Certain jobs just need to be done rain, snow or shine. Mailmen, the power company, road workers and hospital staff top the list of all-weather employees. But journalists, particularly television journalists, fall into that category too. Mike Emanuel and I report from the Pentagon daily – and even Snowmageddon 2 couldn’t stop us this morning. Not surprisingly, we are some of the only people here. It’s a strange feeling to be in an empty building that on average day holds about 20,000 people a day.
I facetiously told a Navy Captain who asked what I was doing here that the policy for most news organizations is to risk life and limb for work. He said “Funny, that’s our policy too.” Thinking about the risks the military takes made me feel pretty good about my situation today. And the truth is we stayed in a hotel across the street last night.
But there is concern about how a prolonged federal government shut down in Washington D.C. begins to affect the military. We asked Pentagon Spokesman Bryan Whitman if overseas operations are slowed by the fact that the Pentagon has been closed all week. Here’s what he said:
“All our essential activities continue unabated by the snow. The National Military Command Center is fully operational. Key leaders have redundant and secure communications capability from any location.
Furthermore, it is important to remember that our combat and other military operations are executed in a decentralized manner and commanders carry out their missions worldwide regardless of how much snow falls in Washington.”
So the Pentagon may be on a snow day, but rest assured the military is not.