Not Your Usual Bacon and Eggs

Bro. Mark and his five younger sisters

Bro. Mark Knightly, CSC of Queens, New York shares an interesting experience after his younger sister "volunteered" him to speak at her unique workplace . . . 

On February 3, the National Prayer Breakfast occurred in government agencies and other businesses all across the country.  While President Obama spoke downtown in Washington, DC, I was asked to co-lead the annual event for participants from the Centers for Maritime Intelligence in Suitland, Maryland. 

The agency, housed in a modern hyper-security building, comprises three services: Naval Intelligence Command (ONI), Marine Intelligence Agency, and the Naval Criminal Investigative Service (NCIS).  My sister, who has worked in the Department of Defense for almost 30 years -- after her stint in the Department of Justice -- volunteered me for the occasion.  Several months prior to the event, I had to send in a complete CV and my social security number, and answer follow-up questions by email.  On the morning of, showing my picture ID, I was escorted by my sister through two guard stations just to get to the parking lot.  Inside the front door, I signed papers, was "badged," put my badge on a screen, waited for the green light, entered my social security number, and passed through a metal detector before being allowed to accompany my sister down the hall to her office.  When we got to her office door, she had to do the badge-light-numbers thing again, before signing a log and then addressing a large combination lock mounted on her door while I stood at a respectful distance ("Otherwise I would have to shoot you," she said kindly).  Although I was not surprised to find no windows in her office, I was shocked to realize she worked in a vault!  Seeing the respect she received from others was an odd feeling for me; I remember times when we engaged in healthy fights over the phonograph and bathroom rights.

I gave the main invocation and opened the Prayer Breakfast, and the Chaplain of the Navy (a Catholic priest in full unifom), began his homily with "I remember the first time I was about to go into battle..."

None of this was strange, because I was brought up in an unusual environment.  My dad was a Navy Chief, who followed his career by working in Naval Intelligence Command interpreting surveillance photos.  My mom was a secretary at the Department of Justice, and after we children were grown, she worked at the Bureau of the Census.  My sister followed my dad into intelligence work, mainly in undersea warfare, and another sister (who half-jokingly calls the rest of the family "war mongers") works for the EPA. I have a number of relatives who work in other intelligence agencies: my aunt was a CIA operative in Switzerland for many years, and her daughter (my cousin Kathy) is still at the CIA.  My nephew Joey works for the National Security Agency (NSA).  Growing up in my DC-based family, I got all my medical care at Andrews Air Force Base, shopped at the "BX" and commissary, and the first time I went to a "civilian" movie I was in high school.  When the lights dimmed, I stood up, expecting the national anthem, and my embarrassed high school friends had to pull me back down.  While we had a local parish in Southern Maryland, I mostly went to Mass and confession at Chapel 1 or Chapel 3 on base.  These were chapels which could be adapted for Jewish, Protestant, Catholic or Islamic services by sliding the paneling aside to reveal statues, a cross, a crucifix, a Star of David, or just a plain velvet background.  We had altar girls and Mass facing the congregation long before such changes could be seen off-base.

I feel privileged to have had this unusual history, and to have seen close-up the values and great dedication of citizens who work for the people of the United States.