Replies

You have done some great work! Those pictures you posted are very interesting.

Are you in the tower business? We need to know what the business is about. How likely is it that Berg at his young age had not only gained the physical and intellecutal skills necessary to do the work but the financial backing and business savvy necessary to start and run the company. Sounds to me like he had lots of help of the type that Prometheus Radio Project could have provided.

I think that the facts about Berg's entry into this field would shed some light on why he was of value to certain Iraqi factions and to Michael Moore.

I really want to know if Berg had his skills before he met up with the Iraqis in OK or if he went there specifically to be trained. We can asssume that he had his skills before he started his business.

I also assume that his business Prometheus Tower Services, Inc. is an arm or off-shoot of Prometheus Radio Project. The similarity in names cannot be put down to coincidence.

PRP is located in West Philadelphia??? Is Michael Berg Pete TriDish ("petri dish")? What did Michael Berg teach? Chemistry? Biology?

Berg's innovation about building towers with bricks made of local materials is something that PRP would go far. It also sounds like that special project the OU professor said that Berg was working on -- making bricks out of compressed paper. When I read that I thought it sounded nuts -- who wants to live in a paper house (didn't they read the Three Little Pigs story?). But a radio tower made of paper bricks, I don't know, that might work.

Berg was one heck of a bright and energetic guy.

What did Michael Berg teach? Chemistry? Biology?

The current website for West Chester East High School, where Michael Berg was reportedly a teacher, lists faculty by subject category taught (i.e. Math, English, Science, Social Studies, Art, Music, etc). Since Berg is retired, he is no longer listed on that site. However, I was able to find the old school webpage via the Alexa web archive.org HERE, where he is listed with 8 other individuals under the category "Learning Support ".

According to the current website, The Learning Support Department is listed under the Social Services Office and is described as follows:

The Learning Support Department at East High School offers both direct and indirect services to students who are identified with a learning disability. Direct services consist of classes for academic instruction, co-teaching of classes, test-taking support, tutoring and assistance with organizational or study skills. Individual Education Plans (IEPs) are developed for all students in the Learning Support Program. Indirect services offered are monitoring of academic progress of learning support students by both formal and informal conferencing with regular education staff and generating written academic progress reports that are shared with parents. These reports are done a minimum of once during a marking period.

According to the following post made at this website (I do not vouch for its authenticity), Michael Berg was also the East High School faculty advisor for Amnesty International.

I would like to nominate Michael Berg. He was in charge of the drop in center for dyslexic kids at East High School in West Chester, PA. You might know Michael because his son Nick was beheaded in Iraq. In the midst of his grief he had the courage to make a really cool and poetic gesture by placing a WAR IS NOT THE ANSWER sign in his front yard. In high school he was the faculty advisor for Amnesty International. He is now retired. He is still active in the peace movement. He was involved in protests against the first gulf war and he opposes this war as well. In high school they made a rule that males were not allowed to wear head coverings (at the time I was sporting a reverse mullet & head band. I do not know what I was thinking). The vice principal was a former FBI agent. Michael Berg would write me hall passes so I could hang pictures of John Edgar Hoover on her door everyday. Even after his sons death he still speaks out against oppression in all its forms.
[name deleted by me]
Monday, May 17, 2004 at 15:01:19 (PDT)

Are you in the tower business? We need to know what the business is about.

I'm not in the tower business but I have a couple of clients who run television stations. You can figure what their towers and transmission equipment mean to them. Today I touched base with both and worked in a question about the tower business. Apparently for basic maintenance they would call locals for the work but they both said they wouldn't let a 25 year old with his own company do anything of a technical nature. They use what they call the experienced and reputable major companies for technical work. Though they too will hire locals for projects they would be under the supervision of experienced managers.

There are dozens and dozens of rules and regulations when it comes to towers. (From the FCC, to the FAA to OSHA to the EPA.) And this doesn't even speak to the technical and engineering aspects of the work. It seems to me that Nick Berg, just because he would climb a tower, made himself eligible for work in this field, particularly as a sub for a major name.