Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1963-11-22
The
Rambler
Feurs
A Coup d'Etut
By JOHN MeKEIWAY

A~@Sb WaA ID WdBtu al
most any day over at the
Pentagon.
The ladies and gentlemen
responsible for this Nations
offense and defense occa-
sionally taste the sweetness
Of victory. More often, it
seems, they go down to Bit
ter defeat.
The most obvious enemy is
a band of guards who work
for the General Services Ad-
ministration and hand out
approximately 1,4OO parking
tickets a month. The guards
are charged with the re-
sponsibility Of enforcing
parking regulations promul-
gated, under law, by the
GSA.
There are some II diff
ferent parking areas around
that awesome structure,
designated by a confusing
number Of signs composed of
collections of letters like
"GRR" and "OAC." Added to
this are large car spaces and
small car spaces. Unless you
are a visitor" you've got to
have a permit or sticker, to
park in a certain space.
A large number of colonies,
majors and, perhaps, an adj
miral or two, frequently
have to resort to desperate
measures to beat the guards.
They find they have to park
the damn car Someplace
and, sometimes, the lot re-
served for them is full. This
means parking something
like a half a mile away or
sneaking into a better, If IL
1anoI y1oc;fiov,
Sometimes they secretly
remove their authorized
stickers from their wind
shields and pose and park
like a visitor"
Sometimes, having saved
an old parking ticket, they
will park illegally and give
themselves the ticket -
gambling that the guard will
think he just issued it.
%
THIS BATTLE INVOLVES
a struggle for about 800
spaces. One out of every
three people who work in
the Pentagon - there are
about 28,000-has a space.
If caught in the wrong
space, the, say, vice-admiral,
can forfeit So collateral. Or,
waving his right to a jury
trial, stand before Stanley
King, United States Com
missioner, Eastern District of
Virginia, who drops by the
Pentagon once a week and
holds court in a small,
crowded room.
Commissioner King is a
big man with a big face. He
has a fine, deep, Virginian
voice and conducts his court
formally and with dignity.
At times, however, there are
indications that the COM
missioner gets pretty sick
and tired of hearing parking
ticket cases.
But they are never ending.
THE OTHER DAY, a man,
about the size of a weapons
systems analyst, tried to ex-
plain why he had parked
his Austin illegally. He
showed the commissioner a
homemade, cardboard dia-
gram of the parking lot and
defended his action at
length. His fine was SuS-
pended.
A colonel, standing at at
tention, complained of in
adequate signs and got off
for So.
A secretary explained she
had to park Illegally because
she was late for work.
But" said the commits
sioner, in a burst of frustra-
ton, "the Government does
not guarantee you parking
lot. I have to park five or
six blocks away when I'm late
for work. You just have to
start earlier. Two dollars"
You people," the COM
missioner told another Off
Ger, also standing at atten-
tion," are just two technical
about this"
The officer, who had
pleaded guilty, nevertheless
had tried to defend his &C
lions with photographs Of
the parking signs.
81 made an error in judg-
ment," he finally said.
Some of the officers are in
uniform, some in multi. The
interesting thing is how
deadly in earnest they are on
the brink of losing So or of
receiving a suspended SEN