ah…washington – despised and exalted in various turns, home of the lobbyists, politicians, civil servants, and, of course, the demonstrators. but aside from the political significance, Washington is also the home of the state bureaucracy – the nameless civil servants and military officials that keep the nation running (moderately) smoothly. we often don’t see this side of the city; the scandals of the rich and influential overshadow the silent contributions of many federal workers. But they’re there, weathering all types of administrations and leaders. Yesterday, several SHC students (including yours truly) got the chance to see some of them, through a tour of the Pentagon arranged by Ms. Mary Beth Long, an SHC alum.
For me, the tour held special significance as my uncle is a JAG with the Navy (no it’s not at all like the TV show!). Because he and his family live quite close to the Pentagon, I spent the night with them before the tour (I even considering catching a ride into work with him, but, getting up at 5:45 seemed a little too early XP). that evening, as I watched him prepare his uniform for the next workday, I was struck by how different our worlds were. as PSU ROTC guys and gals know, everything in his uniform had to be exactly to standards. while no drill sergeant would be screaming about his unpolished shoes the next day, the indoctrinated habits of a military man still ruled the way he pinned and re-pinned his insignia till it was perfectly straight. For me, a lackadaisical college student with a uniform of jeans and a T-shirt, this concept was utterly foreign.
The feeling of being a stranger in a strange land was reinforced the next day on the pentagon tour. anytime we were in the building, we had to wear badges announcing our alien nature: “Vistor” they shouted against a bright yellow background “Escort required at all times.” And our guides were serious about their escort duties, even requiring us to be accompanied to buy food for lunch. While our escorts were good-natured and friendly, they were also deadly-serious about adhering to protocol.
Perhaps the highlight of our time at the pentagon was not necessarily the 45-minute tour (the Pentagon, after all, is essentially a glorified office building). Instead, the more interesting aspect was the panel discussion that Ms. Long coordinated. While the actual Q&A section was cut short (another group had booked the room), the biographies of the panelists were quite interesting, as was the brief discussion (lots of “I can neither confirm nor deny that statement.”) Ms. Long herself is quite a character: while a Penn State student, she spent a semester living independently in China, which at that time (80s) was still in the grips of violent “campaigns against spiritual pollution”. Serving as a translator for a nascent IBM, she also taught English classes to the Chinese cadre, teaching them basic phrases like “What’s your name? Where were you born? Etc?” At the time, her intentions were perfectly innocent; she was teacher helping her students. However, upon her return to the States, her detailed notes from her classes caught the attention of our big brother, the CIA. In essence, these notes provided perfect ground-level intel, and after dumping her data to the CIA, she took a job as professional spook. In that role, she traveled for quite a few years, living in various countries under the cover of a “State Department employee” (spy movie conventions sometimes *are* true). Later on, she went back to the states and through law school, etc, found her way to her current job as a policy analyst for the Department of Defense.
To me, Mary Beth’s story was personally intriguing: I plan to travel in China independently sometime during the next year, probably as an English teacher (wonder if the CIA is still looking at students). However, her story was also compelling in that it opened my eyes to the career path of a civil servant. As one of the panelists commented, “Almost every job in the civilian sector is mirrored in some position in the federal government.” To someone still trying to decide what to do with his life, the concept of civil service (especially as some kind of policy analyst) was appealing – you serve your country, not the bottom line, and deal with real issues, not just corporate struggles for hegemony. Other fields provide similar gratification (science – “serve the betterment of humankind”) but provide less direct influence over how your actions will affect others (nuclear physicists definitely didn’t intend for their basic research to enable the slaughter of civilians).
So, in the end, the pentagon visit opened my eyes to another career path (and to how cool it is to have alums in interesting places). I should also note that most of our group toured CSIS after the Pentagon visit. While I couldn’t make it for that tour, I’ve heard very good things about CSIS, including the fact that the SHC has several exclusive internships with them. 
Talk to DB for more info.
the endnote: Unfortunately, it was the Pentagon, and umm, I didn’t want to end up in jail, so there are no pictures. There will be some next time, promise.
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