Sent in by reader Monty, thanks!
“I don’t think it belongs here.” Such was the assessment of Bob Vinson, the graveyard shift supervisor at Harvey’s Wagon Wheel Casino in Lake Tahoe, Nevada. The “here” Vinson referred to was a nook just outside the telephone equipment room in the employees-only portion of the second floor of the hotel. The “it” was a curious piece of equipment of unknown origin loitering conspicuously in the cramped side room. It was a metallic gray box about the size of a desk, with a smaller box attached on top near the rear right corner. The front face of the smaller box was an incomprehensible control panel occupied by 28 metal toggle switches in five neat rows, each labeled with a numbered sticker. All of these switches were situated in the down position except for #23, which was toggled up—an oddly ominous asymmetry.
GO READ THE REST HERE
and if you want more google click here: harvey's wagon wheel casino bombing
I've been in and stayed at Harvey's- as far back as the mid-80's but I was not aware of this. Thanks for posting it Irish.
ReplyDeleteThat was a great read. I did not know of this either. Such a waste of a good mind, if you ask me.
ReplyDeleteThe reason you did not know about it is that you are too young compared to us EOD types who were around then. Yes it was a real circus to say the least. Too bad you will not get the "real" story of what went down.
ReplyDeleteA lot changed after that mainly because EGOs were required to be left at the door (academia and real life experiences conflicted each other and the academia's with fancy position titles won out and those with experience were ignored) and after this was finished a chain of command was instituted on who was in charge and they found out they should have listened to those with experience and did this type of work for a living.
I have said enough so I am stopping before "armchair experts" chime in and this gets into a flame war.
Thanks for bringing it up, it was a trip down memory lane and now to read the article .
l2a3,
Deletea shame. I'd love to hear more about the story from your perspective.
I agree. If you want to post anonymously l2a3 you can email me
DeleteThe address is in the sidebar
I am 70 years old, born in 1944. I don't remember this because I only read comic books back then.
ReplyDeleteI did not mean to ruffle you feathers, I am a '48 birth year. I guess I figured that since I knew about it everyone else would.
DeleteI never heard of it either... And based on the way it blew, I'm not surprised. The FBI didn't come out looking real good on that one.
ReplyDeleteI never heard of it either... And based on the way it blew, I'm not surprised. The FBI didn't come out looking real good on that one.
ReplyDeleteThat was a very interesting story.The one thing I am missing, is where did John Birge, Sr. obtain the skill set and information necessary to build such a device? Yeah, he was a pilot, he could use a acetylene torch and apparently weld, but the internet wasn't even around yet (LOL) and I doubt he was able to construct such a complex "machine" using old military training materials. Had he been a "sapper" in the German Army instead of pilot, maybe that would explain his knowledge of switches, explosives, etc. Somebody please chime in if I overlooked some revealing part of this article. In hindsight, the only weak part of the plan was a way to guarantee the money would be "real money" and not a few hundreds wrapped around stacks of colored paper. Just saying. Jeffery
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ReplyDeleteJeffery: Never underestimate a persons knowledge by what he does for a living. What were his hobbies? Interests cover a whole multitude of areas exciting to one and boring to another. Sometimes it is just the mental challenge "can I do it?"
DeleteThat is very true l2a3. A local doctor who had moved into our area from Canada once told me he was absolutely amazed by some of the conversations, interests, and books that came from some of his patients. He said that on the outside most of his patients appeared to range from average folks to hillbillies, but once he had "scratched the surface" he found there was much more to them than what met the eye.
ReplyDeleteFascinating story, all new to me.
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