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R.
J. MacReady: Case File
Name:
Richard John MacReady
D.O.B.
August 11th, 1947
Birthplace:
Sioux Falls, South Dakota
Height:
6’
Weight:
180 lbs
Hair:
Brown
Eyes:
Blue
Nationality:
American
Quick Bio:
Has
a strong aversion to cold weather, prefers the tropics. Drinks J&B Scotch – on
the rocks. Is a loner, values solitude. Is an introvert by choice, but is strong
and intelligent, a leader if the need arises. Not easily taken advantage of. Has
a plan to save up money and escape south to the islands and live on a boat.
Enjoys chess, but not very good at the game.
Timeline:
June 1965 – Graduates Sioux
Falls High School, in South Dakota.
May 1969 – Obtains
Commercial Helicopter Pilot License, and then becomes an FAA licensed small
aircraft pilot.
May 1972 to July 1973 -
Helicopter pilot in U.S. Army. Flies HU-1A Huey in Vietnam War. Call Sign: Gator
One-Seven. Logged
1,200 hours of combat flying and achieved Senior Aircraft Commander
status. Shot down June 13th, 1973
flying Special Operations for
the MACV-SOG, inserting secret teams into Laos. Held captive as a POW for
6 weeks until escaping with 3 other men.
December 1976 – Suffers
post-traumatic stress disorder, depression, and alcoholism. Relocates from South
Dakota to Miami, Florida. Gets work as a sightseeing chopper pilot in the
Florida Keys, resides in a trailer on Blackwater Sound in Key Largo. Drinking
heavily finds on again, off again odd jobs, even working as an extra hand on
fishing charters out of Marathon.
May 1980 – One night on a
chance encounter MacReady meets George Jung at a Key Largo nightspot. He is
introduced to cocaine, the new booming drug of choice and the fast, easy money
that accompanies it. Jung is very interested to learn MacReady is a pilot and
the two strike up a friendship discussing the exploding drug-trafficking scene
in South Florida. Through Jung MacReady meets Carlos Lehder, a kingpin in the
Medellin cartel. Lured by extremely high pay for easy work MacReady enters into
the drug-smuggling world, agreeing to fly a plane from Norman’s Cay in the
Bahamas to drop points off Florida’s coast.
June 1980 through December
1981 – MacReady resides on Norman’s Cay in the Bahamas, Lehder’s private island.
Runs cocaine for Lehder into South Florida. Meets Colombian drug overlord Pablo
Escobar while on Norman’s Cay. MacReady banks large amounts of cash, living big
on Lehder’s island paradise, generally flying 300-500-kilogram shipments,
sometimes as many a half-dozen drops a day. On August 10th, 1981 the
day before his 34th birthday MacReady flies a 3000 kilogram load of
cocaine worth an estimated $150 million wholesale into South Florida. Plans to
exit illegal drug trade once he has built up a sizeable amount of money. After
just a year and a half of drug runs has saved up over $8 million in cash, enough
to set him up for an easy life on a yacht in Tahiti.
January 3rd,
1982 – MacReady moves his money into a numbered account in Nassau. However he
quickly finds he cannot leave the life of a Medellin cartel “employee” as easily
as quitting the local 7-11. With his knowledge of the cartel’s big names,
locations, numbers, and shipments simply walking away is impossible. But he
does. MacReady returns to the US and is pursued in Miami by the cartel’s hit
men. Killing one of the hired guns he barely escapes with his life discovering
his numbered Nassau account has been seized by Carlos Lehder. Lehder has his
money-lubed tentacles deep into everything, including the Bahamian banks and
practically owns the island’s police force.
February 17th,
1982 – While giving the cartel’s assassins the slip hiding out at a hotel up in
Orlando among the throngs of winter tourists MacReady runs into Matthew T.
Garry. Through Garry he finds news of a job opening with the United States
National Science Foundation in Antarctica, a 6 month winter-over contract as a
helicopter pilot. MacReady signs on for the rotation as a pilot at the research
facility hoping to lose the hit men on his tail by disappearing from the
Northern Hemisphere for half a year.
February 27th,
1982 - Catches a flight from Miami to Wellington, New Zealand again barely
shaking the Medellin cartel hit men. In Wellington MacReady lays low, being sure
he hasn’t been tailed across the Pacific, and meets up with some of the other
men to accompany him on the winter rotation.
March 17th, 1982
– Leaves New Zealand for a 6 month winter-over at Station #4, U.S. Outpost #31
in Antarctica under command of station manager Matthew T. Garry until
mid-September 1982.
March 26th, 1982
– Norwegians arrive at U.S. Outpost #31 from a neighboring base chasing and
attempting to kill one of their own sled dogs.
March 31st, 1982
– In the early hours of the day MacReady, Garry and Nauls start destroying U.S.
Outpost #31….
All content & photos, ©
Todd Cameron & Blair Claxton (The Brothers C)
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