Well, That Was Fun.
The other day I was almost involved in a VIP visit. Let me say right off the bat that I was not thrilled about the prospect. I normally hate people as a rule, and important people just are more trouble than they're worth. I'm sure they do very important things, but I just wish they would do them somewhere else.
In this case, the Vice President was dropping by for a visit on his way to the Olympics. A week of high-level planning with senior-level officers either trying desperately for face time or simply trying to ensure nobody screwed up and a contingent of Secret Service guys eventually filtered down to me. Non-essential personnel in the facility were sent home early, and I would have gladly gone with them. No such luck. My role was to let the Secret Service into the nooks and crannies of my building beforehand and then make myself scarce. Something would have to go very, very wrong for my role to be anything more than that.
I'm not huge on celebrities, so the thought of not catching a glimpse of the Vice President really didn't break my heart. My organization doesn't operate above the tactical level, so we were there simply to be the backdrop for whatever high-level topic a general wanted to brief. Guys like the VP don't get that far down into the weeds where we live. They think big, important thoughts. So, for a guy at my level, they just mean an added level or three of bullshit.
I played my part. I let the Secret Service guys in and out. Eventually word came down that the VP would be skipping my part of the building because of time constraints, so the nicely-dressed men with radio earpieces were pulled out and re-positioned. I locked all of the doors I had opened and wasted time until they took the building out of lock-down. A lot of people who make a lot more money than I do wasted a lot of man-hours for an visit that never happened. The higher up the food chain the VIP is, the more complicated these things seem to get, and the more likely they are to be cancelled. This is all completely fine with me. Part of the game. I try really hard to hide my disappointment and then try to get caught up on all of the stuff I shoved aside when the visit first came up.
Back to normal.
In this case, the Vice President was dropping by for a visit on his way to the Olympics. A week of high-level planning with senior-level officers either trying desperately for face time or simply trying to ensure nobody screwed up and a contingent of Secret Service guys eventually filtered down to me. Non-essential personnel in the facility were sent home early, and I would have gladly gone with them. No such luck. My role was to let the Secret Service into the nooks and crannies of my building beforehand and then make myself scarce. Something would have to go very, very wrong for my role to be anything more than that.
I'm not huge on celebrities, so the thought of not catching a glimpse of the Vice President really didn't break my heart. My organization doesn't operate above the tactical level, so we were there simply to be the backdrop for whatever high-level topic a general wanted to brief. Guys like the VP don't get that far down into the weeds where we live. They think big, important thoughts. So, for a guy at my level, they just mean an added level or three of bullshit.
I played my part. I let the Secret Service guys in and out. Eventually word came down that the VP would be skipping my part of the building because of time constraints, so the nicely-dressed men with radio earpieces were pulled out and re-positioned. I locked all of the doors I had opened and wasted time until they took the building out of lock-down. A lot of people who make a lot more money than I do wasted a lot of man-hours for an visit that never happened. The higher up the food chain the VIP is, the more complicated these things seem to get, and the more likely they are to be cancelled. This is all completely fine with me. Part of the game. I try really hard to hide my disappointment and then try to get caught up on all of the stuff I shoved aside when the visit first came up.
Back to normal.
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