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View Full Version : The Five-Sided Building Shows a Different Sid



thedrifter
02-02-03, 06:31 AM
By Matthew Dodd

When you first walk inside the Puzzle Palace, this is what you read:

"Welcome to the Pentagon, one of the world's most famous buildings. As home of the nation's military, it is an internationally recognized symbol of American power and influence. It is from within these walls, housing the headquarters of the Department of Defense, that military forces are deployed worldwide to protect American interests and to promote democracy."

That quote is from a tri-fold handout that is given to Pentagon visitors. The handout gives the "Reader's Digest" version of the story of the Pentagon. It includes historical background information and interesting facts, figures, and trivia about this "engineering marvel of its time and [it] is still regarded as one of the architectural achievements of the 20th Century."

What the handout fails to address or capture is what I consider the greatest asset and value of the Pentagon - the range, strength, knowledge, and diversity of the people who work in and around the building. I often find myself in awe of how much good work constantly gets accomplished here. This awe stems from the many conversations I have with a wide array of people, from janitors to very senior military and civilian officials, and my own personal observations of the actions, reactions and activities of those people.

These are some of my more memorable recent conversations and observations within the walls of the Pentagon:

Probably the most recent, and certainly the most popular, addition to the Pentagon is a Dunkin' Donuts shop, which is located right in the middle of the line of shops on the concourse (the small but heavily-trafficked commercial area that resembles and has the aura of a generic, civilian strip mall. The long lines of customers that snake away from the shop all throughout the day are only rivaled by the lines of caffeine addicts who patiently wait for their first-thing-in-the-morning fixes from coffee vendors.

The Pentagon is a place of rumor, mystery, and speculation. In the last few weeks, I spoke to three different people who gave me three different theories about what would be found in the deepest depths of the building.

A uniformed service member told me that the bottom of the Pentagon is a "black hole" for all lost and missing reports and briefings. A seasoned, veteran civilian employee told me that she believes beneath the Pentagon there is a repository for the souls of weak action officers who sold their souls for a taste of success. She further added that too many of those soulless action officers eventually returned to the Pentagon to serve in billets of ever-increasing responsibility. The last theory came from a contractor who surmised that the bowels of the Pentagon actually contain a vault for all the money stolen by the battalion of vending machines that do not give change.

If you used to come to the Pentagon via the Washington Metro and have not been here in the last year, you will probably be surprised by what you see. The new Metro facility is modernized and very different from a year ago. Gone are the days when you could step off the train and walk straight ahead to the escalators that took you directly into the Pentagon concourse area. A solid concrete wall replaced those escalators and effectively sealed off the metro station from the Pentagon. Train passengers must use the two side escalators, and briefly walk outside to enter the Pentagon under the supervision of the Defense Protective Service (the Pentagon's police force). The new two-tier bus bays are adjacent to the train escalators and comfortably spread out to facilitate passenger traffic.

A gentleman behind me one day in line at the Pentagon dry cleaners struck up a conversation about standing in line at the Pentagon cleaners. He commented that he did not understand why customers at the cleaners gave more "privacy space" to the customer at the counter than most people give customers doing transactions at the automatic teller machines (ATMs). I looked to the front of the line and noticed that the customer at the counter was enjoying at least eight feet of privacy by the man next in line. In fact, most people who are next in line there actually stand in the hallway just outside of the cleaners' doors. Now, whenever I pass any of the Pentagon ATMs and see the next in lines giving less "privacy space," I am as perplexed as that gentleman behind me at the cleaners.

I recently took the opportunity to participate in a special Pentagon program called, "Voices of 9/11," which was created to record and preserve personal testimonies from the day of the terrorist attacks. A special private video booth was set up in the concourse for people to add their oral history to the growing archive of stories that is a part of the acclaimed photo exhibit, here is new york: a democracy of photographs. The ladies who manned this booth explained that what started as a tribute to the World Trade Center attacks expanded to include the Pentagon and Shanksville, Pa. (where United Airlines Flight 93 went down), to create the definitive record of 9/11. I am grateful for the opportunity to contribute to a piece of American history that I pray never gets repeated. I hope to be able to share my recording one day with my family in the Smithsonian.

Lastly, on the third floor of the Pentagon, in the "C" ring, just off the 8th corridor, I came around a corner and something caught my eye. Alone on a wall was a rather standard, inconspicuous-looking Defense Department office identification placard. These placards are usually found right next to the door leading into the office space. I glanced up at the placard, quickly read it, and immediately realized why it caught my eye - the placard's office had no door! The placard read:

3C8237Z
ROSWELL UFO RESEARCH CENTER
ENTRANCE BY TELEPORTATION ONLY

Most people regard teleportation - the name given to the feat of making an object or person disintegrate in one place while a perfect replica instantly appears somewhere else - as only a science fiction conceit. Pentagon employees know better: I have been teleported while attending many unremarkable Pentagon meetings. I notice that I slowly drift off and lose consciousness immediately before being teleported, and I always seem to get teleported back to my exact chair a few minutes later with my return marked by a sudden head-nod.

This research center is right next door to an under-secretary of defense office of international security policy that deals with nuclear safety, security and North Atlantic Treaty Organization policy issues. It is also just around the corner from an office identified as the National Military Command Center's "HEMP Facility."

Let's see. We have a UFO research center, an office involved with nuclear weapons issues, and a facility seemingly named after a psychoactive drug (as marijuana or hashish) all within a short walk from each other. What an intriguing combination. Coincidence? I won't be surprised if soon we hear cries of, "Beam me up, Rummy!" from dedicated subordinates of our omnipotent secretary of defense.

So, who says that the Pentagon does not have a sense of humor? Certainly not me.

Lt. Col. Matthew Dodd USMC is a Senior Editor of DefenseWatch. He can be reached at mattdodd1775@hotmail.com.

Sempers,

Roger