My crowd worked in the Pentagon for two military tours of duty, or about six years spread across nearly a dozen in the District. There were some classic days there, mostly when I still had time to worry about how things worked and what the limits of professional conduct were.

I was theoretically assigned to the Defense Intelligence Agency, a large towering structure over across the Potomac at Bolling Air Force Base. At the Pentagon, our DIA element of a few hundred folks composed what was known as the J2 section of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. We could flip it off as “J2, JCS” if we had to get something in the Building. Buta simple ‘J2’ and impatient glance seemed to work most of the time.

In the early times I was still young and on shifts and war-time work. Building time was blocked in improbable ways around dawn and dusk. The way to escape the incredible toxicity was to go down to the Pentagon Officer’s Athletic Center. The Po-Ack. It still had a little of the Second War aura that clung to it. There were indoor and outdoor activities including basketball and a pool, but those things didn’t let you see the sky and the weather or let some of the mass of the huge five sided building drift away for a while.

Distance running was the best part. There were great trails that ran along the River and into the warves at Georgetown and it was a delight to shed the uniform and clad in running shorts and a singlet just drift off into a world of measured steps. I looked up one afternoon to see the Queen of England in the back of her prim Rolls Limo at the Arlington intersection coming back without parade formation.

I straightened and gave her a salute, to which she returned that little gesture all of us knew as her driver accelerated into the interchange.

It was fun, and on a day with good weather and time for a good run, you could cross the river either at the 14th Street Bridge or up at Georgetown to be in Foggy Bottom. That is what hit us this morning. There was a picture at the top of the ArlNOW article that addressed some stuff we have talked about before. Like the general disorder around the abandoned Marriott Key Bridge Hotel.

It is not abandoned, exactly, but some of the finances have come unglued and it is a Public Nuisance. The 12-story hotel with almost 600 rooms has remained unoccupied since Covid knocked everything awry in 2020-23.

We talked about a shooting and some gang activity here in the Daily a few months ago, and how atrange it was to see fences and chains going up to sequester the sprawling property like the Detroit Urban Demolition Disease had just dropped into the capital of th Free World. Nevertheless, it still stands in prominent position, overlooking Georgetown and the Potomac River with the dramatic southern base of the Francis Scott Key Bridge sweeping up.
It became a symbol of post pandemic life. The Key Bridge Marriott Hotel anchors Arlington’s Rosslyn district where many a luncheon or post-work celebration was held with wild abandon. We didn’t party there, but if guests were in town for official business or conference, it was often thee place to gather and go into the District or Arlington.

It had some history, as the second hotel built by the global Marriott chain in 1959 and until closure in July 2020 the oldest hotel in the chain.

Earnest demolition just began after months of complaints. There will be no spectacular implosion due to the complexity of the construction spread across 46 acres. If I manage to extricate myself from institutional care and am reunited with the Panzer, I will try to get over and see the approach the way we used to while still stands in its prominent position, overlooking Georgetown at the southern base of the Francis Scott Key Bridge.

So, there is that. There was supposed to be some medical stuff that happened today- there was, a fifteen minute stationary bike ride with Mohammed, but there seem to be Therapy Staffinh Shortages and he promised more walking on Monday. That will compete with a haircut to impress the participants in the Big Case Review on Monday that is supposed to provide some clue about Discharge and the path to some mild assisted living.

I am attempting to be cooperative. I don’t want to wind up here looking like the Marriott Key Bridge Hotel, you know? Now we have the weekend to try to get ready for a Really Big Monday!

V/R
JR