Alleged Navy ‘spy’ Was Wannabe Medieval Swashbuckler

Ben Feuerherd at the New York Post offers a piece on the Navy civilian engineer accused of being a spy. 

The Navy nuclear engineer accused of trying to peddle US military secrets using a peanut-butter sandwich not only allegedly dreamed of being a spy - he saw himself as a Medieval swashbuckler, too.

Jonathan Toebbe, 42, of Annapolis, Md., allegedly began his espionage bid in April 2020 — while buying up Medieval sword-fighting gear and attending classes at a local “historic swordsmanship” outfit.

According to social-media posts by Toebbe, about two months after the would-be Benedict Arnold sent a package of restricted Navy documents and other materials to a purported contact in a foreign country, he boasted about a new sword to fellow members of the “Mid-Atlantic Society for Historic Swordsmanship.” 

You can read the rest of the piece via the below link:

Navy 'spy' was wannabe Medieval swashbuckler (nypost.com)

You can also read my earlier post on the accused spy via the below link:

Paul Davis On Crime: Maryland Nuclear Engineer And Spouse Arrested On Espionage-Related Charges 

PBS Special Offers Profile of Admiral Hyman G. Rickover, Father of the American Nuclear Navy

I interviewed John Lehman, the former Secretary of the Navy under President Ronald Reagan, yesterday and he told me that PBS aired a profile of Hyman G. Rickover this week.

Rickover was the Navy admiral who oversaw the development and expansion of the nuclear-powered navy.

Combative, provocative and searingly blunt, Admiral Hyman G. Rickover was a flamboyant maverick, a unique American hero. Unafraid to buck the system, he alienated Navy brass, yet inspired the men under him.

When few thought it possible, then-Captain Rickover undertook a quest to harness the fearsome power of the atom to drive the first nuclear-powered submarine, the USS Nautilus, whose trip under the polar ice pack was one of the great adventure stories of the 1950s. Later, Rickover built the world’s first commercial nuclear power plant at Shippingport, Pennsylvania. Rickover’s achievements made him into a national celebrity; he appeared on the cover of Time magazine.

You can read the rest of the piece and watch the PBS special via the below link:

http://www.pbs.org/program/rickover-birth-nuclear-power/