Memory...
I was recently reminded of a story, an event out of my life... better get comfy and get yourself something to drink..
.
Years ago, I was a federal purchasing agent for the Texas Army National Guard.
One summer, military units from El Paso needed to convoy back to El Paso from Fort Hood, Texas at the end of summer training. Since I was in charge of fuel purchases, I was contacted and asked to set up a fuel point along the convoy route.
The problem was that the effective route from Fort Hood to El Paso passed through a lot of small communities and didn't really come near major metropolitan areas where we already had fuel sources under government contract.
Therefore, I had to contact the main office which controlled such purchases, which was located in Pennsylvania.
I filled out the appropriate paperwork and sent it forward. After a few days, it came back... "disapproved".
I called the lady who was the contact, to see what could be done. She said she didn't see any reason to create a one time contract for the purchase of fuel from an unknown vendor.
(The requesting unit HAD, by the way, found a patriotic fuel distributor in a small town who promised to get out of bed at 2 AM and unlock his facility to fuel the convoy.)
I tried to reason with the lady, and she kept saying she saw no need for us to do this.
Finally, she said, "We have National Guard units go from Pennsylvania to New Jersey for summer training every year, and THEY never need any special arrangements!"
At that point, a little frustrated, I said, "Ma'am, with all due respect, you can drop Pennsylvania AND New Jersey into Texas and not be able to find them again!"
She approved the purchase. The guy DID have to get up in the middle of the night, but, everybody got back okay.