Community Relations 113 



shift to hiring outside employees didn't come until we got into research. Then 

 we had to have professional and technical people who simply were not available 

 locally. That interrupted a pattern of life that King George had enjoyed for 

 decades — I suppose really from its very beginning. That disruption was re- 

 sented because local people found that hired hands and local help were becom- 

 ing scarce. They resented the loss of that labor force. They also resented the 

 fact that the Dahlgren employees got a substantial wage as wages went in those 

 days, and there was a steady payroll. They resented the fact that a buildup of 

 homes started in the county. 1 can remember time and time again riding 

 through the county with different people and hearing "Dahlgren built this and 

 Dahlgren built that." Of course, what they were referring to was the payroll and 

 the people who were then able to become homeowners. 



Then when World War II came, the labor force here expanded tremen- 

 dously. That really broke the bubble. There was simply no local help available 

 in King George County, basically, and it never returned after the war. Then, of 

 course, things did take on a radical change. Tom Hunter, who was a local 

 lawyer, was also the "Cavalier." He wrote a column in the Richmond Times 

 Dispatch called "As It Appears to the Cavalier." It was a daily column, and 

 during World War II, Tom had a special article on Dahlgren in which he said 

 the conditions were so intolerable here that every time a new employee came 

 through the main gate, one had to jump off the bridge into the creek to make 

 room for him. He was an outspoken critic of Dahlgren from that standpoint, 

 but it was much like the story in Gone With the Wind after the Civil War. This 

 typifies the transformation that took place in King George County. 



Another example is St. Paul's Church. St. Paul's Church is an Episcopal 

 church, and I'm not saying this critically, but it is a fact that the Episcopal 

 Church in its old clays was known typically as a family church. This was quite 

 true with respect to St. Paul's. There were old families, generation after genera- 

 tion, in this area of King George County who were members of St. Paul's 

 Church. That was all the membership they ever had, and it wasn't until the 

 1930's when Dahlgren became fairly settled and then during World War II that 

 new blood was fused into St. Paul's Church. The whole atmosphere and the 

 membership of the church changed, and then the church started to show some 

 progress because it was getting new money in considerable amounts. Today, it 

 is doing quite well. 



The Laboratory did have a big economic impact on the county. 



There's no question about that. It still does. If this Laboratory were pulled 

 out and no other industry took over, then King George County would be a 

 blighted area. It would have no economy. Dahlgren is the economy. But the 

 amazing thing is that it has become the economy not only of King George 



