Perspectives, An Intriguing Tale of an American Born Terrorist by Jeffrey Shapiro Read Free Book Online Page B

performing in perfect formation. “I wish I had access to one right now, so I could blast into the stratosphere, do a few rolls and just get away from all this pain.” He closed his eyes and remembered the agility and power of the F-18. He could almost feel the twin F100-PW-100 turbine engines that put out 12400 pounds of thrust, and over 23000 pounds of thrust with the afterburners, allowing him to go 2.5 times the speed of sound and perform vertical ascents that would take him to the borders of outer space. He thought of how the F-18 and especially the Blue Angels were always the main draw at air shows. He missed the exhilaration and comradery and thought about calling a few of his old friends, but knew that he would be compromising protocol.
    He looked sadly at a picture of a former teammate who had died under his watch. During Jonathan’s last year his good friend Buddy Hoffman was killed in a practice run and Jonathan blamed himself. Even though the internal investigation cleared him of any wrong doing, he knew that Buddy was following his lead when he clipped the wing of Stan Kucel. It was horrific to hear Buddy trying to save the plane as it spun toward the ground and then wait too long to eject. Miraculously Kucel’s plane was able to land safely with a partially shattered wing. After Buddy’s death, Jonathan didn’t want to lead the Blue Angels any more. He needed a change.
    His second love had always been writing programs that secured and managed databases. In the mid-eighties his knowledge of computers grew with the new computer revolution. He continued his passion at the academy, majoring in computer engineering, volunteering to work with the computer engineering department to manage the servers that controlled student email, the alumni fund and the shared engineering programs. Then through a cooperative arrangement with the U.S. Government, he spent 2 years with the FBI managing their databases. During that time, he wrote several security programs that were so efficient they drew the attention of the industry. When he left the Navy, he had the choice of becoming a commercial pilot and working his way through the ranks at a major airline, going into private business or pursuing a career in academia. He chose the latter. He applied and was accepted at MIT, Virginia Tech, Carnegie Mellon, Cal Tech and RPI, but chose Virginia Tech because they were working with Cray to build the fastest and most powerful supercomputer in the world. He loved the fact that Virginia Tech had the resident expertise to build it. “If the faculty is smart enough to build the most powerful machine in the world, they are smart enough to teach me,” he said to his de-briefer as he exited the Navy. What he also liked about Tech was its relationship with Carnegie Mellon. Carnegie is home to the Computer Emergency Response Team (cert). He knew that with an education from Tech and a coop with Carnegie, he would learn the vulnerabilities in systems and mitigating steps for the general public. Plus both Tech and Carnegie were closely tied to assisting the US Government in protecting computers. By going to Virginia Tech, he would be able to have the best of both worlds by building the fastest computer in the world and by working with the intellects from Carnegie on security. It was at Tech that he met Bob Runyan and his wife Mary and the second major portion of his life began.
    When they first met, Bob Runyan was in his final year of a Master’s program in psychology. They met randomly on the Virginia Tech golf course when he and Bob were paired up, both showing up as “singles.” Bob was 6 foot 3 inches tall and weighed 150 lbs, a “string bean,” compared to Jonathan who was 6’2” and 225lb. Bob had long brown hair pulled back into a pony tail. He was a sloppy dresser and had sparse facial hair. He was the exact opposite of Jonathan, who was clean-cut, fresh out of the academy. It took only a couple of holes for Bob to loosen