When did you begin working for OSM?
1978

What locations have you worked, and what did you do?
I've always worked in the Kentucky Field Office. I started out as a Switchboard Operator and other positions including Clerk-Typist, Enforcement Program Clerk, Secretary (Steno), and currently Enforcement Assistant. Over the years I've worked in some capacity in most of the sections/branches/groups in field office.

Looking back, what was your most memorable event(s) while with OSM?
The Story of the Christmas Bell - My name is Pat Brackett and this story begins back in the early eighty’s. One day while I was on my lunch break, I stopped off at the local drug store and they had their bags of chocolate Christmas bells, all wrapped in assorted bright colors of foil, on sale. So I purchased a bag and put it in a candy dish in my office. Well, there is this guy in the field office, with the initials of Pete Thompson, that is always doing mischievous things to people. While I was away from my desk, he took my candy dish and passed out my candy to everyone in the office. When he brought it back, there was only a few pieces left and I really gave him a hard time over giving almost all of my candy away. Then a little later in the day I was craving chocolate, as usual, and I proceeded to try a piece of my bargain candy. Well, no wonder it was on sale. It tasted like cardboard. Yuk! After I spit my piece of candy out, I went around to the ones Pete had given my candy to and asked if they had eaten their candy yet? The few that tried it had also spit it out, with the exception of our former Field Office Director, Al Curry, and he said “yea, that was good stuff.” Al was going out of town later that day, so we watched for him to be away from his desk and we put the remaining pieces of candy from my dish and those we gathered up from everyone else and put them in his briefcase for his trip. Evidently, he ate all of it because he thanked us when he returned. I confess that I did keep one bell for a long time and one day I put it in Pete’s desk drawer since he was the one that started this mess. He got a kick out of it when he found it because he thought the bells were long time forgotten. A few months went by and the bell appeared in someone else’s desk drawer and this has been the routine over the years. The bell disappears and reappears. But it’s been several years now and the bell has not appeared. WONDER WHO HAS THE CHRISTMAS BELL AND WHERE WILL IT POP UP NEXT???

What were the most significant accomplishments you had?
Becoming involved in the reclamation bonding process.