Wimps Need Not Apply

I mentioned in a previous post* that I had a sense of adventure and I thought it was one of the qualities that Sergei was attracted to.  When Sergei Kourdakov and I met I was working in a division of the American Forces Radio and Television Service in the Washington DC area office.   (*You Have to Let Go – April 17, 2013)

Writing about being adventuresome, however, reminded me of an incident many years ago when I worked as a secretary for the US Marshals Service.  It was a great place to work; the US Marshals were a very dedicated group of people.  I loved it when I saw tourists in the Washington DC area wearing t-shirts that proudly proclaimed, “I’m in the Witness Protection Program.”  I found that slogan to be incredibly funny.  I only worked for the US Marshals for a few months though because the division that I worked for ended up relocating to a larger building and I, unfortunately, was not able to move with them.  The move would have tripled my commute time. 

One particular memory from the US Marshals Service still stands out to this day.  I was carrying papers into the Director’s office right at the very second a section of his window cracked.  A few small fragments of glass flew out from the large wall of windows behind the Director’s desk.  I stopped just inside the door in time to see the Director drop from his chair to the floor behind his desk.  He shouted for me to get down but I had already followed his lead.  I was on the floor before he even called out to me. 

From behind his desk the Director said that a gun had been fired into the room.  He called out to me to turn off the lights since I was kneeling inside the door near the light switch.

“I’m not standing up to turn off the lights,” I called back.  It sounded like a dumb idea to me.

“NO, DON’T STAND UP!  Just slide your hand up along the wall and turn the lights off.  Stay down,” he warned me.

My arm slithered up along the wall and I fumbled for the light switch while remaining in a crouched position.

“Stay low and back out of the office, away from the windows,” he said.

I backed out to the safety of my office where there were no windows.  I saw the Director quickly run across the room in a hunched over position.  Once he was out of his office he rounded up a dozen Marshals.  They ran out with guns ready to search the wooded area behind our building.  After a short while they returned empty handed.  A careful check of the Director’s office revealed that it was, in fact, only a BB pellet that had penetrated the window.  They assumed it was just some young kid out having fun in the woods until a BB pellet went astray.

I thought of the kid, probably terrified, running for the safety of his home.  I could just imagine him cowering in his bedroom, trembling as he peeked out the window and watched a dozen armed tough guys on a manhunt, searching . . . for him!  That would be anyone’s nightmare.

The office quickly settled down and everybody went back to their normal routine.  Just your typical day at work, I thought as I smiled to myself.  It was definitely an interesting place to work.  I distinctly remembered that when I applied for the job that there was no mention of “nerves of steel” listed as one of the requirements. 

Maybe there should have been a disclaimer at the bottom of the job application: 

 

Wimps Need Not Apply