It is about perseverance in my vocation. Christians are also soldiers, fighting a real, though spiritual, battle.
Welcome to Part 16 of a weekly series on the formation journey of Josh, a first-year novice at the Marian House of Studies in Washington, D.C. Watch for a new entry every Friday.
Our Marian novice group made their way through the halls of the Pentagon, along with Fr. David, Fr. Jim, and our secretary Rosemary. Our guide, Teresa, led the group. She’d worked at the Pentagon for 37 years.
“The Pentagon is the largest office building in the world,” Teresa told us. “Over 28,000 people work here.”
She laughed. “People sometimes ask me, ‘Oh! Do you know so-and-so who works at the Pentagon?’ I say, ‘Not with 28,000 people working there!’”
A virtual city
The Pentagon has 17.5 miles of corridors and is virtually its own city. It has three banks, and their fun facts handout notes it has “its own CVS, florist, dentist, clinic, DMV, post office, vision center, dry cleaner, shoe shine, hair salon, jeweler, gift shop, and chocolatier.” Teresa outlined many of these points to us as we walked.
Father John Larson, our former postulant master, used to offer Mass at the Pentagon. Our group calls him “The Great Fr. John Larson.” I love him particularly for putting me instantly at ease. Novice Michael immediately agreed when I mentioned this quality about Fr. John.
Father John would grin as he told us wide-eyed postulants, “The Pentagon has the biggest candy shop you ever saw!”
We didn’t ask about it on this tour, though.
Teresa took us to the Hall of Heroes, where we saw the names of many deceased soldiers written on the walls. She took us also to the Pentagon briefing room, where we stood on the same podium where presidents briefed the press, and had our picture taken.
Patriotic instigation
Once a year, an army band from West Point “invades” the Pentagon. We happened to be there the day they blazed through in a riot of cheerful, patriotic instigation. They were deliberately harassing the Navy.
“They have their own band,” one of the young dancers explained to us later when we met them briefly. “They do the same thing.”
The pipes and trumpets were in the back and girls in front, vigorously dancing and smiling. One of the girls leapt in the air and was hoisted up by a powerful band-member, while a guy wearing a muscular horse costume pumped the air with his fists.
A smiling, uniformed woman handed out “Go Army” badges to us.
The band slapped “Go Army, Beat Navy” stickers on walls and doors, and they took down a huge “Go Navy, Beat Army” banner that the rival band hung up previously.
Michael merrily pinned a “Go Army” badge onto his chest and boldly sported it in the Naval Department. When we visited a Space Force office, a colonel mentioned to him, “I don’t know about that badge…”
We visited one of Teresa’s friends who showed us a Pentagon conference room which just a week before was filled with four-star generals. He wouldn’t tell me anything about what the room is used for, though.
“Pretty much everything is classified,” he said.
Teresa showed us the Vietnam Corridor, as well as a corridor full of hyper-realistic paintings of four-star generals and other great leaders. She shared that she and Donald Rumsfeld greeted each other in passing.
“Wow, look at that!” I exclaimed to Michael, my eyes getting wide as I realized what I’d just walked by.
I made Michael double back. In a glass case was a rusty pirate scimitar — a cutlass-like weapon once used by a Barbary corsair. The Navy captured this sword in battle.
We celebrated Mass that day at the Pentagon chapel, which Teresa told us was built right where the plane hit the Pentagon on 9/11. It was the first chapel ever built in the Pentagon, “so at least some good came out of that tragedy,” Teresa commented.
“I lost two good friends that day,” she said, painfully.
Military scarf
Near the end of our time there, Teresa offered us a military scarf emblazoned with the words, “Fight on to Victory!”
She said, seriously, “I want one of you to have this … And it doesn’t have to be whoever’s closest.”
“I’ll take it,” I said, clearly and firmly. I stepped forward and she put it in my hand.
Father Jim was quick to understand why. “You know,” he said, “those words can have a spiritual meaning, too.”
It is about perseverance in my vocation. Christians are also soldiers, fighting a real, though, spiritual battle. The scarf is a sign of what my heart desires.
Next entry: "Miracle Rose."
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Read Novice Josh's account of the Marians at the 2023 March for Life.
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