Wayne, Management Officer
My name is Wayne and I'm in the management career track.
I was the General Services officer in Jerusalem…we found out during a celebration that the prime minister had been assassinated. The next day, that delegation arrived, headed by the President, several Congressmen and the Secretary, and a number of other American dignitaries — and we were pressed into service to make that American representation at his funeral work. On that particular day, I think what we needed was steady nerves. We needed to show firm leadership because a lot of people who were involved weren't necessarily aware of the big picture. So we had to keep them in track, keep them involved and keep them in line.
I think that, you know, the skills that you acquire in a lot of other fields are relevant to what we do in management. I come from a pretty diverse background. I was in the Marine Corps. I was in Sales & Marketing both for soft drinks and wine beverages, and everyday I feel as if I'm selling somebody something.
We worked extremely hard — it was the kind of thing that you train for, but you can't really train for at that level, because we never expected anything like that on our watch, and the fact that we pulled it off in about 36 hours — no sleep, no shift work — everybody worked. It made me feel as if my job was important; that I couldn't imagine doing anything that mattered more.