Boy, it sucks to hear about other contractors losing their jobs. Hopefully these folks will be able to get work elsewhere in the defense industry. Maybe Bobby will have his music as a possible back up plan? –Matt
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JFCOM contractor sings the blues over closure
By Bill Sizemore
09/06/2010
Went to work, got a bit of bad news
Went to work, got a bit of bad news
Ol’ Bobby G said here’s your fate, gonna shut you down, gonna lock the gate
Now we all have the Jiffy Com Blues.
– “Jiffy Com Blues,” by Bobby “BlackHat” Walters
It’s not even a done deal, but the impending closure of the Joint Forces Command already has made its way into Hampton Roads’ pop culture.
Bobby “BlackHat” Walters, a civilian contractor at JFCOM who moonlights as a blues musician, has channeled his angst into a song.
Less than three weeks after the planned closure was announced by Defense Secretary Robert Gates, “Jiffy Com Blues” has been written and recorded and is getting local radio airplay.
“It was a song that needed to be written. It wrote itself,” Walters, a Coast Guard retiree, said Friday. “Sometimes the blues can help you through a bad situation.”
“Jiffy Com” is a longstanding nickname for the command among workers – one that is frowned upon by the brass, Walters acknowledged. But he said he didn’t use it with mean-spirited intent.
“I thought that if I could write the song in such a way that it would bring a smile to people’s faces, it could put a lighter edge on a very sensitive subject,” he said.
Story here.