However, strangely enough, I have a pleasant memory of a Christmas when I did have to work. I was assigned to the National Military Command Center in the Pentagon--it's one of those places that's staffed 24/7, and (except for potty breaks) you wereactually AT YOUR desk. That year, Christmas eve fell smack in the middle of my six day midnight shift rotation. I had relieved my predecessor at the ADP Liaison Officer (ADPLO) desk at about 9:30 p.m. and had completed all my daily chores by about12:30 a.m. Since this was a room that was EMF shielded, there was no T.V. (except CNN), no radio, nothing electronic that might emanate. We did have an internal closed-circuit broadcast capability, and a decades-old western was being shown. Time was dragging, and I was really looking forward to 5:30 a.m., when my reflief was due to show up.
About 3:30 a.m., the door to the Current Actions Center opened, and my relief walked in. LT Benson--Janet--was one of the senior ADP Liaison Officers, and she was scheduled to relieve me at the end of my shift that morning. I asked what she was doing there so early, and she replied: "I don't have any family here, nobody who's going to miss me. You have family, and you need to go home and spend Christmas with them. Make sure it's okay with your Operations Officer, and go home."
Janet left the Pentagon to go to Navy Post Grad School at Monterey, CA, she got married, and I lost track of her. But I still remember her fondly every Christmas.
