Origin and Staff
The Situation Room was created in 1961 by President John F. Kennedy after the failure of the Bay of Pigs invasion was attributed to a lack of real-time information. The room has secure communications systems built into it and the walls contain wood panels that hide different audio, video and other systems.
The Situation Room is staffed by approximately 30 senior officers from various agencies in the intelligence community and from the military. They stand watch on a 24-hour basis, constantly monitoring world events and keeping senior White House staff apprised of significant incidents.
Read more about this topic: White House Situation Room
Famous quotes containing the words origin and/or staff:
“For, though the origin of most of our words is forgotten, each word was at first a stroke of genius, and obtained currency, because for the moment it symbolized the world to the first speaker and to the hearer. The etymologist finds the deadest word to have been once a brilliant picture.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“In the far South the sun of autumn is passing
Like Walt Whitman walking along a ruddy shore.
He is singing and chanting the things that are part of him,
The worlds that were and will be, death and day.
Nothing is final, he chants. No man shall see the end.
His beard is of fire and his staff is a leaping flame.”
—Wallace Stevens (1879–1955)