"It just occurred to me, do you know the story behind the Unertl Optical Company? It's...appropriate, you might say."
"I don't," Crocker answered, glancing nervously through the binoculars.
"John Unertl was in World War One. He was a German sniper stationed on the Bulgarian border. He didn't think much of the rifle scopes that had been available then,
even the best German ones. Said he would have done a lot better shooting with better optics. When he came to the United States, he decided to fix that. Unertl Optical always made every single part of each one of their scopes. Lenses were still ground in this country, in Pennsylvania, when the factory closed i n '91 or '92. Everyone else's came from Germany or Japan. If you don't mind the three-pound weight, Unertls are still the best." His eyes narrowed. "When John Unertl applied for U.S. citizenship, back in the early '30s I think it was, one of the standard questions was 'Have you killed anyone?'"
"Did he say 'no'?" Crocker asked.
"He wrote on the papers, 'Two hundred forty-seven Bulgarians'. They let him in." Orville Crocker nodded,"
Unintended Consequences
By John Ross