ATOMIC ENERGY COMMISSION

Danna Shirley

        I had taken most of the required courses in high school to work in the secretarial field; typing, shorthand, business English, and business machines. I was very good at typing and semi-good at shorthand. Toward the end of my senior year (1966), my teacher had obtained employment applications for government positions and part of the class assignment was to complete the form and mail it to some of the local agencies on her list. Two that stood out to me were the Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) in Berkeley and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) in San Francisco as either a typing or steno clerk, with the steno clerk receiving a higher salary. As an 18-year-old, I hadn't thought my future through to any great conclusion, although going to junior college in the fall was somewhat expected.  

        I was called for an interview by the FBI first. Even though I had been born and raised in the Bay Area, I didn't venture into San Francisco much and never by myself. I asked my best friend, Cathy, to go with me to help find the address. I was as scared of traveling in San Francisco as I was of the interview. I thought it went well but didn't want the job anyway just because of the commute.

        Next I was called by the AEC, which was just a block from the University of California, Berkeley campus. At least this job would keep me on the east bank and I would not have to cross the Bay Bridge every day. Cathy also accompanied me to this job interview and waited in the lobby.

        I remember being impressed with the security throughout the building beginning with the visitor’s pass that I had to wear and being escorted to my first interview; and the next, and the next, and the next. I was interviewed four times that day. Cathy being Cathy (she never met a stranger), grilled the security guard in the lobby and learned that the longer I moved through the interview process, the better it was for me. In other words, I must have made an impression on someone!

I finally received the phone call asking me if I would like to work as a steno clerk in Personnel with the AEC. It would require a background investigation because I would need a Top Secret clearance to work in the building. I had lived in the same house since I was five, so it didn't take long to interview the neighbors and conduct a background check. I was clean as a whistle!   

I began my first job in July, 1966. It was just a few miles from my father’s employment with Dymo Industries in Emeryville so he graciously took me to work every morning and picked me up every afternoon. This was no small task considering the congestion on University Avenue during commute time. In fact, my father found my first car, a 1957 two-door, hardtop, Bel Air Chevrolet which cost $600, $400 of which he loaned to me. I wonder if there was an ulterior motive in that deal? J Anyway, with a few paychecks under my belt and a new car under my seat, junior college went right out the window.

I only stayed in Personnel for a few months before a position in Security opened. I again went through the interview process by the Security Director, Assistant Director, and Visitation Director; I was to be a Visitor Clerk and the best part was it didn't require shorthand. In those days we were using teletype communication and carbon paper for typing.

Every person employed by the AEC and its contractors had a Secret or Top Secret clearance. My job was to clear all attendees to any seminars, conferences, or symposiums letting the host agency know our people who would be attending and their security clearance.

It was quite ironic to me that this young 18, 19, 20-year-old high school graduate had such control over these learned men because they could not get in the door without my say-so! Usually, the ones that were full of themselves didn't bother to go through the Visitor clearance process that would allow them entry. They just couldn't be bothered. They were kept cooling their heels at the front door, however, until I could be notified by phone to give the okay.  All others who knew the process would submit their travel and security clearance requests in a timely manner and their names would be on the list when they arrived. Of course, there was always the one who would not know until the last minute that he would be attending a certain conference and then everything had to be speedily processed. I had my security contacts at almost every facility in the nation: Lawrence Radiation Lab (LRL), Jet Propulsion Lab (JPL), Oak Ridge National Lab (ORNL), Washington, D.C. etc, etc. 

I remained with the AEC, now called the Department of Energy, until I was twenty-one. I made some very good friends there, one of which, Valerie Sullivan, went from being a Security secretary to becoming a Security agent—gun, badge, handcuffs, and all!

When Ron and I had been married a year, he received orders to Bermuda (1970) that required me to resign. Although I had to leave my first job and my parents for the first time in my life, I never had regrets and I've never looked back.

“…one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward  to those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.”  (Philippians 3:13-14)