MIXED FEELINGS

Shortly after 9/11, the Commander I worked for called me into her office where she gave me the 'bad' news and told me that the new policy at SPAWAR was to kick all unessential people off the property after 1800 and that she had determined that I was not essential and thus, had to be out of the office and off 'the campus' not later than 1800 everyday. She went on to tell me that only 'essential employees could get on the property after 1800 or before 0700. Essential people got to wear a little tag on their security badge that indicated that they were essential.

The admiral's Executive Assistant had called me into her office earlier that day and told me that from now until the heat death of the universe, I would be the Space and Naval Warfare Systems Command Command Duty Officer from midnight until 0800.  She didn't tell the idiot I worked for about this new task and neither did I; well, not right away.

You know that the universe, personally, hates you when this sort of thing happens all at once. I decided to go home, go the beach, rest up and then see what happened when I tried to enter the compound at around 2300. Yep, pretty much what I expected; no drama, no demand for 'special' entry privileges and "drive right in, sir."

It was still sad though to see the precious Y2K War Room reactivated for the new War on Terror. I and others had been hoping we had, 9 months after the war ended, put a stake through it and killed it.

As a side note, my counterpart as OPS on the East Coast and I were talking on the phone about a joint distibution problem we had and he told me he had to leave everyday at 1800 because only essential personnel were allowed in the office after that. I asked him how he swung that good deal and he told me he had been out of the office when they handed out the essential tags and thus, didn't get one and was way too smart to ask for one. It caught up with him later though. It's hard to tell your boss, without laughing, that his Operations Officer isn't essential and has to leave now....