This was my first multimedia piece, done for a class. It explores the helpful nature of not only the service members and civilians on Fort Meade, Md., who frequently use the installation’s do-it-yourself auto repair facility but the facility’s staff technicians. It’s a place where assistance is plentiful and kindness pays no heed to skill or ability. Written article below:
FORT MEADE, Md. – In an ‘80s safety video, which anyone who uses Fort Meade’s Automotive Skills Center must watch, there’s a man named Clifton Palmer Jr.: a mechanic, an instructor, a former command sergeant major.
A tall, slender man who almost always has a solemn expression in the video, Palmer demonstrates the use of the center’s more advanced equipment, giving safety advice to users.
Today, nearly 30 years later, you can walk through the shop and see the man from the video come alive before your eyes – older and with an aged face, but still there – a maroon rag still hanging from the same pocket, a black baseball cap still snuggly worn. This one has Army Airborne wings on it.
He’s given safety precautions to and demonstrated proper shop procedures for determined do-it-yourselfers on Fort Meade and throughout the military for close to three decades.
A technician and instructor at the facility, Palmer is the only living, breathing link between the shop of 1984 and the one that stands today.
Now, moving a little slower but always with a purpose, Palmer strolls up and down the center aisle of the 24-bay shop, his hands clasped behind his lower back, walking newcomers through simple tasks like changing brake pads and answering car repair questions for auto enthusiasts new and experienced alike.
It’s not likely the case in most civilian auto repair facilities, but in this shop it’s immediately obvious that helping people always comes first, whether it’s technicians saving the average person money or more experienced facility users teaching those still new to repair how to use a specific tool.
Meet Palmer once and it’s clear that environment is what has kept him at the shop so long.
“It’s about helping the people,” says Palmer, now 72, who’s referred to more intimately as Cliff by those who have been to the shop so much as a few times.
“When I was in the military, that’s what I did. But it’s almost like I’m still in because all the military come here to work on their vehicles,” adds Palmer, who for several years served as an Army motor sergeant before coming to the center, which has all the tools and equipment necessary to complete virtually any mechanical repair work for a fee of just $6 an hour.
“A lot of good camaraderie goes on in the shop,” says Steve Orcutt, the center’s supervisory instructor, leaning against the side of a late 1990s Jeep that belongs to a frequenter of the center who also volunteers there.
“There’s a lot of volunteering of information. It’s all about helping everybody else out.”
Steve is talking casually with the man everyone simply calls Joe. He’s stopped here on his way through the bay, and now he’s talking Joe through the diagnosis of an engine problem. He quickly determines the culprit is a cracked head gasket.
“You’ll have to pull the cylinder head off,” he tells Joe.
After some advanced engine talk, Steve wanders a few bays over to check on Gregory Franson, a Department of Defense civilian who uses the facility an average of three times a week. He hunches down and walks right underneath Franson’s raised vehicle, kneeling down next to him.
Six months ago, Franson came to the facility for the first time to change his oil. He knew nothing about fixing cars.
Today, he’s doing repair work on the engine of his Mazda.
For some time, the two sit there – Franson on a small
stool – inspecting Franson’s work. Only the rain and the clunking of a combination wrench against a car’s undercarriage are heard. Then, Steve starts in with some tips as he continues to look over Franson’s progress.
“Make sure she bolts back into the sub-frame before you start doing anything crazy,” he tells Franson.
“It’s not nearly as bad as I thought it would be,” says Franson of the job, leaps and bounds beyond his knowledge base six months ago.
“Told you,” Steve says with a laugh. “The engine was hard
coming out because you weren’t familiar with it. Going back in, you kind of knew how everything worked, for the most part.”
Franson says if it weren’t for the help and the kindness he’s received from both the center’s three technicians and its more seasoned visitors, he’d likely have proceeded with doing things the wrong way before daring to ask for assistance.
“It’s important they’re approachable, because otherwise you might be dissuaded from asking for help and go about a job your own way, and hurt yourself or do something wrong,” he said. “I don’t think there’s been an instance where I came to the shop and I didn’t ask for help from someone. I can learn from pretty much anyone in here.”
But some, like Spc. Silas Gunner, know almost all there is to know about cars. In cases like his, there’s not much knowledge to gain – only to share with others.
Gunner, 23, who got his start working on vehicles nearly 20 years ago with his father, helped Franson with some of his engine work the week prior. This week, he’s in the bay right beside Franson with his hands in the engine compartment of his buddy’s Jeep.
“On this one, we had to pull the transmission and put a clutch in it,” he says, giving a rundown of the past three weeks’ worth of work he’s put in on the vehicle. “Now, we’re doing the intake because it was leaking.”
Consistent bursts of ratchet clicks set a rhythm as Gunner recalls his beginnings with automotive work.
“I’ve been doing automotive work since I was old enough to walk and talk,” says Gunner, a cannon crewman with the West Virginia National Guard currently assigned to Fort Meade’s Warrior Transition Unit for a back injury he sustained while deployed to Kuwait.
Now, he spends most of his days at the center, biding the time until he goes home.
“There’s a guy next to us on the lift who was putting a motor in a Mazda MR2,” he says, pointing at Franson in the next bay. “He was having a little bit of trouble. I knew what was going on, so I went over and helped him, and he’s got the engine in it.”
Plenty of experienced mechanics, like him and Joe, commonly ask others if they need any help. They don’t work for the center, and they’re often using the time they’re paying for to make sure others get their work done safely and efficiently.
“They just enjoy working on cars. So even if they’re working on their own time and paying their own fees, they still work on other people’s cars as well and give people advice, just because they see someone kind of struggling a bit – someone who’s new to the shop.” Steve said, referring to guys like Joe. “They’re in here a lot, and if they see something that’s not being done properly, they’ll step in and tell them what’s going on.”
For Franson, who’s still building confidence in his relatively newfound hobby, that kind of intervention will keep him coming back to the shop.
“There are some jobs I probably couldn’t finish on my own, and there are definitely times I never would’ve figured out the right way to do something if I hadn’t had someone ask,” he says as he inspects a part for his engine. “I’d much rather work here than somewhere else, where they might not have the same environment – the supportive, friendly, helpful environment they have here.”
“Even if I could do it a little cheaper somewhere else, I’d still probably come here,” he admits.
All throughout the shop, people are seen mostly in pairs, at least for a brief time. Some have rebuilt transmissions and overhauled engines, and some are just learning the basics – brake jobs, oil changes and tune-ups. But in this shop kindness pays no heed to skill or ability.
Palmer walks over to an Army major who has just finished a brake pad replacement and tire rotation on his truck. And just as he’s done for decades, he offers up some valuable advice – words based off a lifetime of experience.
“Make sure you pump your brakes seven times before starting your engine,” he says. “Otherwise when back out of here you might not be able to stop.”
The major thanks him, and the retired command sergeant makes another trip back toward the opposite end of the shop, shuffling along in search of the next person who needs him.
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