I worked in a facility surrounded by a cyclone fence with nasty-looking strands of barbed wire along the top. When I checked in in the morning at the guard shack I retrieved my ID badge from a rack, walked over to the guard (by the way, all the security dudes were armed and had nasty dispositions), and handed it to him. He would then look at the badge, look at me, and convince himself I was the guy pictured on the badge. He then made an issue of tapping it, as if to say, "This is you." and would hand it to me. Thus would begin my day. The whole site was secured.
Leaving the site in the evening was a matter of opening one's briefcase or whatever and having the exit guard go through it. My last act was replacing my badge in its place in the rack.
The bottom line is this place was by-God serious about security. Everybody on site, even the cafeteria help, had a clearance.
When I resigned, for reasons not germane to this discussion, I had an exit interview with the Head Cheese Of Security... a guy with a reputation for having absolutely NO sense of humor. He and I sat down, he guided me through multiple pages of stuff outlining my responsibilities regarding classified information, had me sign at least a dozen pages, and closed with words along these lines: "Sir, if you should ever choose to visit a country that is a member of the Soviet Bloc or any other Communist country, you must first contact the nearest office of (several names here which have changed over the years but are governmental since the government owns the place where I worked) and let them know your plans." Yeah, right, I thought. I wanted to say, "The next time I plan to see Havana, Pyongmang, Beijing, Beautiful Downtown Tirana (the capital of Albania), or other such places I'll be sure to let you know." Instead I meekly signed on the dotted line.
It was an interesting and very challenging place to work. In closing, I have a final tale. The site had several roles, one of which was work on nuclear fuel for the boats. We had nuclear physicists tweaking this stuff in very highly secured areas. An eye-opening experience is to hear a voice come over the speaker system saying something along the lines of: "Attention! A radiation release situation has developed in Building XYZ. Close all windows. Turn off all air conditioning systems. Avoid all suspicious smoke clouds (that is a quote) and stand by until further notice."
I have never been inclined to rush toward "Suspicious smoke clouds" under the best of conditions. To be cautioned not to do so during a "Radiation Release Situation" seems to be just a wee bit of overkill in spreading alarm. This happened three times during my time there.
I confess I miss the place. I wish I had worked on the Virginia-class SSN.
