Randy Smith Gary Jirkovsky Bob King Dan Wilson Doug Peck Keith Robison
Lou ? Debbie Dinkens Robin Boyd Bill ? TerryAnn ? Mickey Ryan Mark Engels
When I was a young network technician in the early 90’s at the Lockheed Martin Skunk Works a few of my co-workers including Keith Robison, Mickey Ryan, Doug Craig, and Bryan Dana and I set up a computer network consisting of switches, routers, a web server, a Domain Name Server, and a mail server so that a group of young engineers who we worked with could access a new thing called the World Wide Web, aka The Internet. These forward-thinking engineers were Joe Vadyak, Ken Vanderhouten, Laslo Takacs, Joel Roush, and Gene Bouchard. They knew they would need “The Web” to help them design some of the world’s most remarkable aircraft.
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Doug Craig, a brilliant software programmer who later became our department manager, applied for an IP address space and received the Class B network 144.197.0.0, which would provide more than enough IP addresses for our workstation addressing requirements for the foreseeable future. The IP addresses were assigned to each workstation, server, router, and other networked devices.
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Each IP address was associated with a plain English name for that device to make connections more user friendly. I made a dozen trips to the O’Reilly technical bookstore in Santa Monica to purchase books on how to set up domain name servers and configure Cisco routers and other networking skills. The bookshelf in my cubicle was the envy of the office.
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I prepared a list of the first 10 workstations that were assigned IP addresses at the Skunk Works and their associated names and displayed it proudly on my cubicle wall for many years. Eventually thousands of names and IP addresses would be assigned. I was asked to choose a name for our Web server and selected the name “Magellan”, one of the greatest world explorers.
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We also assigned an IP address for our IBM mainframe and connected it to the network. We chose the name “KFROG” because its IP address was 144.197.95.1 and one of the local rock stations in Los Angeles was KFROG – FM 95.1. Doug Craig told me that when the name KFROG was proposed he checked out the KFROG radio station to make sure that its music content and reputation would not reflect badly on the department.
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The killer apps at that time were email, and a Unix-based program called X-windows which allowed you to browse web sites and view text and graphics in multiple windows, and database search programs like Gopher where you could search the archives of the Library of Congress, for example. Killer apps like Google and YouTube and Facebook were still years away.
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The Internet is now recognized as a revolutionary achievement which has enabled great advancements in science, education, medicine, and social progress all around the world. It was a great privilege to be able to contribute to that development.
Some nice words from my close friend and 25-year co-worker at the Skunk Works, Keith:
From: Keith Robison
To:Doug Peck
Cc:Mickey Ryan,Mark Engels,Debbie Dinkins,rdbison@gmail.com,Mel Smith
Thu, Sep 30 at 9:33 AM
Hi Doug
The X-35 project was the good old days. I remember being at the first vertical lift off in Palmdale where the X-35 hovered over the exhaust pit in back of Bldg 602. It was loud and impressive. Also I remember the major undertaking when you lead the relocation of the X-35 Flight Test network, servers, desktops equipment from Edward to PAX River over a weekend and had everything operational by Monday morning. Getting equipment loaded up on a cargo plane and flying out the servers to PAX. Some equipment went by truck I believe. All the logistics involved were extreme and you had every detail thought out and planned, with secondary options in case the first approach did not work out. I’ve always admired your logistics skills and enjoyed watching and listening when you were laying out the migration plan to PAX. I learned a lot from you on this project. This was one of the things I loved doing on projects, the logistics. Thinking ahead of how things needed to happen and looking out for the road blocks that can sink a project. Simple things like a missing cable or getting a gate or door open that needs a base commander approval. Wow those were the days. If I remember, you were honored for the PAX migration at an annual Lockheed Martin banquet in Florida called The Pinnacle Awards, right? Now we have great memories.
The X-35 project was the good old days. I remember being at the first vertical lift off in Palmdale where the X-35 hovered over the exhaust pit in back of Bldg 602. It was loud and impressive. Also I remember the major undertaking when you lead the relocation of the X-35 Flight Test network, servers, desktops equipment from Edward to PAX River over a weekend and had everything operational by Monday morning. Getting equipment loaded up on a cargo plane and flying out the servers to PAX. Some equipment went by truck I believe. All the logistics involved were extreme and you had every detail thought out and planned, with secondary options in case the first approach did not work out. I’ve always admired your logistics skills and enjoyed watching and listening when you were laying out the migration plan to PAX. I learned a lot from you on this project. This was one of the things I loved doing on projects, the logistics. Thinking ahead of how things needed to happen and looking out for the road blocks that can sink a project. Simple things like a missing cable or getting a gate or door open that needs a base commander approval. Wow those were the days. If I remember, you were honored for the PAX migration at an annual Lockheed Martin banquet in Florida called The Pinnacle Awards, right? Now we have great memories.
The Skunk Works
Stories for All Ages 
Wow, the start of 144.197.0.0, KFROG, and Magellan.
We all had an amazing technology ride being part of the start of the internet.
Great read. Thanks for the memories.
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