VMFP-3 80s Flashback

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80s Technology and Innovations
By Marc "Devil Dog Of The Web" Iseli / Updated Dec. 2025
The 80s: when technology crawled out of the primordial ooze and handed us gadgets that now look like museum pieces. Back then, we thought we were living in the future, even if our 'innovations' would make a caveman snort. My first act of financial irresponsibility at A school in Millington was blowing my hard-earned cash on a Sony boom box, which was basically a portable cinder block with speakers. And let's not forget the Commodore 64, my first personal computer in 1984, state-of-the-art if you were a hamster.

Who could forget the first time the Space Shuttle roared off the launchpad on live TV? I was home on leave, probably eating something that would make an MRE look gourmet, when I saw it. Fast forward a year and there I was at Edwards AFB in July '82, watching Columbia land and Challenger hitch a ride on a 747 like it was catching a cab. Not bad for a guy who still thought Pong was high-tech. Good times, or at least better than field day.

I shelled out $1500 for the very first Sony Betamax in my hometown, which was roughly the price of a used car or a month's worth of bad decisions. The idea that you could record TV and watch it later was pure witchcraft. Of course, if you tried to set the timer, you got every commercial known to man, and then VHS, thanks to the porn business, came along and sent Beta to the scrapyard. Still, for a brief, shining moment, I was the king of recorded reruns.

Compact Cassette Tapes

If you survived the 70s without a suitcase full of cassette tapes, you were either a monk or a Navy chaplain. The compact cassette first snuck into the States in the early 60s, mostly for dictation, because nothing says 'party' like a tape of your boss mumbling into a microphone. For a while, the eight-track was king, and we all pretended it didn’t sound like a blender full of gravel. Then, in 1979, Sony dropped the Walkman, and suddenly the eight-track went the way of the dodo and disco. I was still buying eight-tracks right up until boot camp, but by the time I landed at NAS Millington, the only thing you could find were cassettes. By the end of the eighties, CDs showed up and made cassettes look like rotary phones at a smartphone convention.

Cassette Player "The Boombox"

The mighty cassette deck, every barracks room had one, and if you didn’t, you were probably using a harmonica and a tin cup. My first was a Sanyo, straight out of the NAS Millington Base Exchange in ‘79. That thing went everywhere with me: stuffed in my sea bag, smuggled onto the USS Midway, and probably survived more deployments than some of our junior officers. Eventually, it sported the classic coat-hanger antenna, because Marines don’t buy new gear; we just improvise. When I finally got out, the Sanyo retired with full honors, probably still has sand from Subic Bay rattling around inside.

Pocket 110 Film Camera

My first camera was a Kodak Instamatic Pocket 110, straight from the Millington BX, and it was about as high-tech as a potato with a lens. The negatives were so tiny you needed a microscope and a prayer to see anything. But it fit perfectly in my camo pocket, so I could snap blurry evidence of our shenanigans wherever the Corps sent me. If we’d had digital cameras back then, I’d have enough blackmail material to retire early. Instead, we had film canisters, 12 or 24 shots, and you waited a week for the developer to judge your photography skills. Then the Fotomats Huts popped up in strip malls, promising one-hour developing, which was about as believable as a lance corporal’s weekend plans.

35mm SLR Reflex Camera

Like every Marine with a yen for gadgets, I hit Japan and immediately blew my per diem on an Olympus OM-1 SLR. This was the big leagues, 35mm film, a camera so serious it needed its own sea bag. Of course, I bought every accessory known to man: lenses, a tripod, a strap that could double as a tow cable, and enough film rolls to survive a siege. Slide film was all the rage, supposedly because it made your photos look less like mugshots. Now I’ve got a shoebox full of slides and no idea what’s on half of them. I’ll never forget the time on the Midway when I spent a whole day snapping away, only to discover I’d never advanced the film. That’s what we call a ‘learning experience’ in the Corps. Still, I loved that camera, used it right up until digital made us all lazy.

Video Home System

In 1978, I was the first guy in my zip code to own a VCR, which made me the neighborhood tech wizard, or at least the guy everyone called when their rabbit ears failed. I was working nights and missing all the good shows, so when I saw an ad for a machine that could record TV, I threw down a month’s pay for a Sony Betamax No remote, just a timer that required a degree in nuclear physics to set. It cost me $1,500, which was about the price of a used car or a new set of blues. But skipping commercials felt like cheating the system. By the time I got out of the service, Betamax was extinct, thanks to the VHS invasion. Thanks to the adult film industry, Beta became as forgotten as a lost liberty pass.

Mobile Phone "The Brick"

Hard to believe how much the world’s changed since the early eighties. Back then, if you wanted to dodge a call, you just left the barracks, and nobody could find you unless they had a bloodhound and a map. Phone booths and landlines were our lifelines, and the only thing mobile about a phone was how fast you could run from the duty NCO. Then came the brick-sized mobile phone; if you had one, you were either a Wall Street tycoon or a drug dealer. In ‘83, some guy made the first commercial wireless call from his Mercedes, and the rest is history. Now everyone’s got a phone glued to their hand, and you can’t even fake being out of range. Progress, right?

Alright, you glorious Rat Phixers and Phlyers, if we ever survived a TAD, a Det, or a BOHICA, who haven't, and you didn’t think I was the biggest gaff off in the squadron. Got a sea story, or some grainy photos your ex didn’t set on fire, and they’re only slightly illegal? Send ‘em by email, snail mail, or safety wire it to a carrier pigeon. I collect ‘em all, just nothing that would incriminate me.
80svmfp3@gmail.com

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