Federal Report

Blasts from the past

Flashbacks can often be scarey, reminders of things we want to forget, but Senior Correspondent Mike Causey's recent visit to Fort Belvoir triggered a magic bla...

Mike Causey@mcauseyWFED

May 12, 2017 12:05 am

3 min read

Some flashbacks can be pretty bad. I got lucky yesterday and had a real good one. Spent part of the day at Fort Belvoir in Virginia. Got to talk, and observe, lots of very nice people. Some were military. Most were Defense Department civilians, many of whom (men and women) are veterans. Or retired military.

Lots of feds are nice, polite, mission-oriented and dedicated. The DoD folks definitely fall into that group. Lots of smiling, lots of interest in what they are doing and how they do it. Regardless of their job title they all share the same basic goal. Support the troops. It was a good day.

The flashback? Many moons ago the Defense Department was in the midst of a major downsizing. The Soviet threat was lessening. Military bases around the world (our bases) were cutting back. In the spring, Pentagon officials decided to offer reporters on the federal beat a chance to see how they were doing. I was at The Washington Post then, and signed on for the trip. Especially after they said we would be taking an Army helicopter to two facilities, an arsenal and a depot, in Pennsylvania. We took off from Belvoir. Up the Potomac. The pilots were hot (as in good), right out of central casting. We shot past the Lincoln Memorial and followed the Potomac until we got to Great Falls. Then a hard right. Next stop Pennsylvania, where we expected to see two depressing , shrinking bases with lots of (understandably) unhappy civilian workers. Wrong.

Between the date the trip was scheduled and take-off time something big had happened. Iraq had invaded Kuwait. The coalition (us, the Brits, Saudis and others) told them to get out or else. They didn’t.

So when we got to the two downsizing operations things were booming. People were working hard and fast. Vehicles from all over the U.S., and Europe were being brought in. For maintenance. And a paint job. They were taking trucks and other transport items and changing them, from Europe Forest Green (or some such exotic name) to tan. Sort of the color of sand. Why, we thought, would they be doing that. A little later we found out, as did the Iraqi military and political leadership.

So while expecting to see and maybe interview some soon-to-be-unemployed zombies, zonked out at the prospect of losing their jobs, we ran into a beehive. Make that a hornet’s nest.

But there was one problem. It wasn’t in getting soon-to-be-unemployed people to work and put their hearts into it. Not at all.

The “problem” was getting them to stop. People were overstaying their 8-hour shifts. Some put in another full day of work. No charge. They had a mission and that was that.

Guards were put up not to protect the base but to try to prevent people from sneaking in, including climbing fences, so they could work some more. On their own time. Fascinating.

They got the job done. Some of them probably got laid off later on. But for a few weeks you couldn’t keep ‘em away with rifles of fences. The troops needed them and they were there.

Next time somebody tells you feds are overpaid, underworked fire-proof drones, show them this.

Special thanks to the gang at Fort Belvoir for taking time to visit, for being so nice and for triggering the flashback.