Yes, sometimes I see famous people in the P-gon. And they are real! I will restrict this to people whose names I remember. There have been others, mostly performers who come by to lift the spirits, but I do not recall who they are.
The first famous person incident was when I was a captain, or perhaps still a lieutenant. I was there TDY, and I was in "move fast" mode since I had to get myself and the slides (the rumors are true; in the days when dinosaurs roamed the earth we had to make slides on clear plastic instead of sending electrons out for our briefings) to a briefing, and that young officer was not going to be late. So I was zipping through one of the rings of the Pentagon at high speed, hugging the right hand wall. Perhaps it was some talking that warned me that there was oncoming traffic, and I turned myself sideways as I turned one of the corners just in time to avoid a short distinguished looking man and his two or three military escorts. He also moved out of the way, and gave me a glance and a brief smile. I may have apologized as I kept going, but even though he kind of looked familiar I did not stop, or even slow down. Later my brain finally figured out who I had almost flattened: Casper Weinberger, Secretary of Defense.
On another TDY I had a little extra time and was walking around in the executive office area. While passing the doors to the River Entrance I saw Collin Powell exiting the building. He gave me a quick look which was cool. This was in his glory days, while he was still Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
A year or so after my retirement I was working in the Pentagon. At about the same time I had gone to work for the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen Richard Meyer had become Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. I have a lot of respect for him, since 911 and the resulting wars started shortly after he arrived, and from all that I know he served well as our Chairman, even though he came in during a very difficult time. Anyhow, one day I was clearing my head by walking around in the building, and was in a not overly busy or noteworthy corridor. I noticed that a fairly tall man was slowly coming toward me, kind of leaning over to his left as he walked holding a small child's upstretched hand. Soon I recognized Gen Meyer. He was holding the hand of a wee little girl, who was probably 2 or so, who was looking up and giggling and chattering to one of the most important men in the world, but who for a short time was just her granddad (my guess) spending time with her. To this day that picture makes me smile and helps keep things in perspective: Take some time to do things with your family. Family is important!
The big one. A few days after 911 we were allowed back into the building, which was important since their was soon to be a war and our support was needed. Recall that at this time there was a lot of damage to the building, and from what we heard there could still have been some fires burning from the attack. It was around 11am, and I headed up our nearby ramp to get some lunch in the large cafeteria on the second floor. As I got close, I noticed that there was a crowd, and heard cheering from inside the eating area. Eventually I made it to a door, and peeking in saw several distinguished looking people, one of who was giving remarks about the current situation. He looked sort of familiar. And then it hit me: I was seeing George Bush, President of the United States, Condi Rice, National Security Advisor, and Donald Rumsfeld, Secretary of Defense. And a few Secret Service agents. After his remarks, the group headed out of the cafeteria into the mob in the walkways. The President could have made a beeline down the corridor to get out of the building, especially since security had a path open for him, but instead started walking into the crowd, shaking hands, sharing a few words with us. A man called out "You da man!" and he, and we the crowd, acknowledged that. The crowd was his; the power, the charisma, the honor he was showing us swept us up, gave us a sense of pride and purpose. The Secret Service agents, and the two other big dogs, looked somewhat amused. I caught the eye of one of the Secret Service agents and he seemed to have a "what can you do" look; thinking about it he probably was not worried about an attack on the President from our crowd. Then the President headed towards me. He looked me in the eyes for a few seconds, a serious look indeed, gave me the barest hint of a nod, and moved on. Shortly after, the group headed out with our cheers ringing in the building.
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