The first Ironman triathlon that Kerry Burgess participated was Ironman Utah 2002, which was the inaugural year for that location. I think Thomas Ray has been in other Ironman triathlons, including the first one, in Hawaii in 1978. I think Thomas Ray was living in Hawaii before that year and his family still lived there. I think he is related somehow to Tom Selleck, perhaps step-father. Tom Selleck's journey across the desert in the 1990 movie "Quigley Down Under" may represent a journey that Thomas Ray took across the African desert in 1987 or 1986.
Anyway, Ironman Utah was on June 8th, or 6/8. I remember the race organizer made it a point to point out why they weren't having the race on Sunday the 9th. The USS Cole was commissioned on a June 8th. The USS The Sullivan's DDG-68 survived a failed terrorist attack in early 2000. I am thinking that 6/8 is am important date to Thomas Ray from years earlier but I'm not sure what it was. One theory is that he, as the 9th F-16 pilot on 6/7/81, did not make it back with the other pilots after the raid and was rescued or returned to the base on 6/8/81. There are some clues I found that I might write about later.
As I read recently in Claire's book, the Iraeli pilots trained in Utah in their new F-16s. I looked it up and decided that they were at the Air Force base in Ogden, Utah, just north of Salt Lake City. I stayed in Salt Lake City when I went down there for Ironman Utah 2002, which was held to the south in Provo.
I got the idea to participate in Ironman Utah in 2001. I had just completed the Seattle-to-Portland bicycle course of 200 miles in one day and felt that I could complete an Ironman course. That was in July 2001 when I heard about Ironman Utah. They had probably been planning it for some time before that. And I believe it was all related to Thomas Ray's covert military activities.
