Security Detail

A few weeks ago in church they were looking for volunteers to fill various positions to facilitate one of the dedication sessions of the Draper Temple. I signed up to do security, and when Dan and Shawn later signed on to help out, the person organizing the volunteer work put them in the other two slots for security. Cool. 

As the date of our service approached, we got a phone call from someone higher up in the stake who was in charge of our area of service, and he indicated that our responsibilities would be a little more important than we had imagined, that we'd actually be running the com center and so on. Sweet.

Well, it came time for us to fill our shift for the 4:30pm session on Saturday, March 21. I volunteered to take the position inside the temple on the top floor in the "medical center" (office that had been converted into a place for some first aid and what not), which meant that in addition to a walkie talkie, I had an ear piece so that my radio wouldn't be emitting any noise that anyone could hear besides myself. It also meant that I would be watching / participating in that dedicatory session. Shawn and Dan, however, would be disconnected from the actual proceedings of the dedication. Shawn was posted outside in the parking lot, and Dan in the com center (communications center, which was an office in the stake center adjacent to the temple... or as Dan referred to it, the command center, hehe.)

It turns out that there were three different channels for the radios, and the security at the temple was on channel 3. It turns out that the only people on channel 3 were Dan, Shawn, and myself. You can imagine the good times that ensued, haha. In an homage to "The 'Burbs", Dan assumed the code name "Eagle Eye" as he was running the communications center, and I was Task Force 1 while Shawn was Task Force 2. The following is some shenanigans that need to be documented here at crazy pills. 

Keep in mind that once the dedication meeting started, I was seated inside the temple in a corner office with two other people-- one was the medic, and I'm not sure who the other lady was-- probably just one of the volunteers who decided to watch in that room. The proceedings are of course reverent and spiritual. We were required to do radio checks every hour, however. 

So I'm sitting there enjoying these reverent proceedings, when I hear Eagle Eye on the radio. It proceeded something like this:

"Task Force 2, this is Eagle Eye. Could you go see what kind of sandwiches they have?"

(I hadn't realized it was just us 3 on that channel, but apparently Dan was aware). 

"Eagle Eye, this is Task Force 2. There are no sandwiches left, but there are some cookies and candy left."

 

"What?! I just saw people coming out of there with sandwiches. What kind of cookies?"

"I'll just bring some over."

I was dying, trying not to laugh out loud at what was going on. Fortunately I was sitting behind the other two people in the room so they couldn't see my silent reaction to the silly conversation that was going on in my ear. 

Some time later, Eagle Eye requested another radio check:

"Task Force 1, this is Eagle Eye. Could you please update us on the status of the dedication proceedings?"

I responded in a low voice with a brief answer that the prophet was speaking. That's about all I could do without feeling like I'd be disrupting things for the other people in the room, haha. 

Later, after the attendees had vacated the temple and I had cleared the upper floor, I exited the temple and headed back towards the com center. 

"Eagle Eye this is Task Force 2, I have a visual on Task Force 1."

"Roger that Task Force 2. Would you please muscle up Task Force 1? Seriously, I want to see tears."

Ahaha, such good times.