THE UNABOMBER

If you were alive and sentient in the 1980s and 90s you probably heard of The Unabomber. This is a true anecdote - S.L.

Theodore John "Ted" Kaczynski, also known as the "Unabomber" is an American mathematician, child prodigy genius, and serial murderer. Between 1978 and 1995, Kaczynski engaged in a nationwide bombing campaign against people involved with modern technology, planting or mailing numerous home-made bombs, ultimately killing a total of three people and injuring 23 others.

This anecdote happened when I was going through the academic phase of the Special Forces "Q" Course, MOS 18C Special Forces Engineer. At one point during the improvised mines and booby-traps, and expedient explosives portion of the training we received a special briefing on The Unabomber. This was the late eighties and Kaczynski was still at large.

First they described the unexploded devices recovered from Unabomber crime scenes. There was a murmur in the classroom as we realized that these were they same types of devices we were being exposed to, right down to the triggering mechanisms and the firing systems.

Then they showed the infamous artist's rendition of the suspect, taken from an eyewitness at one of the crime scenes.

At that time the Army PT uniform was gray cotton sweats, with a hood just like in the drawing above. This was before Oakleys had emerged, and Ray-Bans were the big thing. During the academic phase, we often attended classes in our PT sweats, and that day we were all in gray sweats. By now we were all looking at each other and making goofy comments like, "I bet it's you, Pete, you're the craziest guy I know."

The gentlemen giving the briefing said, "That's right, we believe he is from Special Forces, or has been exposed to some of this training."

From the back of the class, Blue piped up: "So what happens, when an SF engineer goes bad? Does it ever happen?"

They kind of waved off that question, and looking back I now know why. My work involves thinking like the enemy, and you'll send yourself crazy with what-if scenarios. You've got to temper it with a bit of reality.

Kaczynski got caught when his ego overcame his operational capabilities. He wrote a wide-ranging social critique, which opposed industrialism and modern technology, and sent it to the New York Times. The FBI pushed for the publication of Kaczynski's "Manifesto," which led to his sister-in-law, and then his brother, recognizing Kaczynski's style of writing and beliefs from the manifesto, and tipping off the Feds.

Turns out the Feds were wrong when they thought he was one of us. I am still yet to see a Green Beret go rogue on a scale the Liberals imagine us capable of and Hollywood would like to portray.

Basically a Luddite, Kaczynski is against modern technology and the benefits we all enjoy, and therefore everyone must die. A classic example of how a person can have too MUCH brains.

STORMBRINGER SENDS