Speaking on behalf of the Northwest Florida Defense Coalition at the first Bi-County Military Mission Forum, John Conger, who had spent more than a decade working with the Pentagon and on Capitol Hill, had a little tale to share with Escambia and Santa Rosa county leaders about how military industrial complex bureaucracy works.
It was a story of two communities that were competing against one another during a time the U.S. Army was reducing its troop sizes, with the loser facing the elimination of an entire brigade. At one public event held prior to a decision being made, thousands showed up to express their concerns, while at Fort Knox, Kentucky, no one came to present that base’s case.
Fort Knox lost its only brigade.
“Now I’m not going to say that they’re not going to the meeting was the deciding factor, but it made a difference. It was noticed,” Conger told the 100 or so who gathered in Milton for the forum. “The dynamics we’re all working with here is this, showing up matters, but not showing up matters more.”