Bruce Edward Morrow, an Alternative View

[dragoon500ly]

I've always had issues with the time-travelling Bruce. Heck! I have serious doubts about the psi rules for TMP!!! Presented below is my take on BEM...as always, comments, suggestions and flames are cheerfully accepted! This tape will self-destruct in 30 seconds!


Bruce Edward Morrow, the founder of The Morrow Project was born in Waco, Texas on June 11th, 1917, the only son of a prominent local rancher. He grew up in Waco and was educated in the public school system. He attended Rice University and graduated with a degree in Civil Engineering in 1939 and went to work for a Houston-based engineering firm where he quickly gained a reputation for his expertise.

After the attack on Pearl Harbor, an old family friend, Walter Donovan, invited Morrow to join the newly organized Office of Strategic Services. Bruce Morrow served in the European Theater of Operations with distinction, conducting several successful operations behind enemy lines. Morrow was discharged from the OSS in 1946, with the rank of Major and a Silver Star. Following his return to Texas, Morrow married his high school sweetheart, Claudia Reynolds, and resumed his engineering work. His son Patrick was born in 1948.

Morrow’s father died in 1949, leaving his son with sufficient funds to start his own business. Morrow Engineering was incorporated in 1949 and began its operations in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. From the beginning, Morrow’s expertise in engineering, coupled with his OSS service, garnered several lucrative military contracts for the designing of various classified facilities, such as underground command centers and missile silos for the Atlas and Titan systems.

By 1955, Morrow was a millionaire and Morrow Engineering was a multimillion-dollar corporation employing over 8,000 people in five states, but it remained almost unknown to the general public due to the classified nature of most of its work.

In early 1957, Bruce Morrow was approached by a business associate and former OSS comrade, David Edson, who revealed to Morrow, the existence of a secret organization called the Council of Tomorrow. The Council had been formed in 1953 by several of the wealthiest businessmen and leading scientists in the United States. Their goal was simple; to organize, build and supply a secret base, to be staffed by key individuals, with the goal of rebuilding the United States following an atomic attack. At first Morrow was skeptical of the entire concept, but promised Edson that he would think on the idea. Shortly thereafter, Morrow, through his defense contracts, gained access to a top secret government wargame on the after effects of a nuclear war. It quickly became apparent to Morrow, that the Federal Government’s paramount concern was with its own preservation and that little real effort would be made to ease the horrific impact of a nuclear exchange on the civilian population, other than the unsuccessful, and unrealistic, civil defense program.

Shaken to his very core by the government’s attitude, Morrow reexamined the proposal given to him by Edson. After several days of research, Morrow came up with a new approach. The Council’s original idea was in Morrow’s own words “pure crap, however, in that crap was a gem awaiting discovery“.

Morrow’s approach was to form specially trained teams, neither military nor civilian, with the mission of aiding the surviving population after a nuclear exchange and after the immediate fallout danger had passed.

Starting with the personnel recruited by the Council of Tomorrow, Bruce Morrow organized what would become, The Morrow Project. Almost at once, problems arose, primarily those of logistics and finance, as well as what the government would do if it discovered a secret “militia” was being formed.

Morrow called in several political favors and secured an appointment with President Kennedy in September of 1962 in order to present his proposals, and secure government backing. Initially, the President was very skeptical about both the feasibility and the need for such a project, but at the end of the first meeting, had been convinced. A second meeting was held with the President’s brother, Robert, in attendance, and the end of this meeting set the general outline of the project. Both Kennedy’s agreed to support the project, but with no overt government involvement. A trusted Army officer, Lieutenant General William A. Spencer was brought into the planning and given specific orders to support and protect the Project to the best of his ability. Under the general’s direction, military personnel with critical skills were placed on “Indefinite Temporary Duty” status and assigned to help set up the critical logistics and training facilities. Needed funds and critical supplies were funneled into the Project under the cover of the various Department of Defense “Black Ops” programs. The entire system was compartmentalized and protected by a complex array of cutouts to protect it from auditors from the General Accounting Office, as well as congressional oversight committees. In the end, only the Council of Tomorrow, General Spencer and the Kennedy brothers knew the entire story. With the assassination of President Kennedy in 1963 and that of his brother Robert in 1968, the Project’s official ties to the government came to an end. General Spencer maintained his under the table support of the Project, transferring critical personnel into the Project and hiding their disappearances under the cover of the Vietnam War. By the time of General Spencer’s death in 1978, the Project was entering its final stages of preparation.

