Pentagon Brat

The farm girl from North Dakota

My mom was an amazing woman. She grew up in a town of 100 folks in Towner, North Dakota. She was the daughter of a Norwegian Farm family who moved to America back in the late 1800's. They settled in North Dakota, since the weather there was similar to their old homes in Norway (cold!) My mom graduated from a tiny high school just before Pearl Harbor, and decided to move to Washington, D.C after the War Department put out a call for help in running the war we were just getting into. So, she jumped on a bus, got an apartment on the east side of the Capital, and got a job with the War Department in old buildings along Independence Ave. Talk about culture shock. From a town of 100 to the big city in a matter of days! A few years later her sister did the same thing, and the two of then spent time exploring this big new world.

In 1942, everyone in my mom's office moved into a new office building, the Pentagon. My mom moved in as one of the first groups to be assigned there. She moved in the day the building opened.

This view shows the old Heliport on the left side, which is where the airliner hit the building on 9/11. Fortunately, my mom was not with us to see that event. It would have broken her heart! She was working there when I came along in 1946, although she did take some time off to get me going in life. When she returned to work, I was just about old enough to begin wandering around the city on the bus, or on foot. I am pretty sure she had no idea how far I was capable of wandering as a kid, back then.

I remember going to the Pentagon with her many times. I learned the numbering system that helped you navigate around the building, and would often wander the halls by myself. (Let's see 3D-361: third floor, D ring, corridor 3, room 61. Simple!)

I used to envy the people delivering mail in that building. They got to ride three-wheeled bicycles around, and there were ramps between floors. Boy, that looked like fun!. We rode the bus to the building, and in the old days, the busses entered a long tunnel along the south-east side of the building. When you entered the tunnel, your view of the outside world ended. From that point on, it was possible to spend the entire day never seeing outside the building, until you left at the end of the day. As my mom moved up in position, she got neater offices, eventually even an office on the outside wall. She had an office on the same wall the airliner hit. I remember sitting in the window watching helicopters take off and land on the heliport. Great fun for a kid.

The Pentagon had a Concourse, with a bunch of stores. This was a Mall, long before anyone even thought of a Mall. Stairs from the bus tunnel went right up to the Concourse, so it was the first thing you saw inside the building. There were book stores, clothing stores, a post office, and a few barber shops. All kinds of fun places to explore. Once the manager in a department store there put a display of silver dollars in the store window with a sign that offered then up for 75 cents, each. He wanted to see if anyone was looking at his displays, and not one soul tried to take him up on the deal. There were cafeterias around as well, so you could spend all your time there doing many things. Oh, yeah, you were supposed to work, but not me!

One of the neatest places to eat was a stand in the center courtyard. We had lunch there sitting at tables enjoying the view straight up. Occasionally an airplane would fly over. Otherwise, nothing. Once early in the history of the Pentagon. An airplane manufacturer wanted to prove the agility of his small single seat plane, and he managed to land in that courtyard. I really thought that was something I should do as well. (Try Googling that story, and guess what you get back today!)

Once in a while I would walk from Falls Church to the Pentagon and surprise my mom by walking into her office. It was a surprise, that was about an 8 mile walk! I would visit, then leave the building and walk over to National Airport (Now Reagan International Airport) to watch airplanes for a while, then return to the Pentagon and ride the bus home with my mom.

Wow, the things I got away with back then! A kid trying anything like that today would never be seen again. The world has changed, not necessarily for the better.

My mom had a few quirks. One of them was not trusting anything like direct deposit of her paycheck. She would get her check at her desk, then take it to one of the banks in the Pentagon and cash it. She then would carry the money to another bank and deposit it in her account there. Why she did this must have been a small town thing. She said she liked holding the cash in her hands, since she was sure it was hers.

What us kids liked was the fact that she got money fresh from the Bureau of Engraving and Printing, right across the Potomac from the Pentagon. Sequential bills, fresh off the printing press. She would give us a bill, and sometimes we would get two stuck together. Did we tell her? No way! Once we had it in our hands, it was ours! Just like she taught us!

Not that we got that much that way. Her starting salary working in the War Department was $1400 per year! That was a pretty good salary back then. Especially for a kid fresh out of high school. Still, after she married my dad, and my sisters came along, our family managed to survive on her income. My dad was mostly unemployed as I grew up.

Wandering the rings

The Pentagon was a cool place to hang out. Lots of folks in uniform, people walking around really fast to get from one place to another. I am sure I inherited my running skills from mom. She walked through that building faster than I could believe!

Once, while walking abound the "E" ring (the outer ring) not paying much attention to where I was going, I noticed that I had wandered into a room with very nice carpeting. All I can remember about the event was a big Marine in a fancy uniform grabbing me on the shoulder and telling me "Kid! You cannot be here!" Seems I had walked right past him into the office of the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Yep, I was not supposed to be there, and the guard was probably really annoyed that I had slipped past him.

My mom eventually worked for Army Air Mobility, the office responsible for acquiring new aircraft for the Army. They used to do demonstrations on the Heliport, and I got to see several while growing up. I even saw the first rocket belt demo. I still look for me in this picture. I was over by the tower building on the left when this part of the demo was going on.

Mom eventually did well enough to be invited to work for the Army Chief of Staff. Boy that was neat. I never saw so many stars on uniforms as when I visited her there. I joke today that the reason I had to go into the Air Force was that I had kicked so many Army Generals in the ankles, they would not let me in! Actually, the Air Force had cooler airplanes!

She was working for General William Westmoreland, of Viet Nam fame, when I was commissioned in the USAF. General Westmoreland did the commissioning ceremony at Virginia Tech, and the joke was they I got to shake his hand before my mother did. He did not normally interact with his civilian staff, letting his aides take care of that. (Some folks wonder why he did not do well in politics, after he retired!)

One day, my mom was sitting in her office when a very upset man entered, demanding to see the Chief of Staff. Seems he had tried to enlist in the Army and had been turned down. My mom spent over an hour trying to calm him down and explain that he was not going to see the Chief that day. So he sulked away. A few minutes later, she got a call from the front desk at one of the main VIP entrances, Seems the guy had parked in reserved parking, and when they tried to give him a ticket, he started fighting with a couple of Marines. (He did not win). He tried to claim that my mom had authorized his parking there, but that did not work out. I know he never got in the Army, and I am pretty sure the Marines were through with him as well!

Yet another time, she got a call from some woman wanting to report a flying saucer making off with one of our airplanes, What she had seen was an early version of one of these, flying over the Washington, D.C. area:

What a wonderful time she was having.

As an Officer in the USAF, I visited this building many times on business. I had lived in the building for so long, I never really wanted to work there, although it would have been good for my career!

Retirement time

My mom eventually retired after serving this country for over 31 years. I went to her retirement in my Air Force uniform, while several Four-Star Generals told stories of her contributions over the years. Many folks who had worked with her in the Chief's office during those years later went on to work as military aides in the White House. So, on her retirement, President Regan sent over a personal note to her, and a signed picture of the White House, along with a representative to deliver both to her. Normally, folks got pictures of the Pentagon when they retired. This was a very neat gesture for the farm girl from North Dakota.

Here is the President's letter:

The brat grew up!

I am a real Pentagon brat, one who grew up surrounded by the military, and listening to those fine folks tell tails of the wars they fought, and the places they went in support of our national interests. How could I not join their ranks?

Roie Black, Major, USAF (Retired).