Working at the Pentagon

I’m currently teaching a Windows 2000 Server/Professional System Administration class at the Pentagon (headquarters for the department of defense). My office is actually about 15 Miles away in Falls Church City, Virginia. After Hurricane Katrina devastated Keesler AFB we began teaching some of their classes up here in the National Capital Region. My office building only has two classrooms, so JSSC in the Pentagon was gracious enough to loan us one of their dormant classrooms.

Living and Working in the Pentagon is surreal. Due to the lack of parking, everyone commutes. Some ride the bus, others ride the Metro, and a few brave souls even slug (a legalized form of hitchhiking to take advantage of the HOV lanes). I personally ride the Metro. It’s a very weird feeling to be sitting reading the paper on the metro and have a Two-Star General sit down in the sit beside you, as did this morning. On any other military installation you’re not even allowed to get within speaking distance to a General, much less snuggle shoulders on a crowded Metro train.

Once I get to the Pentagon the fun doesn’t end. There are Officers everywhere; most of them acting like normal humans. Due the HIGH concentration of Officers at the Pentagon they all feel more comfortable and let down their military bearing a little. Some let down their military bearing a little too much!!!! This is actually a bad place for an enlisted person to spend much time. I don’t want to, nor should I see most of these Officers acting like the rejects they are. It’s like, to become an officer you have to have some type of social deficiency and the pentagon is the place to let it all hang out. These are the geeks that got picked on in high school, so they became Officers to have a little control in their lives. Lord help me if I ever have to work for some of these clowns in the future.

After I spend a little time observing the freak show it’s time to head to my class. Once I get off the metro I have about four flights of stairs to get up to the first floor. Next, I have two ramps and about half a mile of corridors to navigate. After that, is the plummet down four flights of stairs to B2. Yes, this classroom is way underground. Finally, I have about a tenth-of-a-mile to my classroom. Once class has started I have to plan break well in advance for my students and for myself. Everything takes forever to get to in the Pentagon. If any of my students smoke they have to run a marathon to get to the center courtyard and back.

Something else of interest is the fact that all the traditional “chow halls” have been removed and replace with shopping mall styled food courts. There are more fast food restaurants then the Mall of American in the Pentagon. I personally like to get sushi for lunch at the sushi bar in corridor 3, but there is any other name brand fast food chain you could think of in here.

By far the coolest things to see at the Pentagon are passed by most. The whole building is a monument, museum, and historical record all rolled into one. Every ring, every corridor, every apex has something to read or look at, but many times they are passed over for the more “interesting items.” I urge all my students to stop, look, and read while they are exploring the building. I could spend months reading all the history. Last week I spent my lunch hours in the Air Force hall. There are model airplanes for every aircraft that has been in the Air Force inventory. Each model is accompanied with fact sheets outlining all the specifics of the actual aircraft it represents. I personally think that’s what makes working at the Pentagon fun.

Sparky