Even before my boss, Fort Irwin Public Affairs director John Wagstaffe answered the call to the Lord’s Army Tuesday, I kept asking myself, WWJD: What would John do?
For those of us in the Public Affairs Office, John wasn’t just our boss, but our father, our friend, our mentor, our guidance counselor, our subject matter expert on the history of Fort Irwin and the National Training Center and much more.
It’s rare that you have the privilege of working for a supervisor with an uncanny ability to handpick a team of extraordinary individuals with unique skill sets and diverse personalities and bring out the best in them collectively. Each person knows their role and excels as an individual but at the end of the day they’re one big happy multicultural family. John is that supervisor.
Now back to the premise of this column. What would John do? Because in his absence, the five-person PAO team is stepping up to the plate to ensure every mission is accomplished.
The first thing John would do as he did many times in the past is ask, “Charles, what are you going to do to get both of us fired this week?” This is thanks in no small part to my persistent devoir to tread the line the line and have John unearth my true aim and exculpate my antics.
My response as always is, “Trust me, John. I’ve got this and if I don’t, Caroline (Keyser) is ready to step in and be the editor and Gus (Gustavo Bahena, our media relations officer) is ready to be the director. We’ll grab cardboard signs and sit under the overpass by Wal-Mart in Barstow begging for money and jobs.”
John lived life on his terms from his college days through his Army career to his retirement to be a stay-at-home dad to his return to the workforce down the hill and finally back to the place he loved, Fort Irwin. I may just be an acting editor with a Texas Tech “deeplohmuh” but John’s passing is no cause for a sorrowful flow show, but cause for a big shindig loaded with laughter and joy.
John didn’t know what a flow show was until he asked Renita Wickes, our acting community relations officer. As I heard Renita retell the story of how politically correctly he broached the question I laughed, because that was just typical John. If he didn’t know, he’d ask and on those rare occasions when he felt discretion was best, he’d do it in his own way.
What would John do when someone just happened to stop by the office looking for information even when the visit was unannounced? As he always did even when he had a million things swirling around him, John never failed to make time for whoever it was and when they left, they felt like they were his No. 1 priority. Never once did John rush anyone out of his office or shut his door in their face. It wasn’t his way.
What would John do when someone called asking for a photo, a story or coverage of an event? He’d not only promise to see what could be done, but he wouldn’t stop until he at least had a small nugget to offer them.
What would John do when something had to be done, but there wasn’t time to run it up the flag pole and back again? Never once did he fail to ask for forgiveness after doing what he knew was best to remedy the situation even if it offended people because he knew it was the right thing to do. Although there were times he might have been better off waiting to get permission first.
Every Friday morning listeners of John’s radio show always heard these familiar words from “Johnny Angel” by Shelley Fabares: “on Johnny Angel. 'Cause I love him. And I pray that someday he'll love me. And together we will see how lovely heaven will be.” John never revealed why he played that song, but I have a hunch it was dedicated to his amazingly strong and graceful wife, Victoria. That’s just what John would do.
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