Subject: [NEXTEL-1] [Tower-pro] About Nick Berg

From: [email-masked]
Date: Wed, 12 May 2004 16:36:48 -0400

By now most of you have seen the media reports about Nick Berg and now
remember the message I posted here last week
http://finance.groups.yahoo.com/group/NEXTEL-1/message/18238.

I hope the Wireless Week, MRT, Radio Resource, NYT, WSJ, LA Times,
lurkers here (yes I know who your are) focus on who Nick was and what he
was trying to do for OUR Industry. I'm sure his family would apreciate
any reconigition you can give him.

The media may not shed light on what type of individual he was, but the
message below surely does.

-------- Original Message --------
From: "oldtowerguy" <[email-masked]>
Subject: [Tower-pro] About Nick Berg
To: [email-masked]

John and group. I copied this message from another board. John, I 
believe you know which one. I thought this was a great insight to the 
young man and his dedication. It was written by Mark Humphry.
Gary

BEGIN:
Message: 4
Date: Wed, 12 May 2004 12:35:16 -0400
From: "Mark Humphrey" <[email-masked]>
Subject: [BC] [BC]Remembering Nick (was Why was Nick in Iraq?)

The tragic news about Nick Berg's murder hit very close to home, as I 
had known him for about two years and we hired him for several 
recent  
projects -- in fact, he installed an auxiliary antenna for WPLY in 
February, just before heading back to Iraq.  Perhaps I can shed some 
light on this situation.

First, let me say that Nick impressed me as a very bright, 
resourceful  
and dedicated individual who cared a great deal about improving our 
quality of life by applying his skills and knowledge.  Nick not only 
possessed the necessary physical ability and stamina to do the job, 
but 
had also studied engineering at Drexel, Penn, and Cornell, so I felt 
very comfortable letting him handle our work.  I knew that he wanted 
to 
grow his own business, and I felt obligated to give him that 
opportunity.

He had all sorts of ideas to bring technology to less-developed 
parts of the world, including a concrete tower which could be 
fabricated in remote parts of the world using locally-
available materials, thus avoiding the problems of shipping steel in 
the absence of a good transportation network.   

In fact, at last year's PAB Engineering Conference in Hershey, he and 
his father (who served as business manager of the company) displayed 
a 
prototype modular structure called "Bovl Blocks", made of 
interlocking 
concrete blocks that could be cast on site, then stacked to the 
desired 
height.  He thought this product would be particularly useful in the 
African interior, where cellular networks are just beginning to be 
built out.

Why did he go to Iraq?  

He was aware that some towers were damaged last year during bombing 
missions, and many more had been looted... copper lines removed, 
diagonal members taken out, etc.  Few obstruction lighting systems 
were 
functional -- he mentioned an 800 foot tower two miles from an 
airport 
(used by our military) that was totally dark.  So he first went over 
in 
December to see if he could help to assist in the reconstruction, 
restore Iraq's broadcast services, and repair the serious structural 
damage that endangered the lives of their citizens.

I received the following email message from Nick in early January:  

>About Iraq-

>I am taking photos - where allowed.  It's actually pretty sad - I 
just 
>got off one of two 320 meter monster towers in Abu Gharib (also home 
>to the main political prison) which use to support most of Baghdad 
>area's VHF and UHF.  
>Both have been badly looted, including 4000 feet or more of flexible 
6-
>1/8" heliax, two full 12X4 panel TV antennas, and even some 
structural 
>members.  I was also in the North as I mentioned, but here there 
>wasn't as much damage.  I'll definitely share some of these pix with 
>you and others next time I'm in the area - I'd love to put together 
a 
>little presentation for SBE or PAB in about six monthes after I've 
>been on every site and fixed some of them.

He returned to Philadelphia in late January to catch up on some 
domestic business -- then in early February, tackled an antenna 
replacement job at our aux site, which he had quoted last summer.  

This proved to be more complicated than either of us had first 
assumed 
(a three-bay DA with two vertical and four horizontal parasites per 
bay) but he honored his original quote.  The work took place in sub-
zero windchills... my feet were getting plenty cold just standing out 
in the cornfield as we aligned the azimuth, it must have been brutal 
up 
on the tower, but he took it in stride.  (I'm sending Barry some 
pictures of Nick on this job to post on the "Oldradio" site.)

After Nick completed assembly and we purged the system, I ran the 
pressure up to 5 PSI and closed the valve on the nitrogen tank.  I 
came 
out at 4:30 AM the next morning to run some power into the new 
antenna, 
and as the transmitter ramped up to full output, I saw *zero* 
reflected.  (I tapped the meter to make sure it wasn't stuck!)

We had a perfect installation, no split or missing bullets, etc. And 
I 
haven't seen *any* pressure loss since then (actually, the gage reads 
between 7 and 8 now, due to the warmer weather.)

I knew that Nick was planning to return to Irag in March, but hadn't 
heard any word from him over the past two months, which had me 
concerned.  Then I received the message from his parents (which Stu 
Engelke posted here last week) and my heart sunk.  I was at lunch 
yesterday when the news broke about his brutal murder, and I was 
devastated.  

If you've been following all sides of this story, you may have read 
that his parents did not receive much cooperation from OUR Federal 
Government when trying to learn his whereabouts, which is very 
disturbing.  He had reportedly booked a March 30 flight back to New 
York, but missed it because he had been detained by our military.  
Today's "spin" on the story is that they told him to get out, but I'm 
not buying that.
  
Let's keep his family in our thoughts and prayers.  Our industry (and 
humanity) has lost a very fine person.

Mark

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