Insight: Up the Down Escalator

By Ed Pierce
Managing Editor

Just after Christmas in 1979, I made my way to a new duty station in the U.S Air Force and it took some adjustment to get used to.

For the previous two years, I had been assigned to a unit based at a remote U.S. Army airfield outside of Frankfurt, Germany and had been reassigned to the 2044th Communications Group based at The Pentagon in Washington, D.C. After spending more than a month at home on leave, I flew into what was then called National Airport and was given a room in the barracks at Fort Myer in Virginia, across the Potomac River from Washington.

Reporting for duty at The Pentagon, I was given a tour of the building by our unit’s administrative officer and found it to be like a small city. There was a bus depot, a Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority subway location, a candy store, Walgreens, a barber shop, a clothing store, fast food restaurants, a doughnut shop, a florist, a museum and more.

The 2044th Communications Group had two locations in the building, one upstairs and one in the basement. I was grateful that I had been given my own office across the hall from the group’s commander within in the 2044’s offices in the basement.

My job was to publicize unit activities and to submit articles and photographs about 2044th Communication Group personnel to military newspapers for publication. I found that my office had been equipped with an awesome electric typewriter and an expensive Nikon 35mm camera and everyone assigned to the unit supported my work.

The 2044th commander, Col. Gerald Bronnenberg, would suggest stories for me to work on and would seek out my advice for ways to make the unit even better than it was. I suggested to him that we create a catered monthly luncheon for those assigned to the unit and their families featuring guest speakers. He loved that idea and some of the speakers at those events included Assistant U.S. Secretary of Labor Ernest Green, who was one of the Little Rock Nine, a group of black students who were the first black students ever to attend classes at Little Rock Central High School in Arkansas. We also had Chief Master Sergeant of the Air Force Jim McCoy speak at one of the luncheons and so did former U.S. Prisoner of War in Vietnam Col. Mike Lane.

It seemed that the longer I worked at The Pentagon, the more I enjoyed the experience. I loved exploring and visiting all the historic sights and things to do in Washington and Col. Bronnenberg appreciated my efforts publicizing the unit.

I did have help though in doing that because my best friend from my previous Air Force assignment, SSgt. Daryl Green, was the editor of The Bolling Beam newspaper at Bolling Air Force Base in Washington. He was always looking for great stories coming out of The Pentagon to publish and it made my new job covering the 2044th Communications Group easier.

2044th personnel worked in three different eight-hour shifts so my work hours covering them would vary. One morning I was headed upstairs from the basement to interview an airman for an article. To get there, I took a unique escalator that could run two different ways. By pushing a button, the escalator would reverse directions going both up and down, but that direction would automatically change again when it reached the top or bottom floors. 

I pushed the button to change escalator direction, and it took me up to the first floor, but before I could step off, an officer named Major Feldbauer who appeared at the bottom of the escalator asked me to reverse its direction so he could ride up to the first floor. I pushed the button to reverse the direction for him, but it was stuck in that position.

He shouted at me to push the button again, which I did, and again nothing happened. He then lost his temper and screamed a direct order at me to change the escalator’s direction. No matter how many times I tried pushing the button to reverse it, it wouldn’t work. I told him that and he yelled at me that I was playing around and he would have me court-martialed for not following his orders. I politely told him the button wasn’t working, and I would report the faulty button to building maintenance. He told me he would see me disciplined for not following a direct order.

For weeks thereafter, if I saw Major Feldbauer coming down a hallway in The Pentagon, I would hightail it in the other direction. I avoided him like the plague but eventually he found out my name and what unit I was assigned to. Col. Bronnenberg called me into his office and sitting there was the major who had been looking for me. He explained how I had “disregarded” his direct order.

Col. Bronnenberg told Major Feldbauer that the escalator was faulty and it had happened to him before. He said that I was not responsible and that I had acted respectfully toward the major, and I would not face any charges.

I was greatly relieved but never used that escalator ever again. <