Here’s another in our series on longtime feds who are retiring soon. Everybody’s got a different story. Some of them are fascinating, some funny, some kind of sad. Or a combination of all three — which, maybe, is life …

“Mr. C —

Checking out on January 2, 2016.

Nearly 40 years, all working for the Army. Can’t say it’s all been wine and
roses, but I never would’ve gone where I’ve gone, met who I’ve met or done
what I’ve done otherwise.

Entered federal service through the Professional and Administrative Careers
Exam register — the PACE test (older feds will recall that), as a public
information specialist (as we were known back then). This was before the
days of email and computers. When you wanted information, you picked up the
telephone and called someone. Or you went to their office to speak with
them. When reporters wanted information, they called us or came by the
office to sit down and talk, not ‘get briefed.’

My first permanent slot was at the Army’s Field Artillery Center in Fort
Sill, Oklahoma (now bloviatingly re-named the Fires Center of Excellence
following the relocation of the Air Defense Artillery folks from Fort Bliss,
Texas, to Fort Sill). My ‘automation equipment’ was a Remington manual
typewriter — with a bad ‘e.’ The secretary (yes, we used that term back in
the late 1970s) had an IBM Selectric typewriter with five different
font balls!

Have worked at Fort Monroe, Virginia (several times); Fort Eustis, Virginia; Fort
Sill, Oklahoma; Fort Huachuca, Arizona; and here at Fort Knox. Have also spent
training periods at Fort Belvoir, Virginia; Fort Benjamin Harrison, Indiana; and
Indiana University in Bloomington. Have worked with national ad agencies in
New York and Chicago on Army business, and with smart, canny military
reporters all over the country. When I was at Fort Sill, I spent time in
meetings at the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City in 1979
and 1980, and I was on my way to a meeting in the Pentagon on the morning of
Sept. 11, 2001.

Am I glad I became a federal employee? Yes, indeed. Would I do it again? Mr.
C, I just don’t know. Seven or eight years ago I advised my two
nephews against becoming federal employees — and not because of all the smoke and
hot air coming from the idiots in Congress. The opportunities aren’t there
anymore. A lot of the intern programs by which college graduates used to
enter federal service have all but disappeared. It’s not the same.

Oh, I know a lot of old fogeys say that. Could be the fact that over the
years I’ve become less and less impressed with the generals for whom I’ve
worked. Of course, I’m now older than all of ’em, too! — Mike Johnson, Fort Knox, Kentucky

Nearly Useless Factoid

By Meredith Somers

The atomic symbol for gold “Au” is taken from the Latin word for the metal, which is “aurum.”

Source: Royal Society of Chemistry

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