Trey Haltom

A genius, artist, musician, songwriter, author of the Falling Figs Journal Volume 1, much more.

Oliver Wimbleton Pepper was an advocate for the legalization of marijuana since the mid sixties, and believed compassionate regulation was the solution to those antiquated laws and Draconian Prohibitions that prevailed. He stood his ground in The War on Drugs; while still seeing eye-to-eye with President Nixon’s desire to find a way out of Vietnam with an exit stratagem designed to leave our honor intact, even as the troops retreat.

The Road to Peace was authored by President Nixon. It was sent direct to Oliver from the White House. The package included a letter signed by Nixon expressing optimism his strategy would end the bloodshed and mayhem in South Vietnam. Well, at least for our own troops and allies. Later that year while the Peace Talks dragged on, President Nixon told General Westmoreland to see to it that Oliver Wimbleton Pepper was included in the USO tour to entertain the soldiers fighting in Vietnam that upcoming Christmas. Oliver had the right song in mind to sing, that would describe both our Homeland War on Drugs, featuring men in trench coats buttoned down; and the Battle Cry of the young pilots who would strafe the town in the: Song of the Unknown Soldier.

Oliver did get around and could leave a lasting impression in his wake; by that I mean like when he gave a eulogy for his alter-ego’s funeral while posing as Dr. R. C. Richards III; a recent graduate from the University of Colorado, with a PhD in Psychology. This was the grown son of a dear friend, and grandson of Retired Congressman Richard C. Richards, of Daytona Beach, Florida. This episode is described by Colonel Pepper in his own book, the Falling Figs Journal Volume 1, the unfinished autobiography that depicts the first leg of his journey to fame and fortune, which also eluded him.
After leaving Florida, the first leg of the second journey found Oliver doing income taxes for the oil rig workers of Kermit, Texas. The Income Tax Service that his grandmother had been building since the 1930’s. After tax season he bought a used Plymouth Fury and set out for California with a few bucks in his pocket.

It may be a mystery to some just how Oliver became acquainted with President Nixon, but the beginning of this friendship came with the invention of wireless transmission of digital data with the Communication System developed by George Haltom at Remanco Incorporated in Santa Monica, where Oliver worked during summer vacations at the age of fourteen. He published the training manuals for the radar testing systems used by the Air Force, and helped in any way they needed him as a utility man within the research and manufacturing company.

That experience helped Oliver land his first real job with North American Aviation at the Rocketdyne Division, in Canoga Park right after he graduated High School. He was promoted several times and wound up as quality control inspector of circuit boards for the Ground Support Electronic Systems. Technology grew up with Oliver Wimbleton Pepper, and he wasn’t afraid to use it. He liked to kick the tires and beta test a software system or two, and learned a lot doing that.

Microsoft and Oliver Pepper go way back to the time he was transferring documents using the 6 1/2 in floppy disks on the Radio Shack TRS-80, to a modern Radio Shack Computer with the new 1.4 MB floppy disk, and a better spellchecker for the document he was working on. The thought occurred, and he said to his pappy, “Wouldn’t it be nice if we could transfer this data by radio or microwaves?” His pappy said that he thought it was quite possible.

Soon Remanco was testing the communication system for the CIA in Santiago, Chile, then the first system they was installed at the Western Whitehouse for President Nixon’s Secret Service. Later they were sold to the FBI, and made available as a communication and dispatch center for any law enforcement entity. From a communication console they could relay information to an officer in the field with data from the main computer to the remote location through the radio receiving the analog chatter, along with the digital data by a special attachment to the RS-232 port of the onboard computer. It worked great, and pappy grew quite wealthy. Oliver on the other hand took a vow of poverty and entered the monastic life, at the Fountain of the World, in Box Canyon, California.

God Bless You All

Colonel Pepper
AKA
Trey Haltom