In addition to the covert government support, additional sources of funding and resources were required. The industrial members of the Council begin funneling these into the Project, usually through the careful siphoning off of defense contracts or through planned overages in military production.

To provide additional cover for the Project, Bruce Morrow created Morrow Industries in 1964. With Morrow Engineering as a core, businesses were acquired that would both generate profit and be useful to the Project. In 1965, the Morrow Institute was created for the public purpose of selling Morrow Industries expertise in employee education and development to other businesses, and for the secret purpose of coordinating Project research, recruitment and training.

In August of 1967, the first successful experiments in cryogenic suspension were carried out on human subjects. This medical advance, by a Morrow Institute researcher (Doctor David O’Reilly), would allow the Project to enter the next phase of its operations and construction began on the first “boltholes”, underground bunkers for the storage of a team, its cryogenic suspension chambers and a modest amount of equipment. By spring of 1968, the first Project teams were placed into cryogenic suspension and the construction of larger, specialized facilities started.

By January 1974, Project construction and recruiting were on schedule, however, the procurement of weapons and equipment were lagging. Bruce Morrow and his son Patrick were able to convince the Council to purchase the German armaments firm of Heckler and Koch. This move, coupled with the opening of a branch in the United States would allow the Project direct access to the latest in weapons as well as no longer having the necessity of recording weapons transactions. The vehicle manufacturing concern of Cadillac-Gage was purchased a year later, which gave the Project control over the design and production of the V-150 series of armored cars.

Bruce Morrow suffered a personal tragedy in June of 1978, when an executive jet carrying his wife Claudia, his son Patrick and Patrick’s wife Karen crashed outside of Raleigh, North Carolina, killing all aboard. His granddaughter Elizabeth, now six years old, was all that was left of Morrow’s family.

In March of 1981, Morrow Industries, using the Afghanistan War as a cover, increased its production of military arms and related equipment for use by Project Teams. This new equipment was used as part of a scheduled upgrade and refitting of the frozen teams.

On September 17, 1982, the National Security Agency began to receive reports from varied sources concerning the disappearance of numerous highly skilled/highly qualified professionals, resulting in an investigation by the NSA. Approximately at the same time, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms launched an investigation into large arms purchases made by fictitious companies. These investigations were separate and uncoordinated, and failed to identify either the Project or Morrow Industries directly.

Morrow Industries won several key contracts, in January of 1984, from NASA and the Department of Defense and gained access to state-of-the-art aerospace and satellite technologies---all of which it channeled into the Project. In June of that year, the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Central Intelligence Agency, working separately, connected Morrow Industries to the suspicious arms contracts investigations of 1982. Both agencies commenced low-key, low-priority investigations, independent of each other. As a result, neither agency was able to compile an accurate overview of the activities of Morrow Industries, let alone any information of the existence of the Morrow Project.

President Reagan, in May of 1985, was briefed on the suspected covert activities of Morrow Industries. The existence of the Project was hinted at, but could not be confirmed. President Reagan ordered an immediate, full-scale, covert investigation involving all Federal resources. A complete security blanket was placed on the investigation, in order to prevent Morrow Industries of learning of the investigation. Investigation control was retained at the White House.

By August of 1985, the President was informed of the verified existence of the Morrow Project as well as a basic outline of it’s goals, but little hard information concerning the true size of the project or such things as base and team locations. After several days of consultation with the Canadian Government, both nations agreed to activate a special joint-security investigation, known as Project: SNAKEEATER.

Upon his taking office, President Bush was given a full briefing concerning the Morrow Project. He decided to maintain the current low-key monitoring of Project activities as a possible threat to the security of the nation, although no overt action is to be taken without direct Presidential Authority. Project: SNAKEEATER was ordered expanded, and placed under direct Presidential Command.

On the 23rd of March 1986, two Morrow Institute physicists, Doctors Thomas Ahern and Rachel Mulliner made the breakthrough in the realm of fusion technology, producing a functional, practical and compact fusion power plant. In a surprise move that startled the Council of Tomorrow, Bruce Morrow released this discovery to the world at large, causing a sensation as scientists around the world turn their attentions and energies to duplicating “The Morrow Process”.

In October of 1989, the Berlin Wall that had stood of almost four decades was knocked down during mass social uprisings in East and West Germany. As the Cold War ended with the collapse of communist governments, some Project members begin to doubt their purpose and mission.

The outbreak of the Gulf Crisis in August of 1990 raised concerns within the Project, and the Council ordered an acceleration to Project preparations. In a rare move of direct intervention, Bruce Morrow directed additional Recon and MARS Teams to be placed in Kentucky/Tennessee and Florida/Georgia.

The Council of Tomorrow ordered a refitting and upgrade of all Project equipment in May of 1991. All teams received fusion-powered vehicles, improved weapons and equipment. This operation was carried out without reviving the frozen teams and without alerting the Federal investigation.

Informed of the existence of the Morrow Project in May of 1993, a concerned President Clinton overreacted and decides to take some form of direct action in response to the potential threat. However, in light of the Waco fiasco, the Clinton Administration decided to use a series of anti-monopoly/anti-trust actions as a way to break the power of Morrow Industries and thus the Project, rather than provoking a potential bloodbath with what are feared to be armed extremists. Project: SNAKEEATER is called upon to become more proactive. Its answer is to start freezing teams of selected Special Operations personnel in newly developed cryogenic suspension capsules and keyed to be awakened by Morrow Project Teams conducting operations.

In June of 1994, Morrow Industries had several government contracts cancelled for various reasons. The Council of Tomorrow quickly realized that their activities have finally been discovered and security protocols are upgraded project-wide. Bruce Morrow orders a disinformation campaign to help confuse the issue and stall for time while the Project readies itself for the final phase.

Morrow Industries is finally challenged in court by the Federal government in August of 1995, as well as being subjected to a number of Justice and Treasury Department probes. Morrow Industry lawyers block and obstruct these investigations and legal challenges as much as possible, while Project activities are minimized and hidden to the highest degree.

By November of 1997, Government lawyers succeed in pushing their legal challenges through the courts. Bruce Edward Morrow, and six members of the Morrow Industries Board of Directors (the Council of Tomorrow) are indicted for Anti-Trust, Conspiracy and Industrial Espionage. In a surprising move, Bruce Morrow presents to the court, a sealed document, signed by John F. Kennedy and detailing that the Morrow Project and all Morrow Industries activities are protected by the National Defense Secrets Act of 1958. Therefore all Morrow Project activities were classified and only available to those individuals who possess specific clearance. In addition, all members of Morrow Industries and the Morrow Project have been granted Presidential Pardons covering all activities short of murder.

Skirmishing and probes by North Korean forces into South Korea result in the U.S. being drawn into a tense, war-like situation with the North Koreans. Attention quickly turns away from Morrow Industries and focuses on this new crisis. Through still under investigation and indictment, all practical actions against Morrow Industries is curtailed as Federal resources and concentrated against this new situation. As tensions on the Korean Peninsula rise, the Chinese press a territorial claim in the United Nations and other World bodies on land north of the Amur River. Russia rejects such a claim out of hand and dispatches reinforcements into the region.

On March 8, 1998, the North Koreans send their Special Forces into South Korea as a prelude to general invasion. Composed of some of the best men in the North Korean military, this force infiltrates South Korea and launches a series of attacks on command posts, communications centers and supply depots. They destroy and damage scores of military aircraft, as well as creating general chaos in the South. At the same time, North Korean artillery and short-range surface-to-surface missiles open fire against key South Korean and U.S. positions as well as the capital of Seoul. Shortly after the opening bombardment, large numbers of North Korean tanks and infantry pour across the border, only to run headlong into the intricate defenses that have been constructed for just this eventuality. Anti-tank ditches, concrete walls and other barriers channel the North Korean forces into deadly “killing zones” where the defenders are able to focus their firepower. However, the use of twenty underground tunnels by the North allows them to move nearly 10,000 troops into the South, bypassing or surprising many of the defensive positions. The North Korean drive pushes hard, bypassing Seoul and driving the South Korean and American units southwards.

By the middle of March, U.S., Japanese and South Korean forces have established air and naval superiority over the North and have began poring troops and equipment into the Korean Peninsula. As U.S. and Japanese aircraft strike targets in North Korea, Chinese forces surge northwards, attempting to force the Amur River at several points and isolate significant portions of Siberia from effective Russian control.

The world is shocked as the North Koreans use large-scale chemical weapons against Allied forces. Allied NBC defenses prove inadequate at first, giving the North Koreans an initial advantage. While the use of chemical weapons decimates some ground units, superior Allied resources and technology allow them to absorb the shock of this action and recover. By the first week of April, the North Korean offensive is stopped and Allied forces begin their counterattack.

With the start of the Sino-Russian War, Russian forces are pushed back, but quickly rally and counterattack the Chinese onslaught. Russian forces are battered but unbroken, as the Chinese Army begins to pay for its lack of technological sophistication. The U.S. already involved in the fighting on the Korean Peninsula, tries to remain neutral in this new conflict, but nuclear forces on all sides are brought to high alert.

Russia, pleased with its victories over the massive, but inept, Chinese armies, becomes concerned with the advance of the U.S.-South Korean-Japanese forces up the Korean Peninsula. The Russians shift military units to the Russian-North Korean border and issue several communiques, demanding an end to the Allied advance past the North Korean capital of Pyongyang. Military tensions heighten between the U.S. and Russia.

In early September of 1998, South Korean forces, supported by Japanese and U.S. air and naval support, advance past Pyongyang and continue steadily northwards. U.S. and Japanese ground units do not move north of the capital. Tensions between the U.S. and Russia continue to increase.

On the 18th of November 1998, a training exercise at the NORAD headquarters in Cheyenne Mountain is suddenly terminated as an apparent Russian missile attack is detected. Without any attempt to verify this attack, President Clinton orders the immediate launch of all U.S. nuclear weapons.

[mikeo80]

This is a very interesting "take" on BEM.

I have always had a problem with PSI in TMP. I have tried to avoid it as much as I can while running a game or playing in one.

I have the same basic problems with mutations. Yes, mankind dumped a S**T load of radiation, bio-chemical weapons into the ecosphere. In my mind, even with that kind of TEOTWAWKI, evolution talks TIME. Lots of it. Even after the Chicxulub Asteroid that had at least a part in the demise of dinosaurs, Mammals of any large size too MILLIONS of years to develop.

My $0.02

Mike

[dragoon500ly]

I've always tried to place a foundation of some kind of reality in my games. The major problem with a time-travelling BEM is that in his numerous hops to the future and back....he would have had some idea of the disaster that fell on the Project. Which then brings into play that either BEM was not the all-seeing, all-knowing "wizard" from TM 1-1 or that he was totally unconcerned of the fate of the thousands that marched behind his banner!

The above approach brings BEM more along the lines of the CoT membership, a brilliant individual trying to help his fellow human beings rebuild after the greatest man-made disaster of all time.

[stormlion1]

They actually touch on the time traveling in the new rule book. It states that everytime he went forward and then returned and made a change in a attempt to fix things they either didn't change or things got worse. One change was the fact that TEOTWAWKI was pushed back and the other was that he knew of Krell rather than him being a surprise. The final thing was that while he knew he wouldn't die, he made the choice to not time travel again when the nukes hit. A well meaning man with foresight yes, but one that couldn't change the future by altering the past the way he needed to, it only made changes he didn't expect.

[ArmySGT.]

BEM appears in other games written by Richard Tucholka.......

BEM is a dimensional traveller. He is travelling to alternate earths and back. So he has visited some that are in a similar state as the TMP universe.

[welsh]

I like the historical relevance of your proposal, including the relationship of the Kennedy brothers, especially after the Cuban Missile Crisis. We can think of other "hot moments" where there might be drive to push the project further.

I also agree that the time travel angle is problematic, as are many of the psychic issues.

One alternative might be something like this.

A small group of industrialists meet following the detonation of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombs. These industrialists had been asked to provide financial and technical support to the Manhattan Project but in the process had also established an applied sciences team that had relied on statistical analysis of the likely consequences of the bombing. Statistical probability theory had allowed these scientists to assemble a great array of data and compute models with a high degree of statistical certainty of future events. While much of the country celebrates the end of the war, these industrialists are already calculating the likely long-term consequences, and the probability of total nuclear warfare.

This group becomes the core of the Council of Tomorrow. The head of the applied sciences/forecasting group was Morrow, a mathematical genius. Much later this same group would help establish much of the predictive theory behind the Club of Rome's Limits to Growth thesis. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Limits_to_Growth

Better modeling and statistical methods allowed for greater predictive accuracy, but never perfect prediction. But under Morrow, a broader array of potential threats- both man-made and natural- were factored into the study, suggesting an inevitable catastrophe, but of uncertain nature, sometime before 2050. While the Council had anticipated the Cold War was likely to become hot before 1992, following the end of the Cold War, the scholars focused on the likelihood of environmental crisis triggering wars among states, with similar consequences, with growing certainty as time progressed.

This approach would basically allow you to incorporate other types of catastrophe or could even make the "end of the world" one of the mysteries your Morrow Team has to learn. Perhaps they even carry the seed of a future catastrophe in their ranks.

[ArmySGT.]

I would tie it to the detonation of the Soviets first nuclear weapon in the 1950s. In this way there is the realization that a confrontation is possible.