sunday]

Firepower – The Royal Artillery Museum, London. Visit during the SE England I&I, 2013.

A young squaddie brings out some deactivated guns for us to see. Asked about the procedure to unfold the stock of a Sterling SMG, he answers:

"I do not know, no experience with those antique weapons".

 

Feelings of oldness for yours truly.

 

However, it was worse for Dave Clark, for whom the Sterling was his service-issued weapon

 

Also, while writing this post, I saw that museum closed in July 2016. Another reason for feeling old.

[DB]

The Falklands Conflict is closer to WW2 than it is to now. (That only just happened.)

 

At the time I was (trying to) learn to type on my grandmother's old typewriter, and was on the waiting list for my BBC Microcomputer. I still had 7 years of full-time education ahead of me.

 

People who weren't born when the Brit Pop era was in full swing are not only allowed to vote, they've been allowed to do so for 6 years.

 

Music that I think of as new is already more than 10 years old.

 

Hopefully the Royal Artillery Museum will be resurrected at or near Larkhill - that is the plan, anyway. Larkhill already had a collection of items that were not viewable by the public due to being on an active base. One example that I was lucky enough to see was the 18" railway howitzer. This apparently is now at Fort Nelson, having made a trip to the Netherlands a few years back. (Wiki has pictures, I wasn't allowed to take any.)

[Dawes]

I retired from the USAF in 1998. Shortly before my retirement, we got a new airman on my munitions crew. She was born in 1978, the same year I joined. That really puts time in perspective

[JasonJ]

Talking with you people

[shep854]

This is now considered "Retro" by many people:

 

The early Sporters are now on the Curio and Relic list.

[Ivanhoe]

The benchmark numbers for the latest generation Threadripper CPUs versus the best of 20 years ago.

 

I was bored at work and did some searching for old mainframes and supercomputers I used back in the day. Cray X-MP, Y-MP, etc. Processor clock rates in the MHz range.

 

Of course, there's a whole litany of naval A/C from my youth, that have been mothballed forever. A-7Es, F-8s, A-3s, etc.

[Calvinb1nav]

I took a picture of B-1B 85-0072 "Polarized" at the Norton AFB, CA airshow when I was a senior in High School in 1988, when she was almost brand new. Flew her to the Patrick AFB, FL in 2003 and now it's been 16 years since then... Yikes. Since have retired from the AF and on to civilian life.

[Stuart Galbraith]

The Falklands Conflict is closer to WW2 than it is to now. (That only just happened.)

 

At the time I was (trying to) learn to type on my grandmother's old typewriter, and was on the waiting list for my BBC Microcomputer. I still had 7 years of full-time education ahead of me.

 

People who weren't born when the Brit Pop era was in full swing are not only allowed to vote, they've been allowed to do so for 6 years.

 

Music that I think of as new is already more than 10 years old.

 

Hopefully the Royal Artillery Museum will be resurrected at or near Larkhill - that is the plan, anyway. Larkhill already had a collection of items that were not viewable by the public due to being on an active base. One example that I was lucky enough to see was the 18" railway howitzer. This apparently is now at Fort Nelson, having made a trip to the Netherlands a few years back. (Wiki has pictures, I wasn't allowed to take any.)

 

 

Yeah, they seem to be making some good progress with that. And its convieniently located for the Museum of Army Flying (Middle Wallop) and the REME museum (the former RAF Lyneham). And of course Stonehenge, if you are into big rocks.

 

The last firepower display I went to they had 3 Challenger2's beating up hapless Scorpion's downrange, supported by AS90's, Scimitars, Lynx Helicopters firing Tow, and a flight of Jaguars beating up the target with unguided rockets. That was 17 years ago today.....

Edited July 7, 2019 by Stuart Galbraith

[EvanDP]

One time at work a Taylor Swift comes on and one of the girls asks why the album is called "1989". I tell her it's the year she (Taylor Swift) was born. She replies with, "Oh, she's older than I am". I did an automatic facepalm.

[Stuart Galbraith]

 

Im struck by the incredible speed with which technology has moved in the past 40 years. I grew up in a house that didnt even have a telephone. In fact, I can remember the day one was fitted. Now Ive got internet communications with any part of the world, able to communicate with pretty much any nation on the planet. And the Telephone line is STILL copper, and still conks out when it rains.

[DB]

 

Im struck by the incredible speed with which technology has moved in the past 40 years. I grew up in a house that didnt even have a telephone. In fact, I can remember the day one was fitted. Now Ive got internet communications with any part of the world, able to communicate with pretty much any nation on the planet. And the Telephone line is STILL copper, and still conks out when it rains.

And the world is so much a better place for it.

[Stuart Galbraith]

Yeah, it's still amazes me. truly the second industrial revolution.

Edited July 7, 2019 by Stuart Galbraith

[Dawes]

It's a brave new world when the RAF is without a Tornado

[DougRichards]

Remembering when effectively there were only two genders.

[Adam_S]

 

The benchmark numbers for the latest generation Threadripper CPUs versus the best of 20 years ago.

 

I was bored at work and did some searching for old mainframes and supercomputers I used back in the day. Cray X-MP, Y-MP, etc. Processor clock rates in the MHz range.

 

Of course, there's a whole litany of naval A/C from my youth, that have been mothballed forever. A-7Es, F-8s, A-3s, etc.

 

 

That's a weird thought. This is a multi-million dollar supercomputer from the 1980s.

 

 

This is a Samsung Galaxy 9.

 

 

The phone comfortably outperforms the supercomputer.

[Ivanhoe]

Yeah, my first supercomputer account was on a Cray 1S, but batch job turnaround was poor. When I finally got an account on an X-MP, man was I cooking!

 

In the 80s, I did quite a bit of work on CDC CYBER mainframes, both running NOS2 and NOS/VE. But my first love was VAX/VMS. Not fast, but easy to use, and easy to administer. TK50s for the win!

 

Think about how SINCGARS, BFT, etc. changed the modern dynamic battle.

 

Also think about how helo resupply radically changed infantry ops from 1955 to 1965.

[DogDodger]

How about that the Abrams entered service in February 1980, while the first Sherman was accepted in February 1942. Which means, of course, at this point we're farther from the introduction of the Abrams than the introduction of the Abrams was from the introduction of the Sherman...

[Adam_S]

How about that the Abrams entered service in February 1980, while the first Sherman was accepted in February 1942. Which means, of course, at this point we're farther from the introduction of the Abrams than the introduction of the Abrams was from the introduction of the Sherman...

 

For what percentage of the history of powered fight have these things been in service somewhere?