Michael Loewinger

We're all working along in the office, and one day they tell us, OK,

Everybody go down to photo ID.

You're getting new photo IDs.

We walk down the stairs, get new photo IDs that say FEMA, turn in our photo IDs that say Housing and Urban Development, and then we're all told we're all getting new job titles, and our new job title is Emergency Management Specialist.

And I'm thinking...

What on God's earth is an emergency management specialist?

Like, this is the end of my career.

Leo would spend the next 30 years at FEMA.

He eventually found really satisfying work helping hospitals and medical organizations prepare for floods, wildfires, and hurricanes.

But less than two years after he started getting the hang of his new job, FEMA fell into a decade-long tailspin.

The big shift really didn't come until 1980.

Ronald Reagan got elected president, and there's a super U-turn from Jimmy Carter, who was mostly all about social welfare, and Ronald Reagan was more about national defense.

To run FEMA, Reagan picked someone who would stir up a lot of trouble for the agency.

This man.

Army Colonel Louis Chafrida speaking here with a caller on Larry King's radio show.

While Louis Jafrida paid lip service to FEMA's disaster relief mission, he was quietly funneling most of FEMA's budget towards Cold War civil defense.

Leo Bosner.

All of a sudden, we start seeing all these military officers signing in at the login desk.

Why are these military people here?

Military people go to floods or something?