Bill Beverley, for example, has an unusual story of why he first came to San Antonio. In addition, he has an interesting way of spending his time from 4am to 6am every morning and a unique perspective on the good things that computers can do for us. Let's look at these one at a time.

I knew Bill had been in the military, so I asked him to describe that part of his life to me. He said that he had spent over 30 years in the Army, retiring as a colonel. He was a Field Artilleryman. I asked if he had seen combat. Bill said that he had commanded a 155 Towed Howitzer Battery during the Vietnam war. One morning at 2am his unit experienced a surprise sapper ground attack. He was badly wounded and thereafter spent 6 months at Brooke Army Hospital — his first introduction to San Antonio, in the year 1969.

Because old habits are difficult to break, he continues to rise at 4am every day and goes on patrol as a volunteer in his neighborhood COP Program (Cellular On Patrol). Bill patrols his residential community at that hour looking for unlocked garages and suspicious people in the area. Just in the last 60 days he has issued over 50 COP Security Notice warnings to residents in his area. The purpose of these notices, of course, is to remind people to be more security conscious about their unsecured property and possessions.

Bill's time in the military has also given him a unique perspective on the use of computers in warfare and on their effect on other countries of the world. He showed me a military newspaper clipping describing the soldier of the future equipped with totally computerized military hardware during Desert Shield / Desert Storm and our country's other combat conflicts.

We also discussed the impact of computers and the Internet on other nations. Bill felt that the best contribution computers have made and will continue to make is in their function as a powerful information dissemination source that opens the eyes of the global community to the benefits of capitalism and democracy.

When you read Bill's monthly articles in the PC Alamode giving tips for using computers, you'll now know a little bit about the writer. If you're at the Resource Center on a Wednesday afternoon, you might stop and say hello to him. Bill is one of your volunteers at the Information Desk, assisting us in signing up members and performing various other administrative tasks